More actual business stuff (Canadians banking in America)
 

I posted not to long ago about my company opening a US based bank account and as was said here, it seems as though one must incorporate in the states. We've started the process with Legalzoom (thanks for the recommendation) and in about a week we'll be all setup.

Now, the banking... I don't mind popping over the border to open an account, but if I don't have to go, that would be my preference. I have two questions for anyone banking in America...

1) Do you know of any banks that will allow us to open a business account over the phone?
2) Regardless of question 1, what are some of your favored banks that you would recommend?

While we no longer do any banking inside the USA for adult, let me tell you how we set up everything years ago:

Filed papers online in Florida, having arranged in advance for a accountant to serve as registered agent and receiver of all mail. Next we chose a bank that had branches in other states. We set up the account with the FL branch, by submitting in person all documents and required signatures to a branch which was convenient to us. They in turn did a "inter office" transfer of the paperwork.

Hope that helped!

PS. There are no favorite banks - most are horrible. Key an eye on the bigger brands that have a national and international presence. Also do some digging on this forum. Somewhere one of the AE lawyers posted commentary on how accounts connected to adult are being terminated.

Thanks for that - It seems like we're on that path as we're doing our papers in Nevada and have an agent there. Just need to choose a bank now and never tell them we have anything to do with adult, same as we do here in Canada :P

Legalzoom will do the bank setup, IRS setup etc for you too.

there are some canadian banks that allow you to set up US cross border accounts that are valid

I couldn't find anything on their website or via google linking them to any bank setup services but it seems they have some kind of referral arrangement with Bank of America.

We tried this. Had a meeting at RBC last week to setup with their cross border banking but they don't do it for businesses, only personal accounts. Other options were TD, but we refuse to give them any business whatsoever and I think HSBC has something along the lines too but after researching we found that it isn't really what we need.

However in an interesting turn of events, I contacted Bank of America and asked them if a company based in Canada with a Nevada corp could open a bank account online or over the phone and they told me yes. As long as we have the corporate articles, a green card with SSN and a physical address in the states they will allow us to open accounts online and we have all of those things, so problem solved! - It's probably a safe assumption that the other major banks in the states would offer this as well, but if they don't then we just have to go with Bank of America.

Just curious, and a bit off-topic: If you are a Canadian company, why open a bank account in the US? Aren't you just exposing yourself even more to any potential US "anti-porn" laws? Why not go elsewhere in the world to incorporate/bank? (eg. Ireland, Panama, BVI)

If it's none of my business, just tell me so! ;)

Haha good question - We're only incorporating and banking in the US to make the use of Netbilling easier. They can't withdrawal funds from our Canadian USD account which they need to be able to do, so the easiest and fastest solution was the US. It's literally just for passing money through the account - Deposits will be made weekly into the account and we'll then move every dime of it into Canada right away so I don't have a whole lot of worry about anti-porn laws.

Still having decided on what bank to use. Would love some suggestions before we just end up opening an account with chase.

You are on the right track and welcome aboard!

Give me a buzz if you would like to talk to someone who knows what's what right now. I have an attorney in Vegas that is always spot on with the in's and outs of our business.