Baselane review
- Fee
- $0 per month
- APY
- Up to 4.19%
- Minimum deposit to open
- $0
Our verdict
A banking and property management account with no fees, cashback rewards, high APY and more tools than we can count.
Baselane is a free online property management account for landlords and real estate investors. Individuals, LLCs, partnerships and corporations can manage their properties with Baselane's rent collection, accounting and reporting tools. Create unlimited virtual accounts and cards and make an account for each property or unit for straightforward tracking and sorting. Import and export CSV and other files, receive rent payments within two to three days with QuickPay, and tenants can opt into rent reporting. Earn up to 4.19% APY on balances over $50,000 and at least 1.95% APY on balances under $10,000. You'll also earn up to 5% in cash back on your debit card purchases. There's also up to $3 million in FDIC insurance on deposits thanks to the fintech bank's partner Thread Bank and its network of program banks. But there's no mobile app just yet.
Best for: Landlords and real estate investors.
Pros
-
No fees
-
Up to 4.19% APY and up to 5% cash back
-
$3 million FDIC insurance
-
Software integrations, rent collection and bookkeeping tools
Cons
-
Highest APY requires a $50,000 balance
-
Reviews mention slow response from support
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No mobile app
Who is Baselane best for?
Baselane is designed for landlords and those with multiple rental properties and is completely free to open and maintain. It accepts individuals, LLCs, partnerships and corporations, so it’s a great fit for most business structures. There’s also no limit on how many properties you can manage with the account, and you can create subaccounts for each property you manage.
What we like about Baselane
Earn interest on your balance, get cash back on purchases and enjoy high insurance coverage on deposits up to $3 million for peace of mind.
Baselane uses the Allpoint ATM network, which means you’ll have free access to over 55,000 ATMs nationwide. You can also deposit cash with Allpoint, and there are no out-of-network ATM fees, but operator fees may apply.
Completely free to use
Baselane doesn’t charge monthly, inactivity, overdraft, minimum balance, domestic wire transfer or ACH transfer fees. And all the property management tools are completely free to use, too.
Also, it’s free for tenants to pay rent through Baselane via ACH transfer to the Baselane bank account. However, if they pay rent with a debit or credit card, there’s a standard 2.99% processing fee, which is typical among other card processing fees. And if you use Baselane’s rent collection feature but have payments sent to an external bank account, there is a $2 ACH fee per invoice.
Baselane plans to release a Pro verison in the near future, which is set to charge a monthly fee.
Management tools galore
Within your single Baselane account, you can create subaccounts by property to organize all your units and properties and even create virtual accounts for security deposits, savings and more. You can also link external accounts, including bank accounts and credit cards.
Some standout rent management and tracking tools include:
- Free rent payments via ACH transfer
- Receive rent payments within 2 to 3 days with QuickPay
- Tenants can set up autopay with ACH, credit or debit
- Automated late fee settings
- View invoices and payment history
- Transaction importing and cash flow analytics
- Export reports to CSV
- Import CSV and other accounting file types
Baselane supports multiple software integrations, which include Airbnb, Cash App, PayPal, Quickbooks, Vrbo, Venmo and Xero.
Perks for tenants
When you set up the Rent Collection feature through Baselane, tenants will automatically get an invite to join the Baselane Tenant Platform. This is where tenants can view their rent details, pay rent via ACH or card, set up autopay and make deposits.
Baselane also offers rent reporting. Tenants can build positive credit history with on-time rent payments that are reported to the three major credit bureaus. This service is optional, and renters pay just $5 per month.
Earn cash back and interest
You can earn up to 5% cash back on debit card purchases with eligible home improvement hardware purchases, up to $2,000 per year. All other purchases earn unlimited 1% cash back, and authorized users also earn cash back.
The APY earnings are tiered, separated by balance, which are all higher than the 0.08% national average for interest-bearing checking accounts and the 0.43% average for savings accounts, according to the FDIC.
| APY | Balance minimum |
|---|---|
| 1.95% | Less than $10,000 |
| 2.93% | $10,000 to $24,999 |
| 3.4% | $25,000 to $49,999 |
| 4.19% | $50,000+ |
Where it falls short
It’s hard to complain about a property management account that lets you manage unlimited properties with no monthly fees or balance minimums. However, past and current customers noted that Baselane recently added balance tiers to earn the highest APY offered, which leads us to believe the tiers could adjust again in the future.
Among reviews, many point out that customer service is slow to respond, and ACH transfers can take anywhere between three to seven days. There’s also no mobile app to date, which is a huge con compared to the best business accounts in the market.
Baselane’s fees and access
| Type of fee | Fee details |
|---|---|
| Monthly service | $0 |
| Opening deposit | $0 |
| ATMs |
|
| Debit card fees |
|
| Overdraft or nonsufficient funds | $0 |
| Wire transfers |
|
| Rent payment fees |
|
Compare Baselane to other business bank accounts
Narrow down top business accounts by monthly fees, APYs and features. For a side-by-side comparison, tick the Compare box on up to four options.
What is the Finder Score?
The Finder Score crunches over 300 checking accounts from hundreds of financial institutions. It takes into account the product's monthly fees, overdraft fees, opening deposit, customer support options, ATM network and features — this gives you a simple score out of 10.
To provide a Score, Finder’s banking experts analyze hundreds of checking accounts against what we consider is the best option: no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, a large ATM network of 50,000 or more, additional features outside of typical banking services, and the optional perk of earning interest. Accounts that are nearly free to maintain and use are scored the highest, while accounts with costly fees and few features are scored the lowest.
Customer experience
Baselane is based in New York and was founded in 2020. There’s no Better Business Bureau profile for the software just yet, and only around 50 reviews on Trustpilot to date. The majority of the feedback on Trustpilot and Reddit is positive, largely due to Baselane being completely free to open and maintain.
The most common negative complaints about Baselane are the slow deposit times and slow response from customer support. Many reviews citing slow response times from customer support state that it takes days for them to respond to a chat request, and you have to schedule a call with its support team, which can take weeks, according to customers.
Most customers are happy with the rent collection tools, such as the ability to create multiple accounts per unit and for security deposits, automatic rent payments and more. The high APY is also a common callout, and they’re happy their tenants can pay rent via ACH with no fees.
Your reviews
Bethany Finder
Editor, Banking
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