Mercury: the dark horse of small business banking

Fin-tech just left the atmosphere.

Per usual, Triumph received no financial compensation from Mercury for writing this article. Straight from the heart, baby.

Say hello to Mercury, Silicon Valley’s darling child, and a rising star in the financial technology game. Mercury (not to be confused with the underrated planet or the overrated heavy metal) offers a wide array of services—some fairly universal, others pretty niche. While the company’s platform may be most geared toward a techie breed of start-up, it still offers plenty of exceptional traditional banking features: checking and savings accounts, debit and credit cards, wire transfers, you know, all that financial jazz (the smoothest of all jazz). Due to plenty of generous investment backing—including industry mammoths like Andreessen Horowitz—Mercury is able to offer some features and price points that less bankrolled competitors simply lack the capital to replicate. For the purposes of today’s article, we’re going to focus on one of Mercury’s newer services—the Mercury IO Credit Card—the highly effective credit card that isn’t really a credit card, at least not in the traditional sense. Allow us to unpack.

Also—before we dive in—it’s worth noting for the sake of propriety that Mercury technically isn’t a bank. It’s a a financial technology company; banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and Evolve Bank & Trust, members FDIC.

I’m a pretty tech-savvy adventurer, how much will Mercury cost me to use?

The IO Credit Card—like most Mercury services—is free to use (our favorite price point). Mercury also doesn’t charge overdraft fees, monthly fees, account opening fees, or require a minimum balance—like we said, all that private equity money has its perks. However, you may get charged for certain services in the international game, such as exchanging money in non-USD currencies or sending USD internationally with Mercury’s optional premium processing. Those sorts of considerations certainly won’t apply to all Triumphers, but, if your adventure takes you heavily into the international scene, the fees may be worth keeping in mind.

Alright, let’s here some more about this IO Credit Card

In addition to a decent name (no points for creativity in either direction), IO Cards are one of the “smartest” card options on the market. Along with a universal 1.5% cash back—which is nothing to sneeze at—IO also offers advanced scalability options. As your business gets rolling, you’ll enjoy access to unlimited virtual and an abundance of physical employee cards. Better yet, all Mercury cards are complete with Google Workspace integration, allowing you to control and personalize individual employee spending permissions down to the granular details. If your particular line of work requires employees to carry different levels of spending responsibilities, this could be Godsend for your logistical planning.

As would be expected from a primarily fin-tech oriented company, Mercury also offers one of most sophisticated online credit card dashboards in the market. Translation, Mercury has an easy-to-use web platform and app, complete with a vast array of third party integration options. Easily connect outside providers like Quickbooks and Shopify to your Mercury account for a seamless business experience.

Surely this must cost me an arm and leg

Once again, no. The IO card—just like the rest of Mercury’s base services—carries no monthly fee.

Alright, but then the APR must be insane

Wrong again. Technically, Mercury charges no APR—because all balances must be paid off at the end of the billing period. Remember earlier when we said IO wasn’t quite a credit card in the traditional sense? Well, welcome to the resolution of that cliffhanger.

While you will get short-term credit availability, Mercury does not allow card holders to carry their balances over to another billing cycle. Fiscally, this could be extremely beneficial to your bottom line as you won’t have the opportunity to rack up costly credit card debt. Conversely, this could be a hinderance to your businesses operations depending on how much you rely on credit in your usual operations. Obviously, a card with no outstanding balance is the ideal scenario, but not every adventure has the cash flows to support that proposition—particularly in the beginning stages.

You’re welcome to pay off your credit charges at any point in the billing cycle, and Mercury will simply debit your checking account for any remaining balance at the end of the cycle. As long as you don’t spend more than you’ve got (what a novel concept), the process should proceed fairly free of hassle.

Alright I’ve heard enough—how do I get this card?

There are just a few boxes to check before being issued an IO Card. While, as we discussed earlier, Mercury has no minimum account requirements to open a checking or savings account, the free-for-all does not extend to IO Card accounts. This isn’t Mercury being pretencious, at least no more so than usual (like we said, plenty of private equity money), but rather is function of how the card operates. If users are required to pay it off every month, they better have some decent funds in the war chest. No particurly difficult calculus there.

In light of that, all new IO Card holders must have at least $50,000 in a Mercury account. However, Mercury does not require a personal guarantee or consider an applicant’s personal credit score during the application process. Additionally, applying for IO will not affect your current credit score, which is always a plus.

Do all types of business qualify for Mercury IO?

Mercury generally accepts “most U.S. companies that aren’t money services businesses or involved with adult entertainment, marijuana or internet gambling.” That would also constitute most of the Triumph readership base, so if you’re reading this article right now, you’re probably good. That said, Mercury also lists the following disclaimer on their product, acknowledging that “our [Mercury’s] product is geared towards tech companies, so it might not be the best fit for some other businesses, especially ones that frequently deal with physical cash.” In addition to those restraints, Mercury is also currently unable to open accounts for sole proprietors or trusts. While these regulations may (sadly) exclude some Triumphers, it certainly won’t exclude all.

To Mercury, and beyond

If you think the Mercury IO Card may be a good fit for your current adventure, go and get on it. You’ll be able to use it anywhere that accepts Mastercard—so pretty much everywhere.

Check out Mercury for yourself right here.

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All views expressed in the article are opinions of the author and should not be misconstrued as professional consulting or legal advice. Users are responsible for verifying all information before taking action, and Triumph Group LLC is not responsible for any outcomes. Pursue subjects at your own risk. Seriously, man. It’s your life.