NorthOne is extending free banking to all businesses in states that have been the most impacted by coronavirus as well as all restaurants, food service, and hospitality businesses nationwide. NorthOne is also offering relief from bank fees for any of these small businesses that switch their banking to NorthOne while there is a state of emergency declared.

While a traditional bank forces small business customers to go into a bank branch to get their banking done or apply for an account, NorthOne allows any small business owner or freelancer to pay their bills, transfer money, send checks, or open a new FDIC insured bank account from the NorthOne mobile app. NorthOne also helps businesses save as much as 50% on monthly bookkeeping and accounting costs by connecting with other software the business uses (accounting, expense management, etc.).

NorthOne’s normal pricing takes a Netflix-like simple flat-pricing approach, with accounts starting at $10 a month, instead of the overly complex pricing systems used by many traditional banks. Any food service or hospitality business nationwide, or any business in those states most affected by COVID-19 (currently WA, NY, and CA) will be exempted from those fees for at least 3 months. This applies to any small business currently using NorthOne or any business that switches their banking over to NorthOne.

“Right now it’s essential that we make sure small businesses can get their banking done, no matter where they’re working from. Small business owners across the country are having incredibly hard conversations right now around the kitchen table and desperately trying to figure out how they can keep the lights on through this crisis. The last thing they need to worry about is finding a branch or paying bank fees, ” said NorthOne’s co-founder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan. “Food service and hospitality-focused businesses are being hit the hardest. Many face downsizing or worse. We need to support them. We’re all in this together.”

In addition to offering free banking, NorthOne will also be investing in extended customer service coverage and is committed to completely doing away with wait times for phone support. The average time a customer will need to wait before reaching a NorthOne customer support agent during peak hours will be less than two minutes.

NorthOne recently announced the close of a [$21M Series A round](https://news.crunchbase.com/news/ny-based-northone-a-challenger-bank-for-small-businesses-raises-21m-series-a/) and has been growing 128% MoM since late August 2019. Their user base is primarily small businesses in traditional industries like food service, hospitality, transportation, and retail.