Novo - Small Business Checking

I’ve been with Novo for almost 2 years, and am really happy with them. They’re super responsive, have lots of integrations and are constantly improving. My only gripe is the app. It’s fine but has one pretty big flaw that’s never been fixed. It doesn’t have a real time view of your account. You have to go into activity, change the time period and then it refreshes. If you don’t change the view (eg from 1 wk to 1 mo) before pulling down to refresh, it doesn’t show new data. And this is true even if the app loads for the first time since restarting the phone. And sometimes, activity shows on the Home view but will never show in the Activity view (like it’s too new to show, but then why is it on the Home view?). The web app never has this issue. It’s not a deal breaker, but resulted in some issues with transfers where I thought something didn’t happen because it wouldn’t show, or thought my balance was one thing when it was another. No other banking app I use has this issue, so it feels like it needs addressing. And it happens on all mobile devices I’ve tested, so it’s not just my phone. Hopefully they get around to this issue, but I’m still a fan of Novo.

I had an overall good experience with the “bank” and used them for about 2 years at this point. However, I have recently notice some charges to my account that I have not recognized, so I reached out to the customer service and was told “We can’t do anything about it because it’s been over 24hours since the charge”. They give you 24 hours to report suspicious activity?!? And I reached arguable within 24 hours!! So I let that slide in June. Comes July- I have a related charge for the same amount- STILL don’t recognize it and can NOT track it (tried going over all my subscriptions, googling the merchant the way it shows up on the bank statement, etc)- they DON’T HELP you with tacking or looking into it. AGAIN I noticed it the NEXT day after it was posted and was told AGAIN ITS BEEN OVER 24 hrs!!!! The ONLY solution from them was “Fill out a form to stop payment from the merchant that only works for 1 month!” And after that they can keep charging you and you BETTER BE ABLE TO CATCH IT WITHIN 24hrs! So I guess, my options are to either be charged for something I didn’t not buy for the rest of my life or move to a different bank (which I am currently doing)! Wow. So disappointed because I really enjoyed the simplicity otherwise! But if you don’t mind that they treat your finances and hard earned cash with a simple “sorry, can’t do anything about it” and you are able to check your bank DAILY and monitor it DAILY- then this might be for you!

I recently opened a Novo business bank account. It is easy to use and they don’t charge fees for transferring money to external accounts and the account doesn’t have a fee to have a business account, as with Bank of West, BofA, and other traditional banks. It is great not to be charged fees by Novo just because it is a business account and no BS fees like the brick and mortar banks. I’m glad I don’t have to go to the bank physically to handle issues, as in the past with several banks; my time is valuable. Questions are responded to quickly by a real person, not automated responses or voicemail Hell for thirty minutes of insanity. I’m super happy and plan to utilize Novo more in the future to move away from the traditional banking system which has not met my needs as a small business owner.

Listen, this is to the founders/bank developers. I’ve read the good and bad reviews of this app, Novo is a great app. But to make it even better, us as novo customers could use features as such: setup the novo debit card to be able to get instant pay through cashapp, that is where a lot of people’s money come through. And for your customers that have money coming in and out, find a way where we can turn our cash in and get it the same day. Bitcoin converter, instead of reserves have the option to open a savings account, even if it’s through another bank partnered with Novo. At the end of the day, we are all business owners or gig workers, the better the app, the more money you will see come to the app. I honestly use Brex more than Novo, but I believe you guys could be great. If you can do just the basics of what I mentioned, and at the same time keep it secure for us and for y’all, it’s a win/win situation. I’m hoping to hear of an update soon. Whoever responds to this, if you care about the app, and it’s users honestly you would show this to the founder. We can all succeed, once I brought even a portion of my business to this app, we became partners. Let’s solidify it and make Novo the best mobile business banking app there ever was!

So if you think you are banking YOU ARE NOT! It’s a software company partnering with middlesex federal savings bank so it’s just a facade of the bank that doesn’t have or wants to do the techie stuff but gets to take all the benefits of chipping in is banking might..that’s all. If you have a real person banking problems forget it they are clueless. And when you dare to ask you will see how they question you as if you should know everything and they are obliging you with a support agent. It’s sad to see such a great interface with such a poor behind the scenes. My direct deposit failed and they had no clue why..this is not my first rodeo with such app developers trying to make it big in financial space with banking. Another app company that started as Simple did transaction frauds and sold the company to someone else and I was left with a missing $100 from them and never heard back Poof !! So I have decided to close this business account after mere one week of experience with them. It’s a shame ! I need to find a brick and mortar bank for serious banking because in a world of laws and accountability..I can’t allow to be taken rise of and be someone’s Beta tester. I need a bank connected with people problems not an App trying to be the next big thing.

So far most of my interactions with customer service have been good. But they are still very slow and a long way off from having a good platform. For a virtual bank to limit your check deposit picture amount per month was a frustrating discovery when we tried to deposit more than 5 checks one month. Their were a handful of nuances but what recently is the straw that broke the camels back was concerning the PPP in the Cares Act. They requested that you put in NOVO as the agent that helped you submit your form. What people may not understand about that is that they get a 1% kickback for that which is fine BUT the purpose of that kickback is for accountants to help businesses gather the information needed when they don’t charge the businesses for their services and hours that they spend on it. So Novo is essentially saying that they helped you pull all the numbers together AND (believe it or not) they will have some liability attesting that the numbers you submit is correct (which is a lawsuit waiting to happen and just a plain old foolish thing to put their company at risk for just because they want that 1% off the top). It made me very uneasy of their ethics when I saw that.

I randomly decided to read the reviews for this app like a few months ago and noticed a lot of people saying their account randomly get frozen and there’s no resolution after that. Unfortunately, after moving thousands of dollars in and out my account for almost 2 years, they froze my account without notice! I didn’t even know about this until I tried to add my card to Stripe and got a decline message that my account was not active. Thank god I didn’t have any money in my account. I contacted support and they said my account is under review and they’ll follow up with me, but could t give me a time frame. I feel so bad for the people that kept money in their account and will probably never get it back. This is a corrupt app and they steal peoples money!!! The communication from customer support is bare minimum so do not depend on them for anything. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP!!!!!!! DO NOT TRUST THEM WITH YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!! And I’m not sure why the developers are responding to reviews and asking for information, as if this is a chat thread and we can respond back to them…c’mon now, this should tell you more than enough. The app is ran by corrupt idiots.

I wish I could recommend Novo because I generally love when people try to do something new in the banking industry. But their lack of timely and effective customer service is a total failure — and frankly makes the service nearly unusable. I came here because I thought this would be the “Simple Bank” of business checking — but Simple had stellar customer service, and Novo does not. Whenever I’ve had an issue, whether needing a new card, unexpected declines, or disputing a transaction, it has NEVER been resolved in an acceptable way. I’m fighting with AI bots and responses from a human are sporadic and agnostic. I haven’t had a bank card in over a year because each time I request one it never makes it to my house. It’s an app that holds money. That’s about it. The integrations don’t make up for not having a customer service phone number. But if this is your top choice for business banking, I’d think again. Go to a bank with more robust customer service or just use Venmo. You’ll be less frustrated in the long run.

I’ve been banking here for about 2 years ever since Azlo shut down. Onboarding was annoyingly slow and clunky, but once I got through it it was fine. Nothing exciting, just… fine. Then I had my first set of issues. I attempted a name change, which has been like pulling teeth. Customer service is only available through the app and very slow. Of all of the agencies I’ve changed my name with (DMV, SS/IRS, personal bank, personal & business lenders, passport admin, city clerk, etc) Novo has been by far the most difficult. They’re making it seem like I’m pulling a fast one and assuming someone else’s identity rather than a very standard last name change. Coincidentally, during this time my card stopped working. Customer service was slow to get back to me on that issue as well. Overall, this bank was just fine (not exceptional in either way) until I needed help, and then it was bad. This isn’t the kind of hassle I need as a small business owner. It’s actually easier for me to switch banks entirely than it is to do something simple like change my last name and fix my debit card.

Beware I had this account for a week before they told me I had to review a charge for fraud that was the same as all the other transactions I had made knowing I wouldn’t be able to review the transaction because the app glitches which support was aware of when I contacted them and they told me they were working on it but it was a problem on their end but because I couldn’t review the transaction and let them know it was me they took it upon themselves to lock down my entire account and freeze everything I had in it so I have no access to anything I had put in this account and the response I continue to get from support is my account is under review and until they are done reviewing it I can’t do anything with it and they have no idea how long it will take it’s been over a week now I haven’t had access to my money and no help from support other than them telling me I will not have access so long as my account is under review and they can’t say how long it will take because they don’t know. So beware when opening an account and placing your hard earned money in it novo may lock it up and you’ll never get it back

So far, the app experience has been positive. But I’d like to see a few tweaks for future releases. 1. I’d like to be able to save invoices as drafts so that I can include more items to charge as the invoice period extends. I normally do several jobs for clients during the month and send the invoice at the end of the month. Being able to add billable items as they occur and save the invoice as a draft would make the app more usable. Rather than creating and sending the invoice in one motion. 2. I’d like to see Venmo added as a payment option on the invoice since my Novo and Venmo accounts are linked. 3. I’d like a bit more invoice customization. My email address is long and wraps to a second line in the header looking a bit unprofessional. At the top of the page is the logo, name-email-phone and then my address, there needs to be a bit more spacing between these 3 items so long items don’t wrap to a second line Please discuss these with development team.

The idea of running my more simplified checking with this app seemed magical and the features were perfect so I went for it. The biggest problem with this app is that it’s useless without the account which I was happy to open, but... It has been 40 days since I applied and runaround galore over email as others have mentioned here and elsewhere. They are asking for more and more documentation (already provided a brief description, IRS documents, state documents, licenses, certificate of organization, DUNS, my SSN, my drivers license, drivers license extension, EIN... what is this? A phishing scam or an online checking account?). Communications has been so unprofessional and delayed -it seems like someone is running this “bank” as a side hobby from their garage. Don’t be fooled by the “5 minute application”, it will take weeks if not months before you have an account. In the meantime I missed deadlines for COVID-19 business relief that needed an account and thankfully was able to open a two last minute account elsewhere. An offensively colossal waste of time. I am seriously scared at the amount of info these shady guys have about me and my business now. Beware and stay away.

I’m a small buisness owner and I really wanted to like novo. As a small buisness that is bootstrapping i was looking forward to this cool new bank that was friendly to small buisness. I noticed an unauthorized transaction on my account and proceeded with the directions on how to move forward with a dispute. In order to place a dispute you have to include proof that you tried to fix the issue with the company that was on the transaction record. I went to the name of the website that the transaction was from and there was no contact information or way to send an email to them. I still moved forward with my dispute via opening a ticket on the novo app. A few weeks later I saw a pop up when logging in to the app recommending I change my password since my log in was found in a data breach. Yet still, I received the email from novo today saying that my dispute was declined and that I would not be receiving the amount that was disputed. I really wanted to like this bank but honestly, I put some of my hard worked money on to only receive a slap in the face and have less than when I opened the account.

Novo is a joke. I opened an business checking account here about a year ago and have barely used it because they have so many problems. First smallish deposit took 20x for the mobile scanner to accept the check. Took 2 weeks to process and update my balance. Never sent me a debit card and I had to request one after they kept insisting to check the mail. Now I’m dealing with the biggest problem of all—tried to deposit a very large check (with temporary raise on deposit limit) for my upcoming home purchase and they are holding the funds for more than a month. A month! Most banks have a regular deposit schedule with it being complete in 7 business days. Not Novo. They are not actually a bank—only partnering with Middlesex Federal. Yet they advertise banking services all over their app and site. Customer service is nonexistent, or canned bot responses with no real answers. Stay far far away. Better to go with a brick-and-mortar bank, as these online neobanks or fintechs don’t appear to be regulated. I’m fighting to get my money back. I suspect most of the 5-star reviews on this app are FAKE.

If I could give zero stars, I would give it to this bank. I had to rent a vehicle for six months, and the way this bank works is that if you extend, they put your money on hold. When you are charged, they subtract that amount without including the money already on hold, putting you in a negative balance. Even after the merchant has closed the transaction and sent you a receipt, they say it could take up to 30 days before crediting you back the money already on hold. This results in them charging you twice. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend this bank especially if you are a small business owner relying on daily cash flow. It is crucial to use a bank with resources and structure to keep up with transactions or consider switching banks as this situation caused my business severe hardship since we can no longer use this account to renew our essential vehicle. This is only one of several issues if you retun or never receive a product you purchased. They make you fend for yourself if you need get your money back.

If you rely on mobile deposits, then currently, it’s best to stay away from this bank. The biggest flaw with this bank is their camera app for mobile deposit. It’s so crude and cheap that it doesn’t allow you to review the check image before deposit and it only gives you a couple seconds to take the picture. Therefore, if you don’t get a 100% clear image, your check will be rejected. They do not tell you if it’s been rejected, so it’s on you to check every deposit to make sure it’s been processed. This results in having to mail the check to the bank to have them deposit it for you. Currently it’s been 6 weeks that I’ve been dealing with Novo customer support trying to fix this issue before telling me to mail it. It will be about another 2 weeks before it has been cleared and posted (assuming they can even deposit it at this point). A 2 month waiting period for a check to be cleared due to a faulty crude camera app is incredibly absurd. Save yourself.

I started a small business and I had everything I needed to be setup for success until one day I noticed a fraudulent transaction where someone used the debit card. Customer support responded after 2 days. And the phone number on the back of the card was picked up by actual person who sent another message to the support - this to me was a total joke. Now I am thinking… what if I needed this money now and nobody is there to get the transaction blocked and credited back to the account … this is the price you pay for the free features. I actually found the merchant where the card was used fraudulently and sent an email and within 30 minutes the transaction was refunded. Meanwhile the support team is totally silent and unreachable. After 2 days I got a message from them that there is nothing they can do since I already took care of getting my money back. The person on the phone explained that the review process for unauthorized transactions takes up to 120 days in which you don’t have access to your stolen money. Here are the things I would change if I was working at Novo: 1) when customer disputes the transaction immediately credit the account. 2) create a channel for immediate communication in such cases 3) Build protection against fraudulent transactions. Currently the app and the online platform are secure enough and super annoying to login but the debit cards are super insecure.

I signed up for Novo because I thought they would not charge overdraft fees. As a startup money is tight and I wanted that security just in case. But I was wrong. They took forever sending a debit card. The card is useless. It won’t connect with any wallets like Cash App , ApplyPay, or even Stripe for instant transfers. There is literally no way to use this debit card to deposit money. So I was forced to use the only two options to transfer funds into the account which are ACH from a linked account that takes 2-3 days or deposit a check that takes 5-7 days. Recently a paid a contractor via ACH but also made a deposit ACH at the same time. And of course. The debit came out first. Because the deposit had not been credited by Novo it was returned and I got charged a $27 fee! What is the point of this when I could just bank with Chase. Azlo was so much better. Novo needs to offer something better than traditional banks or what actually is the point!?!?

I want to give Novo 5 stars soo bad because I like every thing that they offer and the built in features that it has, especially the Shopify connection. However, when logging into the app, it often freezes on the load screen and I have to force close the app several times before it starts working. Yes, I can view my account online just fine but it’s 2021, who uses the web when you’re supposed to have a streamlined app? Also, they said that the novo bank connects to PayPal, unfortunately I have not been able to get my accounts linked by either using my account numbers or a debit card. This is very important to me as a large portion of my sales are processed through PayPal and as of now, I have no way of transferring those funds to Novo. I came here from Azlo business bank, and let’s just say if they didn’t close, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Everything about Azlo worked and integrated flawlessly...

At first I thought Novo would be a good idea. However, that changed when I started experiencing technical issues with things like them locking my account because of very small purchases and the password between the website and the app aren’t syncing, and when I’ve tried the same password I use on their website on the phone and vice versa, after three tries, I get locked out of my account for SIXTY minutes. That is hugely disrupting when I need to access my business account. Other issues are error messages on their site when I try to reset my password—“Something went wrong,” only to then get an email stating that the password has been reset. Then it’ll work in one place (web or app), and then not work on the other. This is so frustrating. I’ve reached out to Support, but at this point, I would not recommend any business owner use Novo if they need reliability.

The idea behind this bank is solid, they don’t charge you fees, they even reimburse you for atm fees charged by the atm itself and they don’t charge their own. But this bank is the most frustrating bank in the world to deal with. Everything is very difficult. A wire is too complex for the other party to figure out, a disputed transaction is a headache, their customer service department is tiny. I think I’ve spoken to every one of their employees already. It takes forever for anything to happen in this bank. Your balance is never accurate. It takes about a day, sometimes longer for transactions to reflect in your account balance. The app is pretty user friendly but I wish they would improve the quality of the actual service.

When I first opened this account everything was great. However, since the most recent update when I attempt to login from any device I get a bot response telling me there was suspicious login attempted. I’m. It sure where the glitch is ; after countless bot responses asking if certain suggestion solves the problem and no customer service number I’m done. I have reported you to any and every agency possible. Once I am able to get into my account and make necessary changes I will be closing it. The fact that businesses that is handling other business finances w/no means of speaking to a live human is terrifying. I have learned a hard lesson. I’m new to the business world, so I will take this one on the chin and move on. Thanks for wasting my time ; but also teaching me a valuable lesson. I have successfully opened a bank account that provides access to live humans via phone and chat; crazy I know but most institutions still provide that service.

I was amazed by all the banking solutions Novo has to offer, there are amazing features that instantly got my attention, and made all the daily business operations and needs much easier. I loved the idea of not worrying about the papers and docs and having everything in one place, in my Novo app. Any entrepreneur would consider that a huge competitive advantage. The simple, smooth and easy to understand onboarding process is another thing that really stands out with Novo. On top of that, the customer service will provide all the best answers in no time exactly when you need them the most. It’s just a brilliant experience! Do yourself and more importantly your business a favor and make all your banking needs easily solved. The future of business banking is Novo.

As a solopreneur with mediocre credit, banking has always been a hassle for me. With Novo, I was able to apply super easily online with no credit check, and was verified the next morning. My company is a non-cash business, so Novo is great because it gives me all the functionality I need without any of the frills I don’t. Paying my vendors and receiving payments from my customers is painless, free, and easy using ACH transfers and mobile deposits directly from my iPhone, and on the off chance I do need some cash they don’t charge me any debit card fees. Would love to see them release a credit card, but other than that no complaints.

Extremely buggy. Information is flat-out not displayed properly on the app or on desktop. My account often takes several days to update spending properly, so I’m not able to keep up with my own account. Obviously, the bonus features are nice, but why have these features in the first place when you can’t get basic banking services to work properly? I run an online business and it takes several days after money is sent from a customer before I ever see it in my account. Even something like a simple PayPal transfer can take up to five days before it reaches my account (even with PayPal’s instant transfer). My previous bank would update spending and receiving money almost instantly, but Novo is frustratingly slow, causing me to contemplate closing my account. I wouldn’t recommend signing up until they get basic banking functions corrected.

I was referred to Novo by someone I really trust and I really want to love it but this app is just not operating at a level that I needed to for my business. The totals are never caught up in real time. In activity, overall balance or pending. I Venmo’d someone $800last night and it’s still not even showing in pending. I can’t download another app to keep track of my actual ingoing an outgoing money. I will do that for taxes, but I’m not gonna do that for day-to-day transactions, I need to be able to rely on my banking app for that. Well, my business is growing and only one employee this is sustainable but as I grow, I’m definitely going to have to switch banks because of this app. Already having multiple electronic funds transfer set To transfer to this bank account is going to be a pain to switch , and frankly is the only reason why I haven’t switched yet.

TERRIBLE BANK. When you need them the most they will hide! I had a fraudulent transaction on my account. You would think I could just go in the app turn my card off or better yet call them and they would refund the transaction and send me a new card. NOPE! Instead I realize there’s no option to turn off my card. I call the fraud department and they can’t help me because I don’t have an open case. Despite me calling to OPEN a case. I then call the number on the back of the card she says you have to email us all the info or just try calling the merchant to reverse the transaction. Why are we communicating through a chat this is pathetic. You call this a professional banking experience? Any other bank would have handled this instantaneously. I’m transferring all my money to my external bank account that I can trust. After this dispute I will no longer be banking with your wannabe bank again.

$500 charge from China on my “virtual” card that I didn’t create or give access too. So basically someone in China created a fake virtual debit card and withdrew $500. It was grayed out in my transactions. I tried to report the fraud which is only available through the app. They said wait until it posts. It post and they give me instructions on how to dispute a charge but when I go to transaction under settings the screen locks and flickers giving me no way to dispute. I go to support ticket and they haven’t replied with any status or update in 10 days. Novo works until their is a problem. I have no faith in this company for the safety on well-being of my funds if they can’t handle a simple dispute. Moving all my business somewhere else. Worse customer service I have experienced in a financial company!! Put your money elsewhere!

This app is amazing and the concept of Novo was so promising. I used Novo for another business back in the day and had issues with customer service, ultimately they couldn’t give me any answer to my issue. I left. They since rebranded and I was super excited to try them again hoping the past was resolved… sadly not. The account opening process never asks for a legal address, instead they use your Driver’s License (front side only). They take the address from this, great except if you have a new address and the state sends you a sticker for the back of your license. Issue 1- Debit card went to my old address Mobile deposits are a NIGHTMARE, it tells you to sign and endorse for mobile deposit at novo. Great, except they reject your request for no proper endorsement, so we make the letters darker by writing over them… submit, rejected now for being altered. Support was not understanding, they simply told me to read the Mobile Deposit Agreement but couldn’t provide any reason as to why it was rejected in the first place. Instead I’m forced to get a new check… or tell the customer to pay using ACH. This looks amazing, but it sadly is a headache.

I’ve had a lot of bad experiences when it comes to banking in general. I’ve always felt like I was unimportant to banks and anytime I had an issue it’s always been a hassle to resolve. Giving a try to Novo completely changed my banking experience. After talking with their Customer Success team when I had to change my address they really made me feel like they cared about my experience and even though it was for such a small thing they were extremely polite and helpful. Also, they are releasing a bunch of integrations like Xero which I am currently using for my accounting. This is gonna make my life so much easier as I’m the one doing the accounting for my business. Now it’s obviously an early stage banks as the app is constantly coming up with new updates but it does not bother me. I’ve been able to do everything I needed and I’m looking forward to having access to their new web app that should come soon.

I guess this bank is fine if you have no issues, but as soon as you do, it’s impossible to get help. I’ve been trying to get hold of a payment from a UK customer that mysteriously “got lost” in transit since October of last year. The customer has worked diligently with me to figure out where the money got stuck, so all that Novo needs to do is follow the trail I have given them... but they won’t. I’ve probably talked to five different people at this point. Nobody follows up. I leave a voicemail and then get a survey to review a customer representative who never even called me. At this point, I call, get an automated message that no support agents are available, and that’s it. I’m really at the end of my rope. I rely on these payments, especially in the middle of a pandemic. At this point, I want to change banks, but I don’t feel like I can until I get this payment sorted. Really upsetting.

I spent over six weeks just waiting for my debit card. They finally admitted that their card issuer had made a mistake and never sent an entire batch. When I asked for a new one to be expedited I was told they couldn’t do that because there were too many. When I pressed them finally someone agreed (meanwhile you can ONLY email them). Then they recanted and said, no actually we can’t. Sorry. Then someone finally did. It’s been almost two months and I just got my card. I activated it and tried to use it and NOPE. It doesn’t work. I’m now waiting for someone to “re-set” it on the back end (whatever that means). In the meantime, all my business accounts are behind, payments have had to be made out of my personal bank accounts, and accounting is going to be a nightmare. If this doesn’t get solved today I’m out.

Closed account without warning. Not violating terms. A very large sum of money withdrawn without consent and unable to reach anyone to tell me where it went. Do not bank with novo. Untrustworthy and impossible to speak with anyone. Having to pursue legal action to find information where our money went. Support says they responded but we are blocked from being able to log in. Calling the number on the card results in the rep hanging up on us after they look up our account number. Horrible. Do not do business with them. Fraudulent company. edit: in response to your response. I’ve been emailing support and calling for a week with no help or communication. Your customer support is an absolute joke. A report has been filed with the federal reserve and investigation started.

I requested a refund on an online purchase order that was never mailed to me by an online store. LINZI in customer service responded back to me saying there was nothing they could do and that I would have to get in contact with the store owner to get a refund. Fine. No problem. Days later next thing I know my CARD is all of a sudden being DECLINED at the Gas Station and basically everywhere. I contacted NOVO again to find out what’s going on. MADELINE responds back telling me that my Card “was REPORTED STOLEN and they have mailed me a New one”. I NEVER ONCE SAID OR REPORTED THAT MY CARD WAS STOLEN!!! They can see that in the Message History with LINZI!!! Now NO ONE has responded back to my messages asking WHY or WHATS GOING ON??? This is INSANE!!! I literally have NO ACCESS TO MY MONEY and Customer Service is ignoring the FACT that THEY MESSED UP!!! AVOID NOVO and stick to a place that actually LISTENS to their Customers!!!!!

I like the UI a lot. Very pretty, clean, modern. In fact, that’s what made me want to sign up in the first place. I love good design. UI/UX design is what I do for a living. But while the design caught my initial attention, there just isn’t anything beyond the design that sets them apart, especially when considering this as a place to hold my money. There isn’t anything bad here, just nothing really great. Customer support is nice and the chat function is cool, but that isn’t enough reason to decide to store my business finances here. There may be differences that make it better than the alternatives, I just don’t really see them promoted nor have I ran into anything on the app that stands out to me. Using phrases like “smarter banking” is just a way to market in this case and doesn’t provide any solution to where there is a problem in the space of business banking. I would like to use them, and will keep the account open for a little while just to see where it goes, but honestly there is no reason to use this over competitors. I like you Novo, I just don’t quite love you. . . . Yet. 😃

I’m a big Novo fan. Historically, I’ve loved the notifications I get every morning of new sales. The invoice feature is easy to use and very quick. The BEST feature is Reserves, which allows me to automate Profit First settings without having to balance multiple accounts every month. Overall, 10/10 would recommend Novo. However, the app has recently been glitching. I log in and it continues to show a refresh icon. Therefore, I can’t do or see anything. I’ll give it some more time before I download it again, which I will. The app is why I give 4 stars instead of 5.

I was excited to open my Novo business bank account and really enjoyed all the convenient features. Unfortunately, their support is courteous, but abysmal. If you never need support, then this is a great way to bank. If, on the other hand, you need to get your daily deposit amount increased to fund your business or deposit a large check, get ready to wait hours for a reply with the start and stop chat feature. It takes literally hours to hear back from anyone. And if your debit card is ever lost, stolen, or compromised, don’t expect a new card anytime soon. Who needs a replacement debit card right away? It’s not like you are doing business every day. The one thing Novo was quick at was closing my account once I asked them to close it. They told me I had 48 hours to download anything I needed before it would be closed. 24 hours later, BAM! Closed. I opened a business account with Mercury and am much happier. Mercury offers both a virtual debit card and a physical one. That is brilliant!

Filed a dispute that took about 4-5 months and they ended up taking the money from the merchant but never deposited either back to my account nor returned it back to the merchant. The money is just out there somewhere and I have been nonstop trying to get them to investigate where the money went and they are not being helpful. The merchant confirmed and showed me document that confirms that they withdrew the funds from them. I requested a formal documentation that shows the dispute resolution and they decline to provide that document which highly unusual. There's always digital or paper documents produced that inform customer about the result of their disputes. Not sure if anyone else has ran into this, but this looks like fraud and misusing of customer funds.

My experience with Novo has been very disappointing. The biggest challenge I’ve faced is customer service, which has been close to nonexistent. Can’t get through to a live agent, instead you have to email them and wait. And wait. And wait. Over a week once, most recently it’s over 48 hours and no reply. Another challenge is bill payment. If you rely on checks in the mail you’ll wait 15 days for it to reach your vendor. The app signs you out too quickly and you have to reauthorize your device every 30 days, even with 2FA. The low/no fees are good, the app is good enough (when you can get into it) but I do not recommend this as a business solution.

I put over 5K in this account for my business. One morning around 3am. My card information was stolen and my account was wiped out. THERES ONLY CENTS LEFT. There’s no one to call, you have to chat them Mon-Fri during business hours. Ok. Now you have to dispute every charge on your own. There were 63 fraudulent charges. It’s over a month later. I have a business to run, this is unacceptable. Some charges were processed back to the card they froze. So they were declined. Now I’ve been told to give my new card info to the place that stole from me. ARE YOU SERIOUS. I don’t know who did it and why would I give them my card info. What is going on. It took a month for them to mess up more. Still no money, still no helpful solution. I couldn’t be more unsatisfied.

Honestly, it’s pretty hard to get excited about anything remotely related to finance... but Novo has quite successfully got me more interested in my business finances than I was previously. First off, no denying that the ui/ux is seamless... it plain looks and feels cool. Couple of negative points: 1) slightly limited functionality. The core product is good, but at this stage that is basically all that is on offer. From what I have seen though there are some new features being included over time. 2) sign up process is easier than an traditional bank, but not 100% seamless. For my account I needed to provide some more specific documents which I was emailed for. Not the end of the world, but would be nicer to have an all inclusive process that didn’t involve direct outreach for my documentation. Long story short, I can see myself continuing to use Novo, and it does make managing my business finances easier in my day to day.

Anybody who has used Novo loves/hates it. They’re known for slow to terrible customer service and I’ve fallen victim to that myself. As an app made for business owners, this just can’t be. Nobody needs access to money more or faster than us. My favorite feature as a Profit First business are the Reserve accounts with automatic percentage allocations to each of the important accounts (Operating Expenses, Owner Compensation, Profit, Taxes and Income). This helps me see what I have and keeps my business running efficiently. Until response time is improved, however, Novo will never be a 5 star banking solution for me.

One of the worst companies for communicating with you. Initially, was offered to pair this with the Wise account but they failed to mention that was actually not an option in my State. So I initially moved to close the account. However, I decided to give it a chance an relocate my business to them; asked them to leave it open and deposited money in there. Then they closed my account and did not return the funds. I tried to reach out to them but they only take email. But they only respond to email in their app. So I would email them the account should not be closed and they would reply in the app that I could now not get into as it was closed. Quite comical really if it wasn’t so sad. Don’t waste your time and money

I recently joined Novo and it has been nothing but convenient! The application process was a breeze and my account was quickly opened. Being able to handle my small business finances from the comfort of home through my phone has been great! Their app is also user friendly to the point where they make banking fun! I’ve even reached out for questions and Novo has always responded so friendly and quickly! This is a great banking app and I have recommended Novo to the companies I mentor and other entrepreneurs!

I took a long time to decide on a business bank account and decided that novo would be the best option for me. When I initially downloaded the app, everything was functioning correctly but all of a sudden, it logged it me out and won’t let me log back in. I keep receiving a screen that says “unrecognized device” and I need to confirm by going to my email. When I confirm via email, the app remains on the unrecognized device screen. I connected with customer service and they said the only way for me to regain access is to change my email which would unfortunately mean the account would no longer be connected to my business. Really frustrating & now I can’t easily access my funds.

The Novo app does a lot of things well—integration, sleek design, simplicity and ease of use. However, poor security is a deal breaker. Recently, someone broke into my car and stole cards, charging thousands to my accounts. Every other account I had warned me immediately and flagged the transactions, providing full reimbursements. Not Novo, letting the suspicious charges slide through undetected. Moreover, when I reported the charges to them, they took months to respond with a simple “dispute denied.” No additional explanation. I will consider switching to a business account that prioritizes user security, pain though it might be. If I were selecting an account now, I would look elsewhere.

*If you still see this review posted, they have yet to fix the issues* 1- The mobile check deposit feature doesn’t work at all. The first one works great, then it’s downhill from there. I have tried multiple checks, multiple different lighting situations, multiple backgrounds, multiple devices, multiple internet connections... still doesn’t work. 2- I have tried to use the debit card to pay for a $20 purchase (Twilio) but it declined and returned the reason “Bank refused this transaction”. 3- I finally got the card to work at a different store. The funds came out of my account... but my transaction history doesn’t show the charge anywhere. This is highly concerning as it means I am unable to see where my card is being used. 4- It’s not possible to add the Novo debit card to your Apple Wallet. Their two verification methods do not work. The first is “via app” but the screen goes blank. The second is “call Novo” but when you click the button it rings and rings and rings....... it never stops. I had high hopes but Novo has been nothing but a letdown so far. ☹️ At this point, I would NOT recommend Novo to any business owner.

1. Check deposit process is annoying and very badly implemented. We are depositing 100s of checks a month and I came to the point I had to open another bank account in another institution because Novo kept rejecting checks! Non of the checks was ever NSF or not paid. 2. APP keeps crushing on transaction review screen. Keep freezing when you trying to look at the transaction screen and see all updated transactions 3. Checks being deposited not confirmed until next business day if deposited after 3PM est. very Bad and I don’t know any institution who does that. Please learn from your competitors (Blue vine) it’s almost impossible to keep track of deposited items. 4. Support is not convenient no way to call anyone. Good things. 1. 1 Day ACH if done before 3pm. Helps to pay employees at right time. 2. Same day ACH option is super helpful 3. Interface is very pleasant and convenient. 4 I would add few features. - feel free to discuss with me.

Overall very good app for a small business banking account. Over a year of using it, the downsides that I have noticed are: 1) it takes longer than normal for a new card to be shipped to you, with a large bank like Bank of America or Wells Fargo, a new card usually arrives in a week or so. With Novo, the new card takes several weeks to a month to arrive. 2) the bank is not eligible for Instant transfers from venmo. Apparently Novo does not have the infrastructure to participate in instant transfers. But they can still take standard transfers from venmo.

I applied for my business account at 1 o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday. By close of business on Friday at 6 PM central standard time, I still did not have an open bank account. When I asked what was taking so long, they replied that it usually takes one to two business days to open an account. They also said they show my account to be approved and someone would be in touch with me shortly as they have expedited the process for me, but guess what, I still have no bank account and I was able to go across the street and open a business account, totally free, within 30 minutes. If you were located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, I recommend Legacy Texas Bank as they have a totally free small business checking account. Otherwise, I would seek another provider.