Both onboard non-resident LLC owners remotely. Both give you US account details. The difference shows up in what happens to money once it lands.
The core difference
Mercury is a US business account. It is built for a US company banking in dollars, with the tooling a startup expects — sub-accounts, virtual cards, API access.
Wise Business is a cross-border account. It is built for a company that receives and holds several currencies and converts between them at low cost.
If your customers pay in USD and you spend in USD, Mercury is the more natural fit. If you invoice in euros, get paid in pounds and pay suppliers in dirhams, Wise usually wins on cost alone.
Side by side
| Mercury | Wise Business | |
|---|---|---|
| US routing + account number | Yes | Yes, via partner |
| Multi-currency balances | Limited | Strong — 40+ |
| Conversion cost | Higher | Mid-market rate + small fee |
| Monthly fee | None on the base tier | One-off setup, then per-use |
| Cards | Physical and virtual | Virtual, physical in some regions |
| Sub-accounts | Yes | By currency |
| API | Yes | Yes |
Approval differences
Mercury is noticeably selective about business type and founder profile. It leans towards technology, SaaS and agency businesses, and is harder for e-commerce resale, dropshipping and anything with a consumer-refund profile.
Wise is broader in the businesses it accepts but asks more detailed questions about the flow of funds — who pays you, in what currency, from which country.
Neither publishes criteria. Both decline residents of sanctioned jurisdictions regardless of the company's registration. What you control is the same in both cases: complete documents, a finished website, and a description that matches it. See opening a US business bank account.
Choosing
- SaaS or agency, US customers, USD in and out → Mercury.
- Invoicing in several currencies → Wise.
- You need to hold euros or pounds rather than convert immediately → Wise.
- You want sub-accounts and a card programme → Mercury.
- Declined by one → apply to the other. Risk appetites genuinely differ.
Using both
Common and sensible. Mercury as the operating account for USD revenue and US expenses; Wise for receiving non-USD payments and paying overseas suppliers or contractors.
The cost of a second account is close to zero. The cost of routing a euro invoice through a USD-only account is a conversion fee every time.
One thing to understand
Neither is a bank. Both are financial technology companies working with partner banks that hold the deposits. For daily use that is invisible, but it explains why their acceptance criteria can shift faster than a bank's, and why deposit protection depends on the partner arrangement rather than on them directly.
It is not a reason to avoid them — for a non-resident there is rarely a practical alternative — but it is worth knowing rather than assuming.
Whichever you open, the money discipline afterwards matters more than the choice: see paying yourself from a foreign-owned LLC.