Best Business Bank Account???????

adycooney1 · 16 August 2005 at 3:52PM

Hi

I'm new at this, so please go easy on me!!

I intend to set up a small consultancy business where I am likely to be paid commission in US$, can you please advise me which is the best bank (Cheapest?? Most efficient?? Competent??) to deal with.

Ady

MrSmartprice · 16 August 2005 at 3:58PM

As far as charges are concerned, The Abbey are about the cheapest for a small business account. Certainly worth getting a quote, I have found them to be fine, and never pay any charges at all.

PeeWee · 18 August 2005 at 1:20AM

most banks will give you a years free business banking, natwest also give you interest agaiunst your balance which is offset against charges

oscarhugo · 22 August 2005 at 6:35PM

I changed our business banking from NatWest to Abbey about 2 years ago, being fed up with paying through the nose for NatWest's services.

We have certainly saved a fair bit with the Abbey. The service is less than terrific however: if you need to get your $ deposits identified then you have to actually ask & probably wait for some days [or even weeks] before you get them positive identified. Also, if you want to earn better interest on your dosh you need to open a Business Reserve a/c to run concurrently with the Biz Bank A/C. But you have to do your own "sweeping" i.e. move the monies from one a/c to the other & keep a daily eye on the accounts if you don't want to keep too much money in the Bank Account but on the other hand think there may be debits going out which you need to cover. A couple of times we have incurred charges, which I managed to get refunded by taking the time & trouble to write & complain. I thought I could circumvent the problem by setting up an overdraft facility but the Abbey wanted to charge a 50 quid annual amount for that so we pretty soon changed our minds! You have to strike a balance between earning/saving cash versus quite poor service & having to keep an eye on things.

HTH

JonathanWJ · 25 August 2005 at 5:52PM

adycooney1 wrote:

Hi

I'm new at this, so please go easy on me!!

I intend to set up a small consultancy business where I am likely to be paid commission in US$, can you please advise me which is the best bank (Cheapest?? Most efficient?? Competent??) to deal with.

Ady

Hi Ady, I'm also new to this site, and new to running a consultancy business of my own. In my hunt for a business bank account I today discovered that Lloyds Bank are offering 18 months free banking to new customers (so long as you're in credit). Co-Operative Bank offer 18 months free banking, but you have to keep a balance of at least £1000 credit. I can't say what either are like in terms of service. I previously had a business a/c with Barclays - never again! When I needed a loan they offered me one at 22% APR.

All the best

Jonathan

Mark7799 · 25 August 2005 at 8:31PM

NatWest will offer 18 months if you have a personal account as well, 12 months otherwise.

As you have such a specific query on service, I suspect a little legwork talking to the Banks to see what they can offer in respect of payments received in foreign currency.

Would you have any need to keep the money in US$? Is it worth opening an extra account in dollars?

sneekymum · 26 August 2005 at 9:15PM

But why pay anything? - When Abbey does FREE Business Banking.

Trouble is their customer service is desperate - and since they've moved their paying-in address to London we get over 10% of credits lost in the post. We can't even identify which of our credits are missing as they've got no references in the paying-in book and all are credits are for the same amount. They also want £4 for each photocopy of a cheque we sent them so we can work out what's missing. I sent a cheque to their Glasgow business address recently to try to bypass the London problem but I got a snotty letter back. Now we're trying to find out how to pay stuff in through a branch - but the only local branch is in the main shopping centre - so we can't just drive by late in the evening... We ring them to complain and someone in India answers - what do Indians understand about the troubles of posting stuff to London and the inconvenience of having your bank locked in the middle of a shopping centre when you can only get there after hours?.

We were with Nat West - but then it was about £90 a year in charges just for paying stuff in and writing cheques - we were always in credit, they just like to charge for everything. It may be worth changing back to them though.

jonesMUFCforever · 26 August 2005 at 10:35PM

sneekymum wrote:

But why pay anything? - When Abbey does FREE Business Banking.

Just as long as you do not want to pay any coin in!!!!!!
Eric

Mark7799 · 26 August 2005 at 10:42PM

sneekymum wrote:

But why pay anything? - When Abbey does FREE Business Banking.

Trouble is their customer service is desperate -

Haven't you answered your own question here?

h4nym · 29 August 2005 at 7:30PM

I've been in business now for nearly 15 years (god I feel old!) - a couple of bits of advice...

1. If this is a consultancy business, will you be receiving payments in your name or in the trading name of the consultancy? If it's your name, then open a personal account rather than business - no charges!

2. Always always always keep your business account at a separate bank from your personal bank. If you don't, everything gets mulched in together as far as borrowing is concerned... try and get an overdraft on either and they'll check the other. My business banking is with Lloyds TSB, personal is with Natwest. LTSB is fantastic - but that is exclusively a factor of having an account (relationship) manager who cares! We were with Barclays for 10 years - with one account manager. That account manager was moved on and we were lumbered with one who was thoroughly useless. It took 7 months to decide that Barclays had to go and I interviewed every bank that had a branch locally - from the Co-op to Coutts. LTSB won on sheer relationship.

Best of luck

H

oscarhugo · 29 August 2005 at 11:37PM

"We ring them to complain and someone in India answers - what do Indians understand about the troubles of posting stuff to London and the inconvenience of having your bank locked in the middle of a shopping centre when you can only get there after hours?"

I haven't had to speak to an Indian call centre when ringing the Abbey (not yet, at any rate...) That's something that HAS improved lately -- the last few times I've rung them someone in Glasgow has answered immediately. Have you tried ringing the 'SayNoTo0870' number - the 'from abroad' number - 0161 951 5777 ??

Best Business Bank Account???????

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free