Small Business bank accounts

System

Jeremy Malley-Smith mentioned forever free Abbey National-worth mentioning again - great deal for postal / internet banking, so long as you don't go to far over the transaction limits.
I also run a seperate "high st" bus acc , in case i need to pay over the counter stuff (rare)

colin.mclean

I operate as a sole trader. The Inland Revenue don't require you to have a "business bank account", but they do expect you to keep your personal and business accounts separate.

I therefore set up a second account with my building society, identical to the one I use for my personal finances. The advantages are (1) it has free banking, (2) I can operate it over the Internet, and (3) when I pay myself the money goes through instantly (inter-account transfer). The one downside is that I couldn't have my trading (company) name on the account, but this has not caused me any problems with clients.

payless

Colin

bang on- but sometimes the image needs it to be a business account- there are now enough with "limited " free banking.

System

I'd definitely recommend the Abbey National 'Free Banking Forever'. Yes, check the limits but they're pretty reasonable.

You can check out the limits here:
http://www.anbusiness.com/services/charges_interest.shtml

Free Banking Forever tariff as follows:

Transaction
No. of free transactions (per month)
Charge for exceeding free limit

Number of deposits
20
50p per item

Number of cheques deposited
100
50p per item

Amount of cash deposited
£3,000
50p per £100

Automated BACS credits
ALL
N/A

Cash and cheque withdrawals
50
50p per item

Debit card payments
ALL
N/A

Direct debits, standing orders and bill payments
ALL
N/A

Transfers between linked Abbey National business accounts
ALL
N/A

So, if you have your regular bills on direct debit, do your business spending on the debit card, you pay nothing ever. And I think the per item or per £100 charges are quite reasonable.

HTH
Gordon

infox

Thanks all who mentioned the Abbey Free account.

I'd like to support my current bank, the Cooperative, for ethical reasons, but nigh-on £100pa for the trivial number of transactions I conduct would be better given direct to charity.

Anyway I bank with smile personally so I'm not giving up on the Coop entirely.

Thanks again - application form in post to Abbey already

payless

Abbey are great for straight forward "postal and internet" buisness banking

CARE no branch service

Telephone service not always as good as it should be-

I have had 4 different problems with DDs and standing orders in last 6 months
3 DD's they corerectly paid 1 month then bounced the next month (without telling me) as no mandate held (obviously I had more than enough ibn account to pay them and wanted them paid)

Plus refused to stop / recall a standing order - I had cancelled with firm, but firm still sent it to Abbey - who paid it - but claimed could not recall- "not able to do this" (another bank told me this could be done)

competitionscafe

Aah, the joys of small business banking! >:(

Unhappy with Lloyds for a number of reasons (including no business managers in Scotland and a £120 annual charge for a service I don't receive - business manager advice) I am shopping around for a new account.

So far I have tried:

Barclays (as my personal account is with them) - only one business manager for the whole of Scotland. Somebody will phone you to discuss (nobody ever phoned).

Bank of Scotland - took 3 weeks to get back to me with the answer to a basic question, kept giving me conflicting information.

Royal Bank of Scotland - applied online, was sent all the details in the post and a letter saying somebody would phone me within 3 days to finalise the account opening. Nobody ever phoned.

HSBC - asked for more info. Got a call a few days later. Was told a business manager from my nearest branch would call me to discuss my requirements. But...you guessed it - nobody ever phoned!

Of course I could chase them all up - but if this is the level of service they provide I am not sure if I want to bank with them!

So.........any other suggestions please ???

Will try Abbey National as mentioned above.

Regards,

Mark

Murphy_The_Cat

Hi Mark

your letter sums it up once and for all.

The banks are perfectly happy to spend millions of pounds on crappy ad campaigns but when you get down to the nitty gritty the service that you get from them is complete pants.

I deal with Lloyds TSB and have a very good relationship with them but i could not recommend them to anyone else as my manager is ok, but others i have dealt with were pretty crap/thick/stupid/uninterested/etc etc.

Keep smiling
MTC  ;D ;D ;D

p.s if I treated my customers with the level of service that i get from my bank i would have gone bust years ago.  I bet the same goes for you

System

I don't understand why any small busineses are paying charges when they are in credit. Don't be fooled by the service elements that the main banks offer. In my experience, these are non-existent, unless you want a loan or need insurance etc. I moved from NatWest to the Bank of Scotland, where I have a current account and reserve. Interest rates are many times that of the big four and there are no charges as long as your balance remains at £5,000 or above.

memark

I run a small business and use Cater Allen Private Bank (wholly owned subsidiary of Abbey National with all deposits unconditionally guaranteed by them).

We have 2 a/cs with them to double the allowable transactions as they provide free banking subject to a limited number each month (but electronic transactions don't count towards the limit). They also have minimum deposit criteria.

You get cheque, pay-in books and even a gold debit card. There's no branches but a freephone number and postage paid envelopes for paying in.

We've been running the Reserve a/cs for over 3 years now and are very satisified with them. Interest rates are below.

Reserve Account - Interest Rates (% p.a.)
Balance % Gross % AER * % Net
£500,000+ 3.25 3.30 2.60
£100,000+ 2.85 2.89 2.28
£50,000 + 2.75 2.78 2.20
£25,000+ 2.65 2.68 2.12
£10,000+ 2.45 2.48 1.96
£5,000+ 1.15 1.16 0.92
Variable rates as at 20 November 2003
*AER = Annual Equivalent Rate
No interest paid on balances below £5,000

https://www.caterallen.co.uk