SB: Business Bank Accounts

stphnstevey

yebaws wrote: »

No, and for that reason I personally would avoid it in the current financial climate...

If I did that all the time I would never have found the little gem's of RS's and normal savings accounts I have now.

Haven't researched them yet as I am just about to start contracting through a Ltd and this is my first company (thus first company bank account).

Needless to say if it goes anything like my personal accounts, I will have researched them to death and then will report back here (unless I find a more apropriate page).

However, they have been recommended by my brother who is a financial wiz (by 25 he owned 3 companes: was contracting through an Ltd, had his own successful international internet biz Ltd and multiple properties through another Ltd). So all though he has only had the time to advise me 'get this one, it's the best', I trust his advice and will research further

Additionally they are backed by the Abbey

don9999

I need to set up a business bank account (though not urgent, can be done any time in the next 2-3 months).

Both Alliance and Leicester and Abbey appear to offer pretty good deals - free day-to-day banking, with charges only if you need to bank more than £4,000 or £3,000 respectively (and thereafter it is 35p/50p respectively).
These seem very good deals compared to the big banks which have significant charges for day-to-day operations eg. 28p per cheque deposit, 57p per £100 deposited etc. etc. Although most offer between 1-2 years of free banking.

Hence I was seriously considering A&L UNTIL I read some of their reviews!
Look at: [IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Don/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg[/IMG]http://www.reviewcentre.com/products294.html

Both A&L and Abbey get seriously slated in these reviews. Apparently their customer service is non-existent, and there are serious delays for banking cheques etc.

So......I'm in a quandry. Do I go for a big bank with big chances but (possibly) better service, or go with A&L or Abbey, with their MUCH lower charges but run the risk of operational/cash flow problems.

Hmmmmm.......

Anyone here have any 'recent' experience of either?

Cheers,
Don

stphnstevey

Rhino666 wrote: »

If you are a contractor like me with a limited number of transactions per month you cannot go wrong with Cater allen. I have been with them for nearly nine years now. Free banking and good interest if the number of transactions is low.

Ahh, looks like someone has heard of them. I will be contracting too - any feedback on this one Rhino??

stphnstevey

Do you actually need a business account for the taxman?
Could you not just have a seperate personal account (better rates, charges and cashback via quidco!)

yebaws

stphnstevey wrote: »

Do you actually need a business account for the taxman?
Could you not just have a seperate personal account (better rates, charges and cashback via quidco!)

No, you don't need a business account. A lot of people use personal accounts (although you *must* keep it separate from your personal finances). If you have a high volume of branch transactions, though, your bank may want to have words with you...

stphnstevey

yebaws wrote: »

No, you don't need a business account. A lot of people use personal accounts (although you *must* keep it separate from your personal finances). If you have a high volume of branch transactions, though, your bank may want to have words with you...

I will just be a contractor and need a seperate account for my Ltd. Money in monthly by BACs and then out again by BAC's in salary and dividend payments

Pennywise

stphnstevey wrote: »

Anybody heard of
Cater Allen Private Bank

It's been recommended to me by a fellow small business owner

http://www.caterallen.co.uk/Default.aspx?pid=1

Cater Allen are a UK registered bank, a subsidiary of Abbey and part of the Sandander group, so they are as reliable/reputable as any other UK bank and investors have the same protection. The reason that few people hear of them is that they don't have branches and mostly work through intermediaries, such as accountants and solicitors. It is interesting that you are going to contract as a lot of contractors use Cater Allen as they provide free banking and relatively good interest rates, but don't have branches, so it is best operated as an internet/postal account where you don't need to pay in or withdraw cash. Ask your accountant if they are intermediaries for Cater Allen, and if so, what "deal" they can do for you. In our case, our clients benefit from a waiver of the minimum opening and operating balance, so you can open your account with just, say £100 and don't need to keep the publicised minimum balance of £5k. Our clients also benefit from an extra 0.25% interest over and above their published interest rates. Not only are they attraction to contractor-type clients, they also have an excellent UK based customer service department - we have used them for ourselves and our clients for 6/7 years and no-one has a bad word for them. Their call centre is separate from the usual Abbey call centre, so the well reported Abbey poor customer service is not replicated with Cater Allen at all. Overall, I'd highly recommend them for a contractor.

stphnstevey

It appears A+L are no longer offering free banking forever

Therefore I considered the Abbey, as they do

But CaterAllen seem to have marginally better interest rates:

ABBEY
Tier
Gross rate p.a. /AER*
Net rate p.a.
Monthly gross rate p.a.
Monthly net rate p.a.
£100,000 plus
3.00%
2.40%
2.96%
2.37%
£25,000 up to £99,999
2.25%
1.80%
2.23%
1.78%
£10,000 up to £24,999
1.25%
1.00%
1.24%
0.99%
£5,000 up to £9,999
0.75%
0.60%
0.75%
0.60%
£1 up to £4,999
0.25%
0.20%
0.25%
0.20%


CATER ALLEN

Reserve Account (£ GBP ) - Interest Rates (% p.a.)
Balance
Gross % p.a.*
AER%**
£ 500000 +
4.750
4.85
£ 100000 +
4.300
4.39
£ 50000 +
4.200
4.28
£ 25000 +
3.750
3.82
£ 10000 +
3.450
3.51
£ 5000 +
2.100
2.12
Variable rates as at 29 February 2008
No interest paid on balances below £5,000

Corporate Account (£ GBP ) - Interest Rates (% p.a.)
Balance
Gross % p.a.*
AER%**
£ 100000 +
2.400
2.43
£ 25000 +
1.500
1.51
£ 10000 +
1.000
1.00
£ 5000 +
0.100
0.10
Variable rates as at 29 February 2008
No interest paid on balances below £5,000


However as far as I can see, Cater Allen restrict you to 30 free trans per month and Corporate Account and 200/month with Corporate Account. Also they don't pay interest on balances below £5K

EDIT - SORRY, CAN'T SEEM TO COPY AND PASTE A TABLE IN, CAN ANYONE HELP?

***AAA-Inquirer***

Thanks for the Abbey v Cater Allen interest rates - that was useful to me.

janewatts

Hi all, just thought I would give a word of warning to anyone considering opening a business bank account with Lloyds TSB. And that word is... DON'T!!

I won't bore you with the catalogue of mistakes and errors which meant it took over 5 weeks to open the account and get the online banking details, suffice to say nothing was done as it should have been and service I received was nothing but incompetent. Today though, I have discovered the most annoying thing of all - that even once you get online, their banking system has to be the slowest in the universe - and I wasn't told anything about this at the original interview even though I said that online banking was most important to me - not surprisingly I guess.

I currently have a business bank account with Bank of Scotland, and if I make a payment online up until 6pm on any working day, the payment will land in the recipient's account two working days later - no argument.

However, if I now want to make the same payment, this is what I need to do:-

Day 1 - put details of recipient's bank account into the Lloyds online system, for them to check it isn't 'fraudulent'. When you finish inputting the details, you get shown a screen saying:-

"You've successfully completed the details to set up this new arrangement. Please allow up to two working days for this arrangement to be displayed in your recipients list."

THIS IS WRONG.

I set up more than a dozen recipients on Tuesday, when I had FINALLY been given all of the information I needed to use the online banking system. I had various people who have been waiting a while to get paid, so I thought, finally, they will have their money by the end of the week. Huh.

As of now, still none of the people's details I entered have appeared, so earlier I called the bank's online 'help' team. Eventually, I was told that although the screen says it will take "up to" two days, it can take longer if they're "busy".

Luckily though, if you get a helpful person, they will push it through so that you can at least see the person in your recipients list. However, that doesn't really help, because even then, once you've input the details, the payment doesn't actually leave your account for another TWO days - and that's if you get the instruction in before 3.30pm!! If you don't, it will take THREE more working days!

So, we are now on Day 3, but because I missed the 3.30pm deadline, the payment won't leave til Day 1 of the following week (working day 6).

And the funniest part of all is that even then, it will STILL take another THREE - FOUR working days to get to the other side - if they haven't already started suing you for taking the p***.

So, you want to make a payment Monday one week. With the fantastically-archaic system in place at Lloyds TSB, if you are lucky and their fraud detection system doesn't throw out your request first, your payment MAY reach the intended person by Friday - the week after.

Three cheers for Lloyds TSB - now, who should I waste another 5 weeks putting in an application to? The only reason I am not going with BoS is I can't put cash into my account in person, so who has the odd actual branch, a half-decent online banking system and charges which won't bankrupt me?! Please help...