Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

JAYk_2

Anyone had/has any good bad experiences with Santander and or Natwest?

Which one would you reccommend?

Paulgonnabedebtfree

JAYk wrote: »

Anyone had/has any good bad experiences with Santander and or Natwest?

Which one would you reccommend?

Not tried Natwest.
Santander can be a problem to communicate with. The main issue I had with them was their removal of the references for incoming BACS payments i.e. they wouldn't tell me which customer had paid. So I now use Co-op for incoming BACS payments and Santander for cash and cheques.
I took my complaint to the very top with Santander but they told me to take a hike - obviously more politely than that but that was the gist of it. So now they only get about half my business money instead of it all.
Winkers !!

dmbw

I'm in two minds with regard to Natwest, i applied for their business account 3 weeks ago and was told it would take 24 hours. I still haven't heard anything and bit stuck in limbo as can't get through on the number i have been given to actually talk to a human! Not quite sure whther i should just reapply and presume they didn't receive the application or just try soemwhere else. Bit scared how it will look on ym credit history tbh.

nickj_2

i'm now in the process of closing my A+L/sandtander ac , i just found their online banking to complicated - they must have sent about 10 security no's / pin no's .
they debited my ac with a direct debit before i had put any money in it and then of course charged me , although to be fair after i'd managed to get thru to the right dept they did wipe off any charges .
both my business and personal acc is with barclays and i just like the fact that can instant transfer any cash around - my bank charges are from 25-30 per1/4 and i've just decided it's worth paying a bit if you're happy with the service

GoodNewmover

nickj wrote: »

...
both my business and personal acc is with barclays and i just like the fact that can instant transfer any cash around - my bank charges are from 25-30 per1/4 and i've just decided it's worth paying a bit if you're happy with the service

I hear some people find it hard to close their business bank account with Barclays...

King_of_Spades

I'm the new treasurer of a longstanding small club (a performing arts troupe). Much (although not all) of the club's income comes from what people donate when we pass round the hat at the end of a performance. We need a cheque book and paying-in book, and internet banking could prove useful (when the government, in their infinite wisdom, decides that nobody needs to use cheques any more). I'm not sure which financial institution is offering the best deal for clubs? Or if it's all very much of a muchness between them all?

Savvy_Sue

Welcome to the boards!

I don't know how much of a muchness it is out there, but really you need to concentrate on who offers the services you need.

As well as a cheque book and paying in book, you need facilities for paying cash in over the counter - coins as well as notes and cheques. So, which banks can you get to? Is there a Post Office convenient for you? Go and ask what they offer.

In a similar position to you years ago (occasional inputs of lots of cash), I found using Alliance and Leicester via the local Post Office worked very well: it used to be a Clubs and Societies account. Other banks also let you use the PO for paying in cash - worth asking which those are if a PO is convenient. (NatWest never used to!)

Also I was opening an Executor's account in Lloyds the other day, and was assured that they have no plans to stop issuing cheque books.

patrascu09

I have banked personally with the A & L for 5 years. Absolutely first class service, never took more than a minute to pay anything in.

For my Business banking i was with HSBC. Charged through the nose for just about any error. When it came to buying my premises, they treated me like a piece of S*** on their shoes.

Headed off to the Natwest who arranged the mortgage.
Over the past few years they have managed to mess up a loan i asked for ( it took 6 months ) wrote to the ombudsman as they had charged me fees £35 a time as Direct debits were bouncing for the last 3 months as i was still waiting for their dumb loan department.
This Xmas i have taken almost 3 hours queueing to pay in 6 times.
Only 2 cashiers and a queue with 35 + people in it ( no business cashier)
Charges at Natwest are extortionate.

Went to Santander as i knew it was linked to A & L etc.
Business account with 6% interest for 1st year, free banking up to 3000 a month. I asked so what if i pay in 5000 a month, the girl said ... well what you do is open a savings account with it. Pay in 2900 into your current account then pay in the other 2100 to the savings, then go home and transfer it on the online banking and hey presto 5000 no charges.
They also opened a personal current account at the same time and linked it to my business account, so if it looks like i am £100 short for a direct debit i can transfer it to the business account online, then reverse it after i next pay in. At the Natwest i had to go and draw money out ...queue for 25 mins to pay in etc etc.

They even gave me a Zero credit card (free money abroad, interest free for 3 months) and also their basic card ( 13 months free balance transfer)

The account has saved me well over £1200 compared to Natwest in the first year as well as no insane queues.
I would point out that nearly all of my turnover is in cash, but i feel it is just a case of preparing your finances and direct debits etc and using the online facility.

Savvy_Sue

Just a word of warning about having your current and business accounts linked in this way - even just with the same bank, to be honest! - it can give rise to problems if either of the accounts is in any difficulty.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

patrascu09 wrote: »

I have banked personally with the A & L for 5 years. Absolutely first class service, never took more than a minute to pay anything in.

For my Business banking i was with HSBC. Charged through the nose for just about any error. When it came to buying my premises, they treated me like a piece of S*** on their shoes.

Headed off to the Natwest who arranged the mortgage.
Over the past few years they have managed to mess up a loan i asked for ( it took 6 months ) wrote to the ombudsman as they had charged me fees £35 a time as Direct debits were bouncing for the last 3 months as i was still waiting for their dumb loan department.
This Xmas i have taken almost 3 hours queueing to pay in 6 times.
Only 2 cashiers and a queue with 35 + people in it ( no business cashier)
Charges at Natwest are extortionate.

Went to Santander as i knew it was linked to A & L etc.
Business account with 6% interest for 1st year, free banking up to 3000 a month. I asked so what if i pay in 5000 a month, the girl said ... well what you do is open a savings account with it. Pay in 2900 into your current account then pay in the other 2100 to the savings, then go home and transfer it on the online banking and hey presto 5000 no charges.
They also opened a personal current account at the same time and linked it to my business account, so if it looks like i am £100 short for a direct debit i can transfer it to the business account online, then reverse it after i next pay in. At the Natwest i had to go and draw money out ...queue for 25 mins to pay in etc etc.

They even gave me a Zero credit card (free money abroad, interest free for 3 months) and also their basic card ( 13 months free balance transfer)

The account has saved me well over £1200 compared to Natwest in the first year as well as no insane queues.
I would point out that nearly all of my turnover is in cash, but i feel it is just a case of preparing your finances and direct debits etc and using the online facility.

All that is fine, but it still holds true that Santander will not supply the BACS references that you ask your customers to quote. If you receive a BACS payment from a commercial customer, that may be OK as the business name will often appear where the customers name would appear. However, if you deal with private householders a lot, depending on your business type, customer names and amounts paid will often be identical - making it sometimes very difficult to track which customer has paid.
I agree that Santander are reasonably OK but for that. However, I have also had terrible problems getting any bounced cheques returned by them allowing me to discover which customer bounced the cheques (this blip did seem to get resolved eventually). They don't seem to have an adequate system in place where unusual things go wrong and generally seem to be quite poor communicators.
However, aside from the BACS references, if other things run smoothly, they are adequate so long as you can get to an ATM at reasonable intervals to deposit cash (cheques may be posted if ATM access is tricky).