Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

mlc2009

Hi all,

I'm considering opening a bank account, can anyone tell me what advantages are?

I'm a sole trader, I recieve around x,xxx-xx,xxx per month in wire transfers. It gets sent in dollars and needs to be converted to pounds . I currently have a natwest current account

Also, as I'm a sole trader, can I use my business account for personal expenses too? If not, is it as simple as transferring it to another account?

bridiej

If you're looking to transfer money I can recommend Tranzfers. I've been using them for five years, they have a low fee (£7).

Premier_2

mlc2009 wrote: »

...I'm considering opening a bank account, can anyone tell me what advantages are?...

The advantage will be that you will not be using an account against the current terms.
i.e. a personal account for business transactions.

Spitakimus14

Anyone got a suggestion for a new account please

currently bank with hsbc as limited company this is changing to a sole trader..
need a £6000 overdraft and a loan of approx £16000 (currently 3 loans costing £900 a month)probably ove 5 years
current bussiness banks approx £2000 a week but currently running at £5400 ish overdrawn (5000 limit)

Please dont say Santander i have major issues with them ....

Premier_2

Spitakimus14 wrote: »

Anyone got a suggestion for a new account please

currently bank with hsbc as limited company this is changing to a sole trader..
need a £6000 overdraft and a loan of approx £16000 (currently 3 loans costing £900 a month)probably ove 5 years
current bussiness banks approx £2000 a week but currently running at £5400 ish overdrawn (5000 limit)

Please dont say Santander i have major issues with them ....

There's no need to have a loan from the same company that you have a current bank account with.

Any reason why you don't want to keep your current account with HSBC?

Think about applying for a loan of £21k - continuous use of an overdraft is not usually the best way to borrow long term. Overdrafts are not designed for this purpose.
Getting £16k or £21k unsecured personal borrowing in this climate is probably not going to be easy; you'll probably have to put some security down.

You'll need to repay the overdraft with the limited company anyway if you plan close the company and the bank account.
Have you considered putting the limited company into liquidation instead?

Spitakimus14

Premier wrote: »

There's no need to have a loan from the same company that you have a current bank account with.

Any reason why you don't want to keep your current account with HSBC?

Think about applying for a loan of £21k - continuous use of an overdraft is not usually the best way to borrow long term. Overdrafts are not designed for this purpose.
Getting £16k or £21k unsecured personal borrowing in this climate is probably not going to be easy; you'll probably have to put some security down.

You'll need to repay the overdraft with the limited company anyway if you plan close the company and the bank account.
Have you considered putting the limited company into liquidation instead?

Well the liquidation bit sounds interesting but they have my personal guarantee so would that be pointless?
i also own the property (worth about 300,000 )clear of mortgage .
As for the reasons for changing well ive been with them approx 6 years and feel i could get a better deal elsewhere ,silly things as well i pointed out that two loans i had elsewhere for the firm could be refinanced by hsbc and save me money but the computer says no.......
i had the misfortune of taking 2 credit cards that were stolen which has taken me over my limit by £400 so i get a call every day from a foregien place asking me to bring my overdraft down to 10% of its limit imidiately .
I suppose im asking the earth but i want an English bank with a manager who has english as a first language and a branch number to ring .
Maybe im just living in the past .....:o

Savvy_Sue

Spitakimus14 wrote: »

I suppose im asking the earth but i want an English bank with a manager who has english as a first language and a branch number to ring .
Maybe im just living in the past .....:o

Don't NatWest make that claim? No idea what they're like, but that's their advertising.

Premier_2

Spitakimus14 wrote: »

Well the liquidation bit sounds interesting but they have my personal guarantee so would that be pointless?
i also own the property (worth about 300,000 )clear of mortgage .
As for the reasons for changing well ive been with them approx 6 years and feel i could get a better deal elsewhere ,silly things as well i pointed out that two loans i had elsewhere for the firm could be refinanced by hsbc and save me money but the computer says no.......
i had the misfortune of taking 2 credit cards that were stolen which has taken me over my limit by £400 so i get a call every day from a foregien place asking me to bring my overdraft down to 10% of its limit imidiately .
I suppose im asking the earth but i want an English bank with a manager who has english as a first language and a branch number to ring .
Maybe im just living in the past .....:o

Oh well, it's currently lunch-time - I'll play :cool:

Where to begin?

1. There's no guarantee that your bank manager will have english as a first language. There's anti-discriminatory employment laws that would prevent ever happening. They may require fluent English, but can't insist on it as a first language.
Our current HSBC business banking manager (there's no such thing as a bank manager, not in the traditional sense, anymore) is English & speaks English as a first language - although of course that may change at any time.
NatWest are the only large bank that I know of that say they give out branch numbers. Not sure how effective they are, the big decisions are usually made in head office nowadays anyway, and I hear (it is hearsay as it comes from one of their competitors, so I don't know if it's true) but if you call and the branch number and it's engaged or otherwise doesn't get answered, you get forwarded to a call centre anyway.
You may get a more personal service from one of the smaller banks, or perhaps a small local building society if they deal with business accounts. Perhaps a private bank may suit your requirements better, but you may need lots of dosh, and it won't be cheap.

2. If you think you can get a better deal elsewhere, then I suggest you try that 'elsewhere' place as the place to look for the better deal

3. If credit cards are reported as stolen, they should be immediately suspended (so no more purchases are approved). Any transactions fraudulently occurred before they were reported are also usually stopped/removed from your account. (Assumes you acted promptly in notifying the company of the loss/theft and that you were not reckless in the first instance in allowing the theft). Certainly you won't get £400 of transactions on the account that you hadn't authorised in normal circumstances of theft. At the least they would be put into dispute if the bank believed your stories (I've really no idea why they wouldn't, do you )

4. Are you sure the reduction in the credit card limits and refusal for loans isn't just a symptom of your current financial predicament? You are, after all, hoping to borrow £16k and get another £6k overdraft which you appear to be living constantly in.
Anyway, if you've any form of provable, regular income, good credit history and that £300k mortgage free property you say you own, then getting a mortgage on it should be quite simple. (As I suggested earlier, a loan for the total amount you beed would seem better than a loan and an overdraft) As I said, no need to get loans from where you hold your current account. I certainly don't!

Savvy_Sue

BTW, I recently opened an Executor's Account at Lloyds, and for that I got a business card with the branch number on. So they may be worth a try too.

angelic84

Hi, can anyone recommend a basic business account. i have started a small business and want to keep everything separate from my own account. what do these bank accounts charge? thanks