Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

inmypocketnottheirs

angelic84 wrote: »

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

Santander Business account. Free of charge.

http://www.santander.co.uk/csgs/Satellite?appID=abbey.internet.Abbeycom&cid=1210615659364&empr=Abbeycom&leng=en_GB&pagename=Abbeycom%2FPage%2FWC_ACOM_TemplateA1

GoodNewmover

angelic84 wrote: »

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

Look into Lloyds (18 months free business banking), Barclays (up to 2 years), Natwest (2 years).

Premier_2

angelic84 wrote: »

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

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/small-business#acc

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2103019

inmypocketnottheirs

GoodNewmover wrote: »

Look into Lloyds (18 months free business banking), Barclays (up to 2 years), Natwest (2 years).

Santander beats all of the above. Permanently free.

Savvy_Sue

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Santander beats all of the above. Permanently free.

Their customer service is however not well rated.

I'm going to merge this into our business bank account discussion. As always, my advice is to think about what you need from an account:

• cash handling? you need a convenient branch to do this;
• lots of cheques to pay in? as above, or can you do it by post?
• lots of cheques to pay out? some accounts charge if you write more than their limit, will you? charges are usually cheaper for internet banking, will that work for you?

And so on ...

inmypocketnottheirs

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Their customer service is however not well rated.

Tell me a bank that is!

If you stay within their terms, then it is a good option for any business.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Santander beats all of the above. Permanently free.

And that's pretty much what it's worth - especially if you are paid from private customers by bank transfer (invisible references).

Savvy_Sue

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

Tell me a bank that is!

If you stay within their terms, then it is a good option for any business.

I don't run a small business, so can't comment on their offerings. However, with non-personal accounts, I've found Lloyds offer the possibility of phoning the branch direct, and Unity Trust (for charities and voluntary groups) offer EXCELLENT service.

Paul's comment relates to his experience with Santander: either he or another poster have found that if you have customers paying direct to your bank account, you'll be flying blind because they don't give any clues as to who the money has come from. That's fine if each of your payments is for a unique amount, but if you offer standard prices, so most of your customers are paying eg £40, you will not have a clue who has paid and who hasn't.

Now, if you don't expect customers to pay you by bank transfer, that won't matter, or if each of your invoices is for a unique amount it won't matter so much (until someone pays part of an invoice either by mistake or deliberately and doesn't tell you), BUT with all the talk of withdrawing cheque payments it's got to be borne in mind.

For that reason, those looking for a new business bank account might want to consider whether the 'free' banking for life is worth the hassle of never being sure who's paid and who hasn't. Especially if any of your customers ever prove to be of the 'cheque's in the post, honest' variety: 'yes, we made the payment a few days ago, honest', but it never turns up.

I still feel that the first step is to consider what's available, what you need, and THEN what charges are made. If banking is free, but you have to drive 3 miles to access it, how long does that take, and what is your time worth? I live and work in bank free zones, and it's a mile to the nearest Post Office. For me, internet banking saves SO much time, and if I were running a business I'd compare the cost of paying for that against 'free' banking which takes time and effort.

angelic84

thanks for all your replies. really useful info!

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I don't run a small business, so can't comment on their offerings. However, with non-personal accounts, I've found Lloyds offer the possibility of phoning the branch direct, and Unity Trust (for charities and voluntary groups) offer EXCELLENT service.

Paul's comment relates to his experience with Santander: either he or another poster have found that if you have customers paying direct to your bank account, you'll be flying blind because they don't give any clues as to who the money has come from. That's fine if each of your payments is for a unique amount, but if you offer standard prices, so most of your customers are paying eg £40, you will not have a clue who has paid and who hasn't.

Now, if you don't expect customers to pay you by bank transfer, that won't matter, or if each of your invoices is for a unique amount it won't matter so much (until someone pays part of an invoice either by mistake or deliberately and doesn't tell you), BUT with all the talk of withdrawing cheque payments it's got to be borne in mind.

For that reason, those looking for a new business bank account might want to consider whether the 'free' banking for life is worth the hassle of never being sure who's paid and who hasn't. Especially if any of your customers ever prove to be of the 'cheque's in the post, honest' variety: 'yes, we made the payment a few days ago, honest', but it never turns up.

I still feel that the first step is to consider what's available, what you need, and THEN what charges are made. If banking is free, but you have to drive 3 miles to access it, how long does that take, and what is your time worth? I live and work in bank free zones, and it's a mile to the nearest Post Office. For me, internet banking saves SO much time, and if I were running a business I'd compare the cost of paying for that against 'free' banking which takes time and effort.

The solution will depend on individual circumstances as you rightly say Sue.
I've found that the solution that works for me is to have two accounts for one business.
I live near a Santander branch so it is just a 5 minute walk to deposit cash and cheques at the ATM (they don't accept them over the counter). So I can deposit cash and cheques 24/7 with my debit/ATM card. This is free of charge.
However, it's those bank transfers that are the fly in the ointment. Much of my gnashing of teeth with Santander was because they used to display the references and stopped - no warning. Indeed, if I had had a lot of customers paying that way, it could have sent me under. Potentially it was that serious.
I was (and still am) a member of the FSB for £100 a year. This allows me free business banking with the Co-op bank. As they are woefully short of branches deposits are made at up to 4 pre-selected post offices. This is a bit tricky for me because I work out of town mostly during office hours. However, they do show the references on their otherwise archaic website. So my solution is to take the best bits of two banks and use them to my advantage. The only cost is the FSB membership which I already had - so effectively no cost.
If someone is creative, there is usually (though not always) a low cost solution out there.