Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

elguyan0

i'm planning to operate in a partnership and therefore don't necessarily need to register with companies house, as is my understanding...

but looking at the santander business banking online application form, they ask for the company reference number - does this mean you have to be CH registered to get their account? is this the same for all the banks??

(think i'm veering away from santander having read all the comments about ATM deposits - would much prefer counter services. heading down the high street now, to see who offers me what!)

Paulgonnabedebtfree

elguyan0 wrote: »

i'm planning to operate in a partnership and therefore don't necessarily need to register with companies house, as is my understanding...

but looking at the santander business banking online application form, they ask for the company reference number - does this mean you have to be CH registered to get their account? is this the same for all the banks??

(think i'm veering away from santander having read all the comments about ATM deposits - would much prefer counter services. heading down the high street now, to see who offers me what!)

Had to smile about your comments re Santander's ATM service. My experience of them is that the ATM service is the ONLY decent bit - and the only reason I still do any business with them.
I've no idea about CH. I was never asked for a company number - but that might be because I'm a sole trader. It's as if Santander are saying that if you are a partnership, you have to be limited - clearly flawed logic.

phoenix2497

I am planning to start a small home based business that will involve quite a lot of coinage to be paid into an account on a weekly basis. I am also looking at e-commerce as an additional service. Having read all the notes on this forum, I am thoroughly confused as to the best business account - none of them seem that great! I was all set to go to Santander (because it is free for life), but then discovered they will not accept coins. Really want a business account to look more professional with suppliers etc but don't want to pay ridiculous charges and want it all separate from personal accounts. Any suggestions?

Savvy_Sue

sorry but in your situation I think the only thing you can do is contact all convenient banks and ask what they offer. you may find quite a few don't have coin facilities.

welcome to the boards btw.

phoenix2497

Thanks for that. I have been down the high street today and now have some light reading for the weekend! No doubt I will be back on here with more questions.:)

coupleuk

phoenix2497 wrote:

a small home based business that will involve quite a lot of coinage to be paid into an account on a weekly basis.

Speak to some retail businesses close to you - many actually need coins (especially £1 coins) and have to pay to get them from the bank.

See if you can arrange to exchange coins with a couple of shops every Friday or something - maybe they can have your mobile to ring if they need some.

Paul

mike42

I wonder if someone can point me in the direction of a free
business bank account?

The rub is that I need to lodge large amounts of cash £5000+ on a weekly basis and the cheapest bank I can find is co-op at 40p per £100 tranmission fee, once you lodge over £4000 per month limit.

A&L did a totally free 2yr product, including no transmission fees but this is now discontinued with the advent of santander taking them over.

We would need to lodge money in Northern Ireland so either a branch or post office network.

thank you for your time.

Lindswin

Hi all
I am a self employed window cleaner ,small turnover,sole trader,six years ago i opened a seperate current account at local branch of Lloyds tsb,told manager what i was doing and that i wanted to use it to keep money earned from cleaning seperate from household Hsbc current account.He was fine with this and we were on first name terms,he retired at xmas and suddenly this week i have been called in to see business manager to "discuss" opening a business account.....i dont want to and would like to know if they can force me to do so??? cheers

Premier_2

Lindswin wrote: »

Hi all
I am a self employed window cleaner ,small turnover,sole trader,six years ago i opened a seperate current account at local branch of Lloyds tsb,told manager what i was doing and that i wanted to use it to keep money earned from cleaning seperate from household Hsbc current account.He was fine with this and we were on first name terms,he retired at xmas and suddenly this week i have been called in to see business manager to "discuss" opening a business account.....i dont want to and would like to know if they can force me to do so??? cheers

They can't force you to do anything, but they can prevent you from using a personal account for business purposes - it breaches the terms and conditions.

What usually happens if you don't agree otherwise is that they'll make your existing account a business account, even if it only means charging the fees associated with business banking.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

Lindswin wrote: »

Hi all
I am a self employed window cleaner ,small turnover,sole trader,six years ago i opened a seperate current account at local branch of Lloyds tsb,told manager what i was doing and that i wanted to use it to keep money earned from cleaning seperate from household Hsbc current account.He was fine with this and we were on first name terms,he retired at xmas and suddenly this week i have been called in to see business manager to "discuss" opening a business account.....i dont want to and would like to know if they can force me to do so??? cheers

As already stated, if you continue to use a business account as a personal one, they can start charging you accordingly.
I do the same work as you and I know the problems of charging per cheque can make this expensive due to the fairly low value of some cheques.
I have found a way around it.
I use business account with Santander as I live near a branch. Easy deposit for cheques and cash due to 24/7 ATM access. Santander are a crap bank but this is a useful feature. First 100 cheques per month are free as is the first £3k of cash.
Unfortunately, when a customer pays by bank transfer, Santander do not show the references that I ask the customers to supply (housenumber + postcode) or (first 4 letters of housename+postcode). Therefore I have a second business account for the same business - but with Co-op bank. This is solely to receive bank transfers. This is also free but only because I am a member of the FSB (£100 a year but worth it IMO). I think the first year costs a bit more. This works out less than it first appears though for several reasons.
1) The £100 is tax deductible - effectively making it about £70 after tax and profit based NI are taken off.
2) The Co-op pay you a "divi" of £25 a year on each anniversary of your account opening.
So this makes the actual cost about £45 a year.
When you also take into account the assistance you get if the taxman ever investigates, the legal helpline and the fact that an anti-investigation insurance can cost over £100 a year on its own, it sounds like good value to me.
I don't use the Co-op for the cash and cheques as it can involve a lengthy queue at the post office and I also work out of town mostly during p.o. opening times.
Hope this info helps.