Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

lovinituk

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

I don't want a heavy debate either. It is fair to say though that big businesses generally (not just banks) can make a decent profit from a product that is a loss leader. Bring the customers in with a loss leader and make the money on the other stuff they buy. It can be a sound business model if the people running the business are not incompetent, half brained f---wits. And there lies the problem I think. A brilliant loss leader that the Santander management are too stupid to take advantage of due to their own incompetence.

Its obviously not making them any money though. The sort of people that take an account like that and then bleat on about it on a forum when the 'free' is taken away are the kind of people that take the free and nothing else!!

The only incompetent people were the Abbey idiots who came up with the 'free forever' idea in the first place.

Paulgonnabedebtfree

lovinituk wrote: »

Its obviously not making them any money though. The sort of people that take an account like that and then bleat on about it on a forum when the 'free' is taken away are the kind of people that take the free and nothing else!!

The only incompetent people were the Abbey idiots who came up with the 'free forever' idea in the first place.

You are probably right about taking the "free" and nothing else. Although they are not directly linked, this company made money from me when I had my mortgage and mortgage protection onsurance with them. They also made money when I had my pension there too - and a credit card. It's hardly my fault that they sold the mortgages, mortgage protection schemes and credit cards to other companies. I have made good business decisions and I have made bad business decisions. In spite of not having the financial clout of a bank, I have to live with my bad ones. So we will assume that they have screwed up.
You'll be delighted to hear that I will confine my bleating to the other thread now. Baaaaaaaaa - baaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!

lovinituk

Paulgonnabedebtfree wrote: »

So we will assume that they have screwed up.

I'll stick to the assumption that they are now making a tough decision to correct a previous bad business decision made by people who probably no longer work for the current organisation.

I used to work in IT for one of big UK banks. Many many times you would see new senior staff join and they would have to make their 'mark' by changing something radical. If they didn't then they wouldn't get noticed. All too often the decisions and changes they made were detrimental in some way and then they would move on with a nice fat bonus because they had hit their targets. Then it was up to next lot in charge whose job it was to 'improve' things - quite often that meant changing it back to the way it was before!!

I'm not sticking up for the banks, I have no loyalty to my previous employer at all. But I do recognise that Santander are now making what is probably a sound business decision to correct a mistake made by others before. I mean seriously... free banking forever!!! They must have been smoking crack to think that was ever a decent business decision!! Unfortunately others have to clean up that legacy and some people are going to be upset in the process.

Cornwall2000

In that case how are they able to offer personal bank accounts (with unlimited transactions of all kinds) for free but not business accounts (mine has about 5% of the number of transactions of my personal accounts).

I suppose the answer is that they are trying to get all the banks to make everyone pay for their personal accounts but haven't agreed how to do it without being accused of price-fixing which is illegal.

Cornwall2000

Actually the reason I came here is to suggest a correction for the small biz money saving article -

Santander doesn't offer the "lowest charge" bank account. It is only free for 12 months as are all of them I think. After that a minimum charge of £7.50 per month.

The lowest charge currently (after the 12 months has elapsed) is £0.00 per month for an HSBC Business Direct account.
All electronic transactions, £250 at the ATM and 5 cheques in and 5 out are free every month. If you regularly go over these limits I would guess you would be better off on another tariff

lovinituk

squowse wrote: »

I suppose the answer is that they are trying to get all the banks to make everyone pay for their personal accounts but haven't agreed how to do it without being accused of price-fixing which is illegal.

Might not be as far off as you might think...!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/banking/9423819/Free-banking-should-end-says-FSA-head-Lord-Turner.html#

polymaff

There's another good reason why MSE should quote HSBC Business Direct as being better than Santander, Squowse. If you are an existing business, Santander charge you from day one. Not so HSBC. In fact they waive all "standard" charges for your first six months - giving you time to adapt your usage toward 21st Century Banking painlessly

And another. The HSBC account charges are not a short-term come-on, so if you expect your business to last more than a year, the Santander account will cost more.

And - from experience of both - HSBC give much better online and face-to-face service.

newbie007_2

Is HSBC business direct the best for long term? I understand they give 18 months free then charge. What is the lowest level of the charge do anyone know? Or their level of charges.

Savvy_Sue

newbie007 wrote: »

Is HSBC business direct the best for long term? I understand they give 18 months free then charge. What is the lowest level of the charge do anyone know? Or their level of charges.

That's not really an easy set of questions to answer: as we've seen from the Santander debacle, banks can and do change their T&C, so what they're planning to charge in 18 months time may not be what they actually charge in 2 years, IYSWIM.

You might also find that the level of charges varies according to your use of the bank, and the only way to be sure of that, and what they are actually charging ATM, is to ask them.

As for are they best, I always suggest working out what you want from a bank, and seeing who offers it most conveniently. For example, if you need to pay in and / or withdraw cash on a regular basis, you need a bank with convenient branches, possibly easy parking, OR one which has an arrangement for cash with another bank or the PO (assuming you don't live in a PO free zone ...)

If you don't need cash, then do you need a branch at all, or can you run your account by post and internet? That widens the choice somewhat.

Then you work out how much you'll be paying in, and in what form, ie one cheque for £5000 or 500 cheques for £10 each month, and what the charges will be - is it per payment in or per cheque? And what your withdrawals will be, and by what methods: if the bank charges per cheque, is BACS cheaper or free? Are there other charges for cash?

Armed with a lot of information, THEN you make your decision about what's best.

newbie007_2

HSBC is 5mins walk from my place. I will be depositing cash and majority of payments will be made via DD and some payment will be made by card ie for petrol etc. This is all new to me and I have not look into any business bank accounts with any sort of details.