Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

stardust09

Atidi wrote: »

I've no idea.

It's not as though the bank can see all the activity in the account, those you pay, those who pay you, the frequency of these transactions, etc.

Oh hang on a minute ... :cool:

Ha, ha! I'm sure the days have moved on when the little man at the counter manually read every single transaction which had been recorded in black ink in a ledger... Do banks really regularly scrutinise everyone's bank transactions? I am serious as I have no idea!

tlambert

Please stop recommending Santander. They may offer a measly 0.25% interest but they are slow, disinterested and utterly, utterly hopeless in dealing with new applications.

Unless you are fabulously liquid, 0.25% is not worth the aggro, stress and headache of dealing with this unprofessional punch.

I started more than three weeks ago and they are still throwing impossible obstacles in the way. Avoid Santander as you might avoid a swamp.

supermonkey

I'm not sure if it's mentioned a few pages back, but RBS do offer free business banking.

The account is called Business Banking Direct. If you need access to your local branch it won't be suitable. Automated payments are free, for cheques & cash, you send in an evelop & pay a fee, but if this is only occasionally it would be less than a monthly fee elsehwere.

Yadz

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

a little more expensive / time consuming than that, they may charge for business use and backdate this.

I was thinking of starting up an ebay business and reading this thread I think I'm pretty certain now I'm going to just go the *simple* way and open a business account with Natwest. 2 years free business banking with unlimited transactions doesn't sound too bad and they have always been great with my personal account.

After the two years are up though, can I switch my business acc to somewhere else for an introductory offer that looks good?

Not 100% sure on all this banking stuff yet and the amount of information out there is just mind boggling. :shocked: :j

EDIT:

Oh also, asked ebay customer support and they said it's fine. But thought I'd ask here.

Trying to raise the funds to even begin the business by selling my personal stuff on ebay. These were not bought with the intention of selling but they will be now used to gather funds for the business startup. Assuming no tax needs to be payed etc?

Fellwalker

Yadz wrote: »

I was thinking of starting up an ebay business and reading this thread I think I'm pretty certain now I'm going to just go the *simple* way and open a business account with Natwest. 2 years free business banking with unlimited transactions doesn't sound too bad and they have always been great with my personal account.

After the two years are up though, can I switch my business acc to somewhere else for an introductory offer that looks good?

Not 100% sure on all this banking stuff yet and the amount of information out there is just mind boggling. :shocked: :j

EDIT:

Oh also, asked ebay customer support and they said it's fine. But thought I'd ask here.

Trying to raise the funds to even begin the business by selling my personal stuff on ebay. These were not bought with the intention of selling but they will be now used to gather funds for the business startup. Assuming no tax needs to be payed etc?

No, you cannot transfer after 2 years to get introductory offer. All the ones I've seen say you must be a startup.

Yes, they are personal sales not subject to tax. I'd suggest to ensure it is not confused, sell your personal stuff through a personal ebay account with free listing for auctions of 99p and under, and regular free listings offers.
Then sell the articles you buy for the business through the business ebay account.
You might also want two different paypal accounts, but that is up to you. The advantage is that it keeps the fees appropriate to the type of sale.
(EBAY- NB Don't forget ebay takes 10% from your postage, and paypal 20p+3.4%, so if you charge £4.99 you only get £4.12.
The reports that you can get from ebay are unhelpful in monitoring your sales. Explore these in a different thread.)

Aquamania

Fellwalker wrote: »

No, you cannot transfer after 2 years to get introductory offer. All the ones I've seen say you must be a startup....

How many have you looked at?

HSBC, for example, currently offer 6 months free business banking just for switching to them (compared to 18 months for start ups)
http://www.business.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business-banking/business-bank-accounts

I'm sure most other banks offer similar deals.

3chrissamjen

Hi there
My husband was a sole trader driving instructor and has just become Ltd. We need to open a business bank account and I've been looking at all the banks.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good bank in his line of work which works well and with the minimum charges.

We have daily cash and about 20 BACS payments each month from customers.

Thank you

Aquamania

3chrissamjen wrote: »

Hi there
My husband was a sole trader driving instructor and has just become Ltd. We need to open a business bank account and I've been looking at all the banks.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to a good bank in his line of work which works well and with the minimum charges.

We have daily cash and about 20 BACS payments each month from customers.

Thank you

Yes, the recommendations are in the posts above

unlucky67

I need an account - actually 2 for a small charity...don't know if this is the right place?

We need an interest account for our reserve of about £8-10k (preferably with say a months notice - we shouldn't need to touch this money)

But more importantly - a current account - say about £10k too (sometimes less)
Access to internet banking (one nominated user who can pay things and one who just has access to check the account details)
No bank charges (not sure if any banks charge charities charges?)

The big thing is for the current account is that we can pay money in through a post office ...our local bank branch is closing :(:(
and it will be a real pain (10 mile round trip and paying for parking) to get to the next nearest branch (or indeed any bank) to pay money in...:mad:
Have looked at the post office list of which banks you can make deposits for - and it lists my bank - Clydesdale - but I know I need to use a card - and we need more than one signatory on the account and so as I understand it we can't have a card..:(
(the internet banking thing is dodgy enough but as far as I know (?) no bank internet banking allows two sign in verification - and at least using the internet banking it is obvious on a bank statement where the money has been paid to - unlike cheques ) .
I would love to be able to carry on using a paying in book - not sure that will be possible though.:(
(And I also do three other charities (even smaller) so would probably be looking to move them too...)
Help!

Savvy_Sue

For charity banking, there are three 'usual suspects':

CAF
Triodos
Unity Trust

The only one I can speak to is Unity Trust: cheques are paid in by post, cash can be done at up to two nominated post offices or 'other' bank branches. Internet banking has three levels: View, Submit and Authorisation, and users can be limited to View, or View and Submit, or all three.

When I go into work on Tuesday, my colleague will submit (input) the payments to be made, and I'll authorise them.