Small Business Bank Accounts Discussion Area

System

I have a business account with Abbey (Santander group)
I deposite cheques at the cash machine points in the high street which is free. The transactions I need are all free.

I was looking to change banks as the interest rate is low however I'm not sure whether there is anywhere which gets better feedback and offers the free service. I am a Limited Company and in the process of closing my old company and opening a new one.

JohnBo_2

Because of the block put on my account by Santander (or Abbey as it still was) I was really mad at them and was determined to change to another bank. However business banking - at least the transactions which I carry out - with Santander is completely free, and I have not found any other bank which would also be free. Alliance and Leicester looks the best, but that is also Santander, and will officially become Santander later this year. So I don't think you will find another free bank, and if you find one that pays more interest, this will probably be more than absorbed by charges. If you do find a better one, please let me know!

System

I must admit I did look around for other accounts but I'm not sure we'll find anything that won't incur charges - an accountant did tell me about Cater Allen who are also part of the Santander group!

Better the devil you know??!

System

Hi, I've just opened my account with Satander. After you fill in online forms and get a reference number you can call 0800 0854965 to ask anything else (about new accounts only, not existing accounts)

I spoke to a guy called Gary and he was incredibly helpful and went through certain sections of the process with me, and will be contacting me again next week when I'll be given an update. I have to say if all staff were like him I'd be happy to have all my accounts here! :A

JohnBo_2

Unfortunately not everyone is like Gary, and it is sometimes completely impossible to talk to the people who make the decisions that you might not like, or even to find out who they are. Abbey/Santander does not score well in customer satisfaction surveys. But the business account is free for most small businesses and even pays a small amount of interest, and this has prevented me from changing. So good luck!

Moonbeam

Re the query about opening two personal bank accounts with the same bank for sole traders and knowing which card is which. I simply put a (W) or (P) on the back of the signature strip next to my signature to indicate which is work and which is personal.

It's worked well for me for over 2 years....

cloudwalker_3

Following on from what other's have posted on this thread, I’d also recommend the Co-operative Bank/Federation of Small Businesses deal.

Being a member of the FSB has a lot of advantages if you’re self employed: legal advice from qualified lawyers, tax advice from HMRC trained specialists, information on employment law, health & safety and other business issues and free downloadable legal document templates that you can customise to suit your business. As a member, one of the other benefits that you also get is free business banking for life with the Co-operative Bank.

The Co-operative does all the normal stuff that banks do, so they can meet all your day-to-day business banking needs but in addition to this, they have a very strong ethical policy that makes them one of the best banks to be with, (in my opinion anyway).

The rest of the details for the free business banking deal are:
1. No minimum balance required for the account;
2. No monthly service charge, (unless you have a debit balance)
3. No fees to pay on standard non-cash transactions
4. An unlimited number of cheques can be paid into and debited from your account
5. You can pay in up to £4,000 cash every month for free
6. They pay interest on your entire credit balance
7. A fee-free overdraft facility

On top of all of this, for each year that you continue to bank with them, (for free) you get a £25 annual loyalty bonus.

It really doesn’t get any better than this in terms of business banking.


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HappySad

With co op bank.... Can you do telephone banking? How to you deposit cash & cheques when you din't haveca nearby branch? Can you make visa payments into the account from customers and is this free?

I have read above that their online banking is no good but o would want telephone banking. Is that any good?

What is BACS?

How about hsbc? First direct are great and fantastic for personal banking so hsbc may be just as good....???

cloudwalker_3

You can do telephone banking with the co-operative very easily and this is how I do most of my banking with them. It's a local rate number, (0845 7213 213) and the call centre is staffed by a very polite, capable and easy to deal with team.

As far as paying in cash goes, you just take the cash to a post office with a completed paying-in slip and you pay it in at the counter, simple as that.

Paying in cheques, is pretty easy too. Basically you're sent paying-in envelopes, (for free) by the bank and you place the cheque/s that you want to pay in into one of these with a paying in slip and take it to your local post office. They record the deposit and send the envelope off to the bank. I've been a customer for some 22 years now and I've never had an envelope lost in transit so I'd say the method is pretty secure.

I don't pay in money via VISA, but I just called them to ask about this and was told that as long as you're an FSB member and don't have a debit balance this is free too.

It's true however that the internet service is pretty dire. It's is functional, but only just. This isn't a problem for me because I don't do much banking this way, but if you do, well there might be other banks you'd want to look at.

Lastly BACS. BACS Stands for 'Bankers' Automated Clearing Services'. Put simply it's a way processing electronic financial transactions, most commonly used in the electronic transfer of money between different accounts, payment of wages etc. If you search on Wikipedia you'll find some more info on this. I'd post a link to the page but as a newbie I can't


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gdx123

I'm in the process of setting up a small business and need to open a business bank account.

Most of my customers will be located in the US and will pay invoices by wire transfer from their US business bank accounts.

Does anyone have experience or suggestions of which bank has the lowest fees for this type of transaction?

Thanks,

Graham