Which is the best "bank" for a business account?

Fortyfoot

I am looking into setting up a small business and would like advice on which is the best "bank" for a business account. I intend to take card payments for the business from customers as well as cheques etc.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

Fortyfoot

jonesMUFCforever

You say that you intend to take card payments - but unless the bank provides you with this facility you will have to use a third party to do this - increasing your costs.
Do you have a personal account - have you asked that bank about their business accounts?

The question you have asked is impossible to answer - you will get 10 replies everyone of them suggesting this and that bank.

Snooze

Fortyfoot wrote: »

I am looking into setting up a small business and would like advice on which is the best "bank" for a business account. I intend to take card payments for the business from customers as well as cheques etc.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks

Fortyfoot

NOT Abbey. :mad:

Trust me, you WILL regret it if you go with them.

R

cottager

We have always been with Natwest, part of RBS, but as one of the Big Four there are always charges, in our case for every transaction both in and out. We could have moved and be paying less. But we balance that against the service we've received overall, and also the relationships with all the various business managers we've had in that time, and in both cases it's been consistently good and reliable.

Not saying it is for everyone (as an example, those with Foundation mortgages would certainly disagree right now, with good reason it seems to me), but for us, in our situation, it has been.

We reduce the cost of banking cash into Natwest (charged at 66p per £100) by having a separate A&L Business Account, which doesn't charge if you bank over £1k/month and not more than either £3k or £4k (I can never remember without looking it up!). Then we write a cheque for an equal amount from A&L and bank it the same day into Natwest with other cheques received. Handy, as you can pay into the A&L account at any Post Office. For the couple of days it's there till the cheque clears, there's a few pence interest; less now than it was we opened it. If you'll be banking no or not very much cash this won't be something you'll need to worry about, but in our case quite a lot of OH's customers still do pay this way.

OH takes card payments and on average it accounts for probably roughly half his takings. Originally this was handled through Streamline which happened to be part of the same organisation. Very good, but someone came along to OH 12-18 months ago peddling BOS and demonstrated the fees would be lower so he changed.

They are a bit lower, but card payments now take an extra day to arrive in the account -- I think when it was Streamline, because it was part of the same group as Natwest, they were credited more directly and therefore more quickly in only 2 days, whereas now they come from BOS by BACS and take 3. It made little difference once we'd got 'into the cycle', but we were quite annoyed we either hadn't realised or hadn't been made aware of this at the time. Streamline also charged a fee for leaving. It's now defunct and has been absorbed into RBS WorldPay.

My advice would be to find out what several banks would charge you for various transactions before deciding; they should all be set out in their leaflets for business accounts. And the same with card-handling companies, as each will charge a different percentage of the payment amounts, depending which card is used; and there's also the charge for renting the terminal etc. In both cases try and resist any sales pitches and invitations to sign up till you can compare properly!

jonesMUFCforever

See what I MEAN its happening already.

anon_ymous

I suppose its just a matter of your area mainly. I am with Barclays bank because they're one of the bigger ones, they didnt take any bail out money(granted, I was with them before the bail out) their customer service in our local one is great, and the most trivial of all, its the closest. I was either thinking of going with HSBC or Barclays, and in the end I chose Barclays

olly300

FootyFour take JonesMUFC's advice.

To state repeat what is good for one business is not necessarily good for another, and while some people will say x bank is wonderful others will slate it.

Fortyfoot

All advice is welcome.

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

See what I MEAN its happening already.

DKLS

Snooze wrote: »

NOT Abbey. :mad:

Trust me, you WILL regret it if you go with them.

R

Its all down to personal experience, I am with Cater Allen, part of the Santander Group, and they have been brilliant.

olly300

Fortyfoot wrote: »

All advice is welcome.

Best thing to do is:
1. Identify what services you definitely need, what you may need and what you don't need at all. You say you "intend" to take card payments but some businesses get around this by getting customers to pay directly into their bank account as well as accepting cash and cheques as it's cheaper.

2. Find out what the banks which have branches near you offer. There is no point being told that bank x is brilliant if bank x's branch near you is miles away.

3. Get a list of the bank's charges for everything.

4. Go and talk to them, and see how difficult it is to open an account. Some banks take weeks/months others can open accounts within a day. The bank I originally wanted to bank with indicated they would take 3 weeks to open an account while the bank I'm with (2nd choice) took 3 hours from me phoning up and making an appointment.

I personally don't have my business account with a bank in a group I use for personal banking though I have been a personal customer of that bank in the past.