Business Current Account

Gouramis

Hello all,
Im new to the forum, and wanted to know if anyone has any advice on finding the best small business current account. I am currently with the natwest but they charge for everything and I was shocked to find out that if you go over the overdraft they charge £38 which I find very annoying. I have been with Natwest all of my banking life and have had enough.

headcase

i am a sole trader and I have two ' personal ' current accounts that I us for my business. On cheque book has mypersonal name on etc... However should you either a partnership or limited company - some reason need a business account. Check out free business banking I think Halifax offers 18 months free
Banking is a rip off,

oldfella

Abbey is free

oscarhugo

Yes, Abbey is free & QUITE good. We switched from NatWest a coupla years ago & have certainly saved a packet on charges - and, since we opened a Biz Reserve a/c to run alongside it, we've made a fair bit of interest too [by comparison with the pittance Natwest pays...]. So we just keep a relatively small amount in the current a/c & transf regularly to and from Biz.Res.[but you obviously need to keep an eye on it & not go overdrawn]. The service isn't brilliant - they've c0cked up a couple of payments to Turkey, if you ever do that sort of thing, but then Natwest's service is !!!!!! anyway! If you've spare funds & want to earn more interest, you could open a 30-day notice deposit a/c with Alliance+Leic.as well. Mind you, THEIR service is even worse... HTH

5rannoch

On recommendations, I have just opened a business account with the Co-Op. Its too early to tell you what the service is going to be like. I did look at the Abbey as the Co-Op only offer free banking for 18 months, but decided that the interest rate at the Co-Op was better and even with charges, I would end up better off at the Co-Op.

D_e_n_i_s_e

Alliance and Leicester are offering TWO years free business banking.

I have an appointment with them on monday! currently im with Lloyds TSB who charge a bit for cashing in cheques no matter how small. Abbeys policy is that they cash cheques under £1000 for nothing! which suits me no end!

The business banking booklet which i picked up last week, had a detailed list of all the charges incuding penalties and fines, no hidden suprises.

In addition to this you can also deposit cash/(cheques?) into the account through your local post office!

Hope this helps!

Aspal

DON'T USE HALIFAX/BANK OF SCOTLAND - looks good at first glance, but I moved to them just over a year ago (free banking just ran out) and customer service is appalling. They managed to move just one of my direct debits across correctly, and closed my old Barclays account so the others all bounced, incurring charges which they refused to pay as it "wasn't their fault". Paying in has to be done in special envelopes which get posted from Halifax to Bank of Scotland, and half the staff at Halifax don't know how to deal with them. You also have to separate cash and cheques, which means if you have mixed takings like we do you have to pay for two bankings instead of one. They lost over £5,000 cash that I banked over the counter then had the cheek to tell me they hadn't lost it, they just didn't know where it was! Took them over a week to find it, and even when they had wouldn't credit straight away as had to follow "confirmation procedures". Even then no apology, just a letter telling me that as I had gone overdrawn, which "may be due to an oversight on my part"(!!!!!!) they were going to charge me blah blah blah. Got charges refunded, but no compensation for the time which the money didn't spend in my savings account, or the hours I spent on the phone trying to sort it out. The 24 hour business banking service is little more than a human answer machine, as all they ever tell you is that they "can't deal with that, please phone back in the morning" (including informing them of the complaints above, asking if I could change the account to the direct account, and asking for a list of the charges on both sorts of account).

Pretty useless all round really. I was thinking about A&L anyway as I was looking at getting one of their current accounts and like to keep my money all in the same place if poss - easier to transfer cash between personal and business accounts. Anyone know how much damage I'll do to our credit rating if I change banks after just one year?

BTW Nationwide do a business deposit account with no charges as long as no more than 6 withdrawals per month, which would suit smaller businesses, or those prepared to run two accounts. I have opened one to pay in cash as most banks charge 50p+ per £100 to pay in and our T/O nearly all in cash so works out very expensive. Will hopefully just run alongside current account and move balance across each week.

Gemini21

Hi,

Lloyds TSB have just offered me 18 months free Business Banking. The lady at Lloyds TSB mentioned that after this period, using internet banking avoids the majority of charges, but I think I'll be going to Alliance and Leicester if I'm still afloat in 18 months!!!

Gemini21

james2005

Im about to need a business account but dont stand a chance as i have no voters roll history is there someone on here that could help please and point me in right direction.

I have seen lots of ads in the exchange & mart about obtaining business account with no voters roll history/bad credit etc, but they appear to be a con as they want £100's upfront.

Someone on here please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jonesMUFCforever

If you pay someone 1P or more to open a business account then yes you will have been ripped off.

shr_2

headcase wrote:

i am a sole trader and I have two ' personal ' current accounts that I us for my business. On cheque book has mypersonal name on etc... However should you either a partnership or limited company - some reason need a business account. Check out free business banking I think Halifax offers 18 months free
Banking is a rip off,

Hi I'm just about to set up as a sole trader, and have been looking into bank accounts. I'd like to set up a 2nd current account rather than a business account, but the terms & conditions on normal current accounts stipulate that they must not be used for business purposes... I am not entirely clear whether operating as a sole trader would count as this (basically to pay in cheques from contracts, and use to pay expenses). Is anyone aware of any accounts where there would be no such problem ?