New Business Bank Account - Barclays or Santander?

LollyPopStar

Hi all,
Can anyone offer advice regarding a business bank account?
I am a freelance we developer and have been working for 2 years.
I don't have a business account and pay any payments straight into my current account - while its not against the law it is frowned upon by the inland revenue as it makes it difficult to see incomings & outgoings apparently.
So I have been advised to get a business account. My current account is with Barclays (who I've been with for 30 years and are generally ok) so I'm tempted to stay with them - although they charge £5.50 per month for an account!
Whereas I can see online that a Santander business account is free... but I can also see in these forums that their customer service is dreadful!
Are there any other tips out there for a cheap/free?, reliable, nice internet interface(!) small business bank account out there?
Could i perusade Barclays to waive the charge as I've been a customer for so long? (They wont let me have a first year free as I have been trading for over 2 years now)
Could I set up just a standard bank account and have payments paid into that? Whats so special about a business account anyway?

If anyone has any advice or pointers I'd be grateful!
Thanks
Laura

ian_h

Hi Laura

I assume you are Self Employed (i.e. NOT a Limited Company).

If so then there's no problem just opening another Current account in your personal name for business transactions - if you go with Barclays you could try the basic "Cash Card" account which is free and despite its name offers a Visa Debit and online banking etc but NO CHEQUEBOOK.

I used the Abbey (now Santander) Free Business Banking account and it was fine, all ran smoothly and did exactly as promised. This account gives you a cheque book and a limited number of free transactions per month (for ever last time i checked).

missile

Who advised you to get a business account? Makes it easy for whom? Your account?
HMRC should never need to see you bank accounts.

When I worked a sole trader I never found the need for a business account or an accountant. I used a simple ledger to keep track of sales and purchases and calculate VAT.

An cheap and cheerful option for you might be to open a personal current account a.n.other bank e.g. LTSB and use that for business only. Add Vantage and get 4% interest on balance between £5,000 < £7,000

If you must have a business account I would suggest you stick with Barclays or LTSB. Both offer free business banking for the first 12 months.

johnswife

Hi,

My husband set up a business March 2009 with HSBC. We had free banking for 18 months, I do all the banking and paying of bills which are mainly done on line.
We had to open a second business account last week and I knew the free banking was up so asked what the charges were now going to be and was told that as long as we conducted the account as we were doing it was free banking for life.
Basically don't withdraw cash over the counter or pay in cash over the counter. We are allowed 20 cheques a year but most of our customers want to be paid direct into the account. Do all transactions on line which i do anyway.