Suitable Small Business bank account?

Dammo

Hi folks,
I'm going to be setting my own business very shortly and am currently looking at the range business accounts and wondered if anyone has any suggestions or warnings or experience (good or bad) with current business accounts??

As a bit of background, I'll just be operating as a sole trader, there will be a limited amount of transactions per week and preferably I'd like to be able to do the majority of the work with the account online since I'll be operating from the highlands of Scotland.
There will be a limited amount as an opening deposit and not a massive turnover (doing the same job for a company I charged between 18k and 25k per year) although I fully expect not to be up to that level on my own for a couple of years.

I did spot in another thread mention that as a sole trader and the fact that everything is effectively in your name that you could use a decent interest deposit account and indeed there was a link for Santander there too, but looking through the T&C's it clearly states not to be used for a business. Are there some that perhaps you could get away with using instead?

In another point, I did wonder if it was worthwhile having the ability to take card payments over the phone but considering the cost of having such a service given the amount of payments that I'd take per year would make it worth it or just direct people to PayPal or directly to transfer money to an account online.

Your thoughts and ideas would be greatly appreciated!

ses6jwg

Santander do a Business Current Account.

No monthly, quarterly fees.

Mainly operated online & phone.

missile

Barclays, RBS and LTSB offer free business banking for the first year. Barclays offer £40 cash back incentive.

slopemaster

Don't go near either santander or paypal is my advice!
Either of them is likely to block your account without reason, which could have devastating consequences.
Lloyds -TSB account is free first 18 months, desgined for start-up businesses and you do have a real named human being who deals with it. Too early to say really, but seems like it might be good, and was straightforward to open.

Armchair23

Don't even think of the Cooperative bank if you need to use online banking. It's beyond dismal.

Malory

Mr. Malory is a sole trader and has a business account with HSBC. He's very satisfied.

He used to have his business account with Santander when it was Abbey but moved because the service was awful.

Paypal is useful for payments but you are still going to need a bank account (business or personal) to attach to it.

Dammo

Many thanks to you all for the pointers!.
I had a look at both TSB and HSBC since there are branches of each in the town nearby which might be useful.
Comparing the charges after the initial free period, HSBC Business Direct account is cheaper (actually free within a couple of transaction limits).