Barclays Business Account charges? what are these?

yelf

Hi all, my OH opened a Barclays Business account a year ago but has just received an Advance Notifcation of Charges letter which states the folllowing on the last quarter:

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1 Non-Automated debits £0.79
4 Credits Paid In £3.00
£550 cash paid in £4.68 (0.85 per £100)
Account Fee £16.50

Total Commission £25.27

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So am i right in thinking that there is a flat fee of £16.50 per quarter, a 30p charge for a cheque paid in, and a fee per £100 of cash paid in?

Also what would the Credits Paid In refer to, likewise the non-automated debits?

Are there any free business accounts? As she is set up as a sole trader could she not use a personal account?

and finally, can these charges be offset agaisnt profits for tax reasons?

thanks

slup_2

All the tariffs are here:-

Rates and charges at Barclays - Business

The file you want is 'Business Free Automated Transactions Tariff', and it all looks like it has been correctly applied (in so far as the figures you quote seem to match the figures in that PDF).

Your banking costs are indeed a cost related to running your business so I can't think of any conceivable reason why you can't claim it as a business expense.

Funkyfreddy

yelf wrote: »

1 Non-Automated debits £0.79

She wrote one cheque ?

yelf wrote: »

4 Credits Paid In £3.00
£550 cash paid in £4.68 (0.85 per £100)

She paid in a total of £550 cash in (£0.85p x 5.5 = £4.68) in using 4 manual "paying in slips" (4 x £0.75p = £3)

yelf wrote: »

Account Fee £16.50

£5.50 x 3 = £16.50

yelf wrote: »

Total Commission £25.27

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So am i right in thinking that there is a flat fee of £16.50 per quarter, a 30p charge for a cheque paid in, and a fee per £100 of cash paid in?

As Slup suggests that would appear to be if she is on the 'Business Free Automated Transactions Tariff'. There is a 30p charge per cheque but those charges don't appear to suggest any cheques were paid in during that charging period.

yelf wrote: »

Also what would the Credits Paid In refer to,

Each paying in slip used over the counter - if you were paying one cheque in you would be charged (I reckon) £1.05, two cheques on the same slip £1.35 and so on.

yelf wrote: »

likewise the non-automated debits?

A Cheque.

yelf wrote: »

Are there any free business accounts? As she is set up as a sole trader could she not use a personal account?

That would be for you to negiotate wth your Bank Contact to get the best deal you could. You might get some incentives such as 1 year free and so on but then its a case of finding the best tariff that suits your business and how payments both in and out are handled.

yelf wrote: »

and finally, can these charges be offset against profits for tax reasons?

Its a business expense just as paying rent, utitlities and so on are.

FF

le_loup

How come it was a surprise that there were charges? The tariff would/should have been discussed when the account was set up. Business tariffs are far more flexible than personal accounts but you can't use one in substitution for the other. Bank charges are a business expense.

opinions4u

It's usually pretty easy to find charges on a bank's web site.

http://www.barclays.co.uk/ImportantInformation/Ratesandcharges/P1242559944567

This link looks like the account in question.