Best Small Business Current account

shockingmoment

martindow wrote:

In seven years I have not had a situation where having a branch would have made any difference. We were with Barclays for a free year, threatened to leave and then got a 6 month extension and then moved to Abbey. Barclays fees were considerable and I didn't feel there was any benefit in their service. If the phone or internet service is good I can't envisage a situation where being able to go to a branch would be superior.

Thanks for that. I also never went near the NatWest after setting up the account!

My Abbey personal acc is all internet and works fine. Hopefully the bus acc will too.

Tesla

My free banking with HSBC has just ended, what's stopping me from running my business via a normal current account at a different bank (my own personal accounts are with HSBC) so cannot do them there.

HugoSP

I'll throw in another vote for Abbey.

As others have said, free banking and interest on credit balances.

I don't live near any Abbey paying in points so I make sure all my clients pay me by cheque, these go in the blue envelopes and I try to pay them in in lots (once a week). If I do get paid cash for smaller jobs the client still gets a receipt and I put it through the business as normal but take it as a personal drawing and don't deposit it into the account.

My accountant seems happy with this approach.

JulianF_2

I agree with the support for Abbey. Used them for a while now and CS is top notch!.

otv

abbey here take a while to setup as they have a backlog - or did

waspinagermanhelmet

I've just started as a freelance graphic designer, specialising in high end presentation graphics (PowerPoint that doesn't kill you!). I registered self employed as of Friday last week and I'm a Sole Trader at the moment.

I'm not guaranteed to have work all the time and as such can't pay myself a Salary yet!

I'm looking at getting a current account for the business, rather than pay all the cheques into our joint account, and wondered whether there are any benefits to using a standard current account, such as the A+L Premier one with good interest rates (6.1) - rather than their Business Builder account which is 4.3 ish

Will I run into problems with just paying in cheques to the account - or can i get round this by setting up a standing order from my other current account - a bit like paying myself a salary???

Advice would be great!!!

ferrett

Hi All,
Im actually a relationship manager for Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking (so larger companies) but I spent 3 years looking after young start-up companies many of which were university spin outs or vc funded high growth companies.

If I was to offer any advice to you I would encourage you to move your account every 12 - 18 months dependant on how long you can secure free banking charges for. Usually you can get these from the bank for the first 12 months after moving to them. When you are dealing in small business your manager will usually have c150 - 250 customers so the level of service could leave something to be desired.

Im happy to help out if anyone has any questions.

Cheers

johnllew

HSBC now offering free banking: http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/businessdirect

peterholland

i joined the fsb OK you have to pay but you do get some perks then you sign up to the coop bank free post office and INTERNET free

yummynanny

Another vote for Abbey. Have used them for three years now and no problems at all. Previously used Lloyds who actually had the cheek to inform us that they were actually not hugely interested in small business accounts which paid in lots of cheques as there wasn't enough profit for them! Have now quadrupled our turnover in three years so up yours Lloyds.