Bank account for club, not a business.

FindMyWayBack

Please can someone advise what our treasurer should do, we have a small club and we need an account purely for members fees and paying out for insurance, affiliations, purchases of items for the club, and miscellaneous petty cash. We don't sell anything it is definitely not a business.
The account our treasurer currently has is very old, and we have recently been sent a load of forms which seem like they would be related to running a business.
Please can someone advise which would be the best account to use, not necessarily online as he is not really used to doing online banking.
Thanks in anticipation.

eskbanker

https://www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/best-business-bank-accounts/charity-community-bank-accounts/ is one site comparing options but I'm sure there'll be others, if you use search terms like 'treasurer accounts', 'club accounts', 'community accounts', etc.

FindMyWayBack

Thank you, I will read all that now.

HobgoblinBT

I have experience of this from a customer and a bank perspective.

It sounds like your existing Bank is updating its Know your customer details.  If you move Banks you may well need to provide similar information and supporting ID and proof of address on the application for the new account.  The Bank needs to know who controls the club and therefore the bank account and what normal looks like so it can spot if any unusual activity takes place.

I suggest that you complete the forms as requested and submit any requested supporting documents.  Where the form refers to “business” take it to mean your club.  If/where it refers to suppliers, take it to mean suppliers of any services/products, eg rent of premises, stationery, tea and biscuits etc.  For sales/revenues, unless the club gets income from third parties through sale of anything/open day eg. then are revenue is likely to be membership subscriptions.

 Of course, you are free to ignore the bank,  but be aware that if you do not respond to the questions they have posed and the bank is unable to update their records, they bank may very well close the account.

penners324

Most banks operate community accounts for clubs.
We use Barclays but I'm interested in the accounts that Metro offer.

iwaddo77

It is a though you were listening to our committee meeting last night!!
We have the need to move to an online account but historical all our cheques require multiple signatories, so if we move forward is there a product that requires multiple approvals for online payments? I looked at the link shared by @eskbanker but could not find the exact information I need. Also, it seems that now is not a good time to be trying to setup and change account :-(

I assume access for multiple people to the one account is a given these types of products.

Thank you for your help.  

FindMyWayBack

iwaddo77 said:

It is a though you were listening to our committee meeting last night!!
We have the need to move to an online account but historical all our cheques require multiple signatories, so if we move forward is there a product that requires multiple approvals for online payments? I looked at the link shared by @eskbanker but could not find the exact information I need. Also, it seems that now is not a good time to be trying to setup and change account :-(

I assume access for multiple people to the one account is a given these types of products.

Thank you for your help.  

Yes, this is another issue, and one which I was also going to bring up. How do you handle this multiple signatory stuff online?
Thanks for your comment.
I wonder what other people do, I can't find any answers online either.

FindMyWayBack

HobgoblinBT said:

It sounds like your existing Bank is updating its Know your customer details.  If you move Banks you may well need to provide similar information and supporting ID and proof of address on the application for the new account.  The Bank needs to know who controls the club and therefore the bank account and what normal looks like so it can spot if any unusual activity takes place.

I suggest that you complete the forms as requested and submit any requested supporting documents.  Where the form refers to “business” take it to mean your club.  If/where it refers to suppliers, take it to mean suppliers of any services/products, eg rent of premises, stationery, tea and biscuits etc.  For sales/revenues, unless the club gets income from third parties through sale of anything/open day eg. then are revenue is likely to be membership subscriptions.

Thank you yes, It is helpful to know that this is the new 'norm', the forms have been sent round to the signatories, I agree with what the bank is doing as it is to protect people.

Eco_Miser

iwaddo77 said:

It is a though you were listening to our committee meeting last night!!
We have the need to move to an online account but historical all our cheques require multiple signatories, so if we move forward is there a product that requires multiple approvals for online payments? I looked at the link shared by @eskbanker but could not find the exact information I need. Also, it seems that now is not a good time to be trying to setup and change account :-(

I assume access for multiple people to the one account is a given these types of products.

Thank you for your help.  

I know Lloyds does an account for clubs requiring independent online access by at least two signatories to authorise payments. I'm pretty sure other banks do too. You may have to start looking at business (rather than personal) accounts, then narrow the type down to Club and Association.

DiamondLil

I'm treasurer for a small charity. We bank with TSB who are great. We have online banking, any two of three signatures required for withdrawals. We were with HSBC previously who were dire. Lost our id documents, lost paperwork, never answered correspondence. A total nightmare to deal with. TSB have been great from the start. The account was opened and up and running within days, and id checks all done online so no paperwork to complete other than the application form by all three signatories. And we have online banking too. A payment is made and authorised by me and a second authorisation is made by one of the other two signing in and authorising by a certain cut off time.

FindMyWayBack

I am looking at all this now, thanks