Bank account for side-hustle

aimeemum

Hi All, I need a bit of help with my finances for my new little side-hustle business. 

I'm setting up selling my writing work (educational resources and printables, and also fiction and non-fiction books) starting on Etsy with the goal of setting up my own shop/website and hopefully eventually getting some work properly published. I've set myself up with a Paypal account to start with but I will need to get a 'proper' bank account to make doing my books a bit easier (i.e. keeping it separate from my family budget/finances). 

I've done a little bit of research but I'm overwhelmed. Can anyone give me some advice about which ones are good, not too expensive? I'm not expecting to make a massive amount of money so seeing 'per transaction' fees etc is scary. Also keen to have good customer service as I am not the most confident especially when dealing with on-line things. 

Any advice gratefully received. Many thanks from a novice
 

chrisbur

I would be inclined not to bother with a business account at this point.  Wait and see if the ammount of work warrents the extra expense.  All you need to do at the moment is keep a record of income and expenditure; and if income is under £1000 for the year you probably do not even have to tell HMRC.  See here....
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tax-free-allowances-on-property-and-trading-income

Potbellypig

Can't help, but the phrase 'side hustle' has to be one of the most irritating phrases used over the course of the past year. 

aimeemum

Potbellypig said:

Can't help, but the phrase 'side hustle' has to be one of the most irritating phrases used over the course of the past year. 

I'm inclined to agree, but it's one people know the meaning of hence my use of it. 

_theinsider

aimeemum said:

Hi All, I need a bit of help with my finances for my new little side-hustle business. 

I'm setting up selling my writing work (educational resources and printables, and also fiction and non-fiction books) starting on Etsy with the goal of setting up my own shop/website and hopefully eventually getting some work properly published. I've set myself up with a Paypal account to start with but I will need to get a 'proper' bank account to make doing my books a bit easier (i.e. keeping it separate from my family budget/finances). 

I've done a little bit of research but I'm overwhelmed. Can anyone give me some advice about which ones are good, not too expensive? I'm not expecting to make a massive amount of money so seeing 'per transaction' fees etc is scary. Also keen to have good customer service as I am not the most confident especially when dealing with on-line things. 

Any advice gratefully received. Many thanks from a novice
 

Starling Bank offer a free business account for sole traders. You just need to open a personal current account with them first and then you can open the business account. I use this to separate my self-employed finances and it has been excellent.

Phlanger

chrisbur said:

I would be inclined not to bother with a business account at this point.  Wait and see if the ammount of work warrents the extra expense.  All you need to do at the moment is keep a record of income and expenditure; and if income is under £1000 for the year you probably do not even have to tell HMRC.  

I'd agree with this. If you've got a steady stream of transactions and enough content to keep it going, then maybe it's time to open a business account, but I'd wait until you get there first. Otherwise, it's just another account with the affiliated charges and fees that go along with it. 

Savetowin

If you have one of the of the online banks like Monzo, it's realistic to set up an extra 'pot' where you can store the money just from your 'side hustle' to keep track of it. 

DebsFran

_theinsider said:

aimeemum said:

Hi All, I need a bit of help with my finances for my new little side-hustle business. 

I'm setting up selling my writing work (educational resources and printables, and also fiction and non-fiction books) starting on Etsy with the goal of setting up my own shop/website and hopefully eventually getting some work properly published. I've set myself up with a Paypal account to start with but I will need to get a 'proper' bank account to make doing my books a bit easier (i.e. keeping it separate from my family budget/finances). 

I've done a little bit of research but I'm overwhelmed. Can anyone give me some advice about which ones are good, not too expensive? I'm not expecting to make a massive amount of money so seeing 'per transaction' fees etc is scary. Also keen to have good customer service as I am not the most confident especially when dealing with on-line things. 

Any advice gratefully received. Many thanks from a novice
 

Starling Bank offer a free business account for sole traders. You just need to open a personal current account with them first and then you can open the business account. I use this to separate my self-employed finances and it has been excellent.

Thanks for this - very useful information

Selinda

I feel like I belong to the Tide bank cheerleading squad :-) - it's the one I have and its fantastic compared to my other high street accounts.

Great bank account and if you ever decide to going LTD - they offer free company formation although you can register as a sole trader.
They also offer £50 FREE if you join (and deposit £50) and enter referral code: FREE50.