Can we use current account for our partnership?

RosTheHighlander

Hello

I have a business partnership with my OH and currently use an RBS business bank account. However, I'm wondering if I could save money by just opening a new joint personal account? This way we wouldn't get charged fees for every transaction. Are there any legal issues with this? Does it depend on the type of partnership? It's just a general/normal one, I think... 

TIA

[Deleted User]

It depends on the terms and conditions of the new bank, however, personal bank accounts are not for business use and if you just went ahead and did this the account would be in breach of said terms and conditions.

Businesses incur costs to service them hence the difference in accounts etc, bending the rules to save money could very well cost you, in various ways, in the long term.
I'm also in business and you just have to bite the bullet, on this, build the costs into the service you provide to cover it.

penners324

There are business accounts without fees (Starling & Monzo) and with minimal fees (Tide)

Zanderman

RosTheHighlander said:

I have a business partnership with my OH and currently use an RBS business bank account. However, I'm wondering if I could save money by just opening a new joint personal account? This way we wouldn't get charged fees for every transaction. Are there any legal issues with this? Does it depend on the type of partnership? It's just a general/normal one, I think... 

No legal issues, but there will be banking terms and conditions issues.  Don't confuse legal rules with banking rules.  

penners324 said:

There are business accounts without fees (Starling & Monzo) and with minimal fees (Tide)

Starling do not, last time I checked, do business accounts for partnerships, and neither do many of the other new style banks. 

I've tried to find free bank accounts for partnerships and never found one worthwhile.  The best option is using the opening a new account and/or switching in an account offers.  Many of those, which are with traditional banks, give free banking for partnerships for the first 1 or 2 years. And, if you're canny, you can switch them at the end of the free period to another intro offer at a different bank.  Which sounds like a faff but if your business has high numbers of transactions (.e.g if you use Amazon Pay which pays in new money at the end of every day) then it is worth the hassle.

SiliconChip

johnny35 said:

Zanderman said:

I've tried to find free bank accounts for partnerships and never found one worthwhile.  The best option is using the opening a new account and/or switching in an account offers.  Many of those, which are with traditional banks, give free banking for partnerships for the first 1 or 2 years. And, if you're canny, you can switch them at the end of the free period to another intro offer at a different bank.  Which sounds like a faff but if your business has high numbers of transactions (.e.g if you use Amazon Pay which pays in new money at the end of every day) then it is worth the hassle.

Have you tried Nearside? They are free as far as I can tell but they don't seem to provide any kind of credit cards. It's good if you just need a free checking account though and they offer cashback on it as well. 

As they are an American organisation it's very unlikely that they would be of much use to users of a UK forum. Seems like spam to me...

Zanderman

johnny35 said:

Zanderman said:

I've tried to find free bank accounts for partnerships and never found one worthwhile.  The best option is using the opening a new account and/or switching in an account offers.  Many of those, which are with traditional banks, give free banking for partnerships for the first 1 or 2 years. And, if you're canny, you can switch them at the end of the free period to another intro offer at a different bank.  Which sounds like a faff but if your business has high numbers of transactions (.e.g if you use Amazon Pay which pays in new money at the end of every day) then it is worth the hassle.

Have you tried Nearside? They are free as far as I can tell but they don't seem to provide any kind of credit cards. It's good if you just need a free checking account though and they offer cashback on it as well. 

SiliconChip said:

johnny35 said:

Zanderman said:

I've tried to find free bank accounts for partnerships and never found one worthwhile.  The best option is using the opening a new account and/or switching in an account offers.  Many of those, which are with traditional banks, give free banking for partnerships for the first 1 or 2 years. And, if you're canny, you can switch them at the end of the free period to another intro offer at a different bank.  Which sounds like a faff but if your business has high numbers of transactions (.e.g if you use Amazon Pay which pays in new money at the end of every day) then it is worth the hassle.

Have you tried Nearside? They are free as far as I can tell but they don't seem to provide any kind of credit cards. It's good if you just need a free checking account though and they offer cashback on it as well. 

As they are an American organisation it's very unlikely that they would be of much use to users of a UK forum. Seems like spam to me...

Indeed.  Not a bank.  Not in the UK.  So not any help.