Business and personal accounts with the same bank?

bpk101

The one feature that does stand out is Monzo's ability to spend directly from its individual saving pots with something it calls 'virtual cards'. Not just direct debits (Starling can do this also) but general day-to-day transactions too. This would be a game changer for me in terms of both the personal account and joint account.

Daliah

Sounds you have already decided what you want to do.

bpk101

Daliah said:

Sounds you have already decided what you want to do.

Should have probably added that this feature is restricted to Monzo's 'Plus' account which costs £5 a month.

Also, i'm pretty certain Starling will release a similar feature soon and given they don't offer a paid for version of the current account it will be accessible to all for free.

bpk101

Given i'm specifically after a digital bank for all 3 entities – business, personal and joint account – and the top 3 contenders consistently recommended to me are Starling, Monzo and Chase, i'm not sure how to avoid using the same bank twice given  Monzo joint accounts have been very strongly criticised and – as i've just found out – Chase don't offer joint accounts. 

That would leave Starling as the only option for a joint account, whom i'm already using for business purposes. Using Monzo Plus (£5 a month) or Chase for my personal account is an option however and would therefore mean...

1. Business account = Starling
2. Personal account = Monzo or Chase
3. Joint account = Starling

Okay, so not exactly all eggs in one basket but still a couple. 

Would that be deemed a reasonable compromise or still risky?

FYI: I'm a freelancer and my business banking is pretty simple i.e. i don't have overdraft requirements or make any big purchases etc. All in all very low risk stuff. 

eskbanker

bpk101 said:
Given i'm specifically after a digital bank...

Again it's obviously your prerogative to introduce whatever constraints you like into the equation but, out of curiosity, what's the basis on which you've narrowed down your search to this particular subset of the market, i.e. what do you believe they'd give you that you couldn't get from all the others?  It seems a bit counterintuitive given your apparent technophobia:

bpk101 said:

Having to sign into and navigate 3 different app interfaces that all do sort of the same thing but in annoyingly very different ways will be such a time and energy zapper.

bpk101

eskbanker said:

bpk101 said:
Given i'm specifically after a digital bank...

Again it's obviously your prerogative to introduce whatever constraints you like into the equation but, out of curiosity, what's the basis on which you've narrowed down your search to this particular subset of the market, i.e. what do you believe they'd give you that you couldn't get from all the others? 

I want the ability to put money aside into individual pots within the same account, a feature that as far as my research as taken me no high street bank offers. The only way to replicate this is to open lots of individual savings accounts each with its own account number, sort code etc. which seems unnecessarily complicated now. 

I also want to make use of the in-built budgeting tools that the digital banking apps offer. 

eskbanker said:

It seems a bit counterintuitive given your apparent technophobia:

bpk101 said:

Having to sign into and navigate 3 different app interfaces that all do sort of the same thing but in annoyingly very different ways will be such a time and energy zapper.

I'm not a technophobe at all, I just want to streamline the process as much as possible and not get caught up in the different way competing apps handle things. 

eskbanker

Fair enough, if you've narrowed the market down to three that meet your particular requirements then using two of them is better than one IMHO, although if you're rejecting Monzo for poor reviews of their joint account proposition, have you read the Chase threads on here about how rudimentary their nascent offering is?

bpk101

eskbanker said:

Fair enough, if you've narrowed the market down to three that meet your particular requirements then using two of them is better than one IMHO, although if you're rejecting Monzo for poor reviews of their joint account proposition, have you read the Chase threads on here about how rudimentary their nascent offering is?

I have and to be honest whilst Chase could technically be an option for a personal account, i would use Monzo if Starling was out of the equation. 

Daliah

bpk101 said:

I want the ability to put money aside into individual pots within the same account, a feature that as far as my research as taken me no high street bank offers. 

I am not a "potter" so haven't followed in detail who offers them but I know TSB and Virgin Money do. The former have a dodgy technical reputation, the latter will be immensely popular from tomorrow, when they are starting to offer 1% interest on their "pot" account, for up to £25K (and they are offering 2% interest on their current account, up to £1,000)

Daliah

eskbanker said:

 have you read the Chase threads on here about how rudimentary their nascent offering is?

IMO, the only really serious things missing from Chase are Direct Debits, and perhaps acceptance of their debit card with one or two investment platforms. DDs will arrive during March 2022 if you can believe the Chase Marketing bumph, so they will be good for the vast majority of banking transactions for the vast majority of people.