business banking can i get interest?

andygodwin

hi all.
i have a LTD co and a business account with santander + bus savings accout..

my business dealings are simple, no cheques no cash no loans just money in (bacs tx) and my own PAYE out.. + a healthy balance that i keep as a float. 

how can i get some interest/money from business banking?  for a start i want free banking as Santandere is currently charging me £75 pa.. and i want some interest on the savings account.. 

done an internet search but business accounts are just no very competitiive..

any ideas 

andy

Savvy_Sue

You said it yourself, business accounts are not very competitive,  and that's especially true of interest rates.

Possibly worth speaking to your accountant, some may know of suitable accounts. Or if you're a member of the FSB, you can get free business banking with the Coop. https://www.fsb.org.uk/join-us/membership/fsb-member-benefits.html (it's more than £75 to join, but the other benefits may be worthwhile for you)

IF you can tie some of your business savings up in notice accounts, rates may improve, but not by much.

Sandtree

andygodwin said:

hi all.
i have a LTD co and a business account with santander + bus savings accout..

my business dealings are simple, no cheques no cash no loans just money in (bacs tx) and my own PAYE out.. + a healthy balance that i keep as a float. 

how can i get some interest/money from business banking?  for a start i want free banking as Santandere is currently charging me £75 pa.. and i want some interest on the savings account.. 

done an internet search but business accounts are just no very competitiive..

any ideas 

Andy

For free current account you can use the likes of Starling

For savings Kent Reliance was the best several years ago when I last looked but now is only offering 0.6% - though that's better than most.

DKLS

Try Cater Allen Private Bank, great customer service despite being owned by Santander! not great interest rates but up to 0.65% depending on account type.

Coolbeans

Aldermore are offering 1% on an easy access account. I think this may be the best around. Martin Lewis should cover more on business bank accounts and interest rates to be honest. It would benefit a lot of people!

K_S

@andygodwin Another vote for Starling (for full-featured free business banking) and Aldermore (for savings).

Depending on where you live, there may be local building societies that may offer a slightly higher interest rate but compared to the Aldermore account it's a huge amount of faff to get an account open and transfer funds in and out. I gave up when I saw the form they expected me to fill!

mika_dm

M account for Business from Virgin Money is free of charge. They also have a Saving account for business which pays 0.75% interest at the moment.

TonyMMM

I ran my business, although as a sole trader, for 10 years using a Santander 123 current  account, which originally was paying 3% interest.....that was on the advice of the manager of my local Santander branch. Never a penny paid in charges and a substantial amount of interest earned.

martindow

TonyMMM said:

I ran my business, although as a sole trader, for 10 years using a Santander 123 current  account, which originally was paying 3% interest.....that was on the advice of the manager of my local Santander branch. Never a penny paid in charges and a substantial amount of interest earned.

Isn't there a risk that Santander could close the account if they realise it is in fact a business account?  As far as I know 123 are retail accounts only. 

I'm lucky enough to have a Santander account which started out as an Abbey business account that they were foolish enough to market as free for ever and forced to honour - no interest payments though.

TonyMMM

There has always been that risk.

I actually went in to discuss opening a business account, but was pointed to using the 123 account as an option (I already had another one) and I was told by staff at the branch that many of their customers did this so I went ahead and made quite an amount of interest (about £2.5k) .... it has never been questioned and I am winding the business down now, so isn't really an issue any more.

I suspect that at the time the staff had targets to open as many 123 accounts as possible, hence the "advice" I was given, but it has worked well for me.