Best business bank accounts for sole trader

red_mush95

Hi there folks.

Tried to find a thread on here which would answer this question for me however they all seemed closed and out of date. So, in the hope of getting up-to-date answer's:-

I'm looking for your recommendations for a business bank account which will come with a version of accounting software. 

I'm particularly interested in anyone who has used Mettle by NatWest. I've noticed this particular account isn't noted or recommended on the MSE website under the 'Business bank account' section and I'm struggling to see why this may be?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

tacpot12

I suspect it isn't noted because it is quite new. The issue may have been that the accounts were e-money accounts rather than a proper bank account, but they are now opening proper bank accounts. 

My observations are that the interest rate isn't great on deposit balances and tying yourself into FreeAgent could be quite limiting if you want to leave Mettle. Using FreeAgent will tend to tie you to Mettle as the disruption of moving to another accounting platform will be quite offputting. It's also disappointing that while you can create upto 30 Pots using the App (which is great if you want to use the Profit First system proposed by Mike Michalowicz) none of these earn interest. You have to move the money to the Savings Pot (of which you can only have one). This means you sill need to have a record of your pots on a spreadsheet which is not ideal. Mettle are definitely missing a trick with not overlaying the Pots functionality on their deposit account. 

(I'm a Sole trader, and use QuickBooks V3.0 for my accounting as I am tight - it cost me £30 in 1998 and runs on Windows for Workgroups 3.11!) 

As a Sole Trader, FreeAgent will cost you £11.40 pcm if you don't have a bank account that provides it for free. 

lon_don

Be aware Mettle won't accept incoming international transfer/payment if you ever need it.