Best bank for business accounts

[stewmath]

Im hoping to be setting up as self employed sole trader and i was just wondering which bank is the best for new startup business accounts?

[Moneyman]

Least worst is your best bet.

It all depends where you are and who is in caharge of your local business accounts. find someone local and ask.

Oh and dont forget to mention when they ask about profit that you will be making more than they did last year! It helps put their advice into context.

[stewmath]

i dont understand what your on about sorry. When you say to tell the bank i will make more profit than they made last year, i think that might be blatent lieing considering banks make billions.

[Moneyman]

I presume you missed the news about the banks losing a few billion each last year. Funny it was on page one of every newspaper for several months.

About 4 trillion in losses between them. I am sure whatever bank you choose will have a nice little hole to fill, which they will inform you is your job and thus they will have to cream every cent off you.

[Zeno]

i dont understand what your on about sorry. When you say to tell the bank i will make more profit than they made last year, i think that might be blatent lieing considering banks make billions.


He means if you approach the bank with no expectations whatsoever of competence, basic customer service, awareness of business needs, understanding of the most basic issues of being in business then you will not be disapointed by the service provided by your bank.

All the major banks are pretty much indentical in this regard with the only hope being that you get a good manager. (Not that they are proper bank managers these days but I digress).

[stewmath]

I presume you missed the news about the banks losing a few billion each last year. Funny it was on page one of every newspaper for several months.

About 4 trillion in losses between them. I am sure whatever bank you choose will have a nice little hole to fill, which they will inform you is your job and thus they will have to cream every cent off you.

Good point. lol

so does anyone have any reccommendations to which bank you would use or are using?

some business accounts are cheaper than others and offer better services and so on.

[Moneyman]

Nope it depends on your local guy. The rest is all the same give or take a quid or two over a year. Ask about.

[stewmath]

ok thankyou, ill do some asking around

[Tom McClelland]

Factors to consider:


Do you need overdraft facilities?
Do you need a loan?
Do you need any advice from the bank?
Does deposit interest matter to you?
Are you happy to operate your account entirely through the internet?
Will you be doing many branch deposits?
Will you need to do cash withdrawals?
Do you need to accept credit card payments?
Do you need an internet merchant account?

Everyone's answers to those questions will be different, so everyone has different needs from their bank. At 12Pay we're very happy with our BOS account which we operate almost entirely through the internet with a tiny number of cheques in and out and most income coming from internet receipts. Other customers with different priorities might find the identical service that we receive very poor.

[jim_price]

Some excellent pointers from Tom above.

I know that the Co-Op has a special product for members of the FSB (if that's you), and 18 months free (subject to a few conditions) banking for any small business.

Co-Op gets a pretty good press, they are also probably immune from the criticism that is being levelled at some its larger rivals in this thread amongst other places.

Check out the Co-Ops Business Banking section on their website.

[stewmath]

Do you need overdraft facilities?
a) No i wouldnt need this
Do you need a loan?
a) No it doesnt require any startup capital
Do you need any advice from the bank?
a) i dont think so but unsure yet as may have questions after
Does deposit interest matter to you?
a) not sure what this is
Are you happy to operate your account entirely through the internet?
a) i need to be able to deposit cheques
Will you be doing many branch deposits?
a) yes
Will you need to do cash withdrawals?
a) probably not but might be useful
Do you need to accept credit card payments?
a) not yet
Do you need an internet merchant account?
a) not yet but one day

i was told about abbey nationals business account, it seems pretty good

[Tom McClelland]

Do you need overdraft facilities?
a) No i wouldnt need this
Do you need a loan?
a) No it doesnt require any startup capital
Do you need any advice from the bank?
a) i dont think so but unsure yet as may have questions after
Does deposit interest matter to you?
a) not sure what this is
Are you happy to operate your account entirely through the internet?
a) i need to be able to deposit cheques
Will you be doing many branch deposits?
a) yes
Will you need to do cash withdrawals?
a) probably not but might be useful
Do you need to accept credit card payments?
a) not yet
Do you need an internet merchant account?
a) not yet but one day

i was told about abbey nationals business account, it seems pretty good

I didn't actually want the answers, I was pointing out that a great bank for one person would be useless for another. BOS is great for me, but my answers to those questions are virtually the opposite of yours.

[stewmath]

im looking into abbey national and hsbc at the moment, i will make a few phone calls and ask around.

cheers everyone :)

[JamesCartwright]

I think that Barclays and HSBC are the most popular business banks, I didn't know the Co-op did business banking, but I've heard they are good with their personal customers.

As part of one of our services, we offer to start setting up a bank account for our company formations clients. I've noticed that a lot of people are impressed with HSBC, as they are very quick and competent at setting up the account. Out of the banks we have referral relationships with, they are by far the most popular. I'm not sure how good they are with business clients in the long term though...

(I'm not saying that to promote anything I'm selling, just using it as an example :) ).

Also, I believe that NatWest are offering 2 years of free banking (HSBC offers only 18 months). Who do you have a personal account with? they may be willing to offer you more credit if you have a good track record with them.

James.

[stewmath]

i have a personal account with hsbc for the last 7 years

[JamesCartwright]

i have a personal account with hsbc for the last 7 years

Are you pleased with them?

[stewmath]

Are you pleased with them?

yeah sometimes, there fees a bit rediculous with some stuff

[JamesCartwright]

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