Business Bank Accounts
- Thread starter The Printed Bag Shop
- Start date
We use HSBC and would highly recommend them. BIB (Business Internet Banking) is the best I have seen, it allows international transfers to be done online, setting up of additional users including ordering personal security devices for staff members, bank messaging and many more features.
Customer services are also very good, our calls are usually answered within a few seconds by someone in the UK. The help provided is fast, efficient and very friendly. All of the staff seem to have good training.
I believe they are also offering 18 months of free banking to switchers.
Another plus is that in February, HSBC abandoned Maestro and began issuing Visa debit cards which is of course much more widely accepted.
10/10 for HSBC.
Customer services are also very good, our calls are usually answered within a few seconds by someone in the UK. The help provided is fast, efficient and very friendly. All of the staff seem to have good training.
I believe they are also offering 18 months of free banking to switchers.
Another plus is that in February, HSBC abandoned Maestro and began issuing Visa debit cards which is of course much more widely accepted.
10/10 for HSBC.
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I am with Abbey -- who offer free internet business banking but am moving.
I get very frustrated especially as they have now rationalised their business web sites with the personal ones and so you no longer get the help that you need which used be on their business side. :-Such as downloadable previous statements.. and the statements are no longer numbered. Its a bit of a fiasco.
And although they say free beware.
They refused some cheques I paid in because they had lost my instructions to accept in the brand name which had been working perfectly well for 3 years until they rationalised.
As a result the account showed an overdraft of £0.99 p, and within an hour of it coming onto the statement I transferred money over from my personal account. Nevertheless they bounced the cheque and charged £32. Then they also decided to add interest on an overdraft that was never given. £.99 for one hour cost £7+ in interest!!
I did get both things refunded but not until I had been VERY determined and made an official complaint. And lost a lot of time and nervous energy.
I am moving to HSBC BIB and so far it looks good and significantly cheaper to take money online.
A&L also belong to the same group as Abbey. I have no direct dealings with them but undestand that Santander are rationalising all the systems so I would beware.
I get very frustrated especially as they have now rationalised their business web sites with the personal ones and so you no longer get the help that you need which used be on their business side. :-Such as downloadable previous statements.. and the statements are no longer numbered. Its a bit of a fiasco.
And although they say free beware.
They refused some cheques I paid in because they had lost my instructions to accept in the brand name which had been working perfectly well for 3 years until they rationalised.
As a result the account showed an overdraft of £0.99 p, and within an hour of it coming onto the statement I transferred money over from my personal account. Nevertheless they bounced the cheque and charged £32. Then they also decided to add interest on an overdraft that was never given. £.99 for one hour cost £7+ in interest!!
I did get both things refunded but not until I had been VERY determined and made an official complaint. And lost a lot of time and nervous energy.
I am moving to HSBC BIB and so far it looks good and significantly cheaper to take money online.
A&L also belong to the same group as Abbey. I have no direct dealings with them but undestand that Santander are rationalising all the systems so I would beware.
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The last time I looked at Abbey's FREE banking it was all based around postage, we were charged for depositing the money at a branch!!
I would look at joining FSB, and get FREE for life banking at COOP. A bit old fashioned, but then they haven't gone cap in hand to the government!!
Plus I got £25 anniversary bonus (haven't) looked in whether this is every year. And when a cheque was bounced they only charged me £9 not the £35 at Barclays/Abbey/HSBC.
So even though only one branch in my town it is worth the inconvenience
I would look at joining FSB, and get FREE for life banking at COOP. A bit old fashioned, but then they haven't gone cap in hand to the government!!
Plus I got £25 anniversary bonus (haven't) looked in whether this is every year. And when a cheque was bounced they only charged me £9 not the £35 at Barclays/Abbey/HSBC.
So even though only one branch in my town it is worth the inconvenience
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I agree Christine, I have just left for the Cooperative Bank! They have delayed our transfer for weeks and when they did it, it was by cheque, which apparently takes up to 2 weeks to clear!
P.S. We started getting all correspondence in triplicate!
P.S. We started getting all correspondence in triplicate!
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We are with RBS and HSBC. Although our HSBC account is new I have been impressed so far, plus their merchant services have also been recommended to me on a number of occasions.
We have a business current account with free banking for the first 12 months along side a money manager (savings) account.
Hope this helps
We have a business current account with free banking for the first 12 months along side a money manager (savings) account.
Hope this helps
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9
9_feet_tall
I have tried the free banking through the FSB/Co-op. I would warn anyone that if the service is free, then you get what you pay for. They were totally disorganised, unhelpful and incompetent.
I've decided to stick with HSBC - I've been with them almost 25 years and it seems they aren't as bad as I thought.....
Good luck.
I've decided to stick with HSBC - I've been with them almost 25 years and it seems they aren't as bad as I thought.....
Good luck.
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What went wrong?
FSB/COOP is not free, per se, you just don't get charge for the previlege of depositing/writing cheques or using a debit card. Then charge you interest on top!!!
Whereas other banks, loosing billions on dodgy deals are completely competent?
I used to use, HSBC until they started taking money from my personal account to fund my business account and vice versa...I was self employed so therefor not strictly speaking a business bank account!!
Very irratating especially when I called Mumbai, to let them know what was going on!!! They then had a specialist loan sales person phone me from Malaysia in the evening asking if I wanted a loan...
So the worlds local bank are not good at listening, maybe we should start thinking of banking another way
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Are you sure they're free? They charge us a fee if we make more than a certain amount of transactions per week - and we have a LOT of transactions coming in on a daily basis.
Also they don't have an overdraft facility for business accounts which is why we were going to move to the co-op via the FSB.
We asked them to open an account with an overdraft faicility, to help fund large stock purchases occasionally, but they sent us a huge form with a quite frankly silly number of questions on it.
They wanted to know everything about the business and the directors- official accounts, management accounts, projections, plans, detailed spending plans, directors personal expenses (ie. utilities, mortgage, monthly spending etc), and more other things I can't even remeber. I'm not kidding, there was so much info they wanted you'd think we'd asked them for a loan to buy canary wharf!
All that for a 20k overdraft - I bought a £300k house with less information and paperwork with that!
So we told them to stuff it and stayed with Cater (for now).
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