Is there any point of having a "high street" business bank account?

[Karimbo]

Hi

For over 10 years I've had my business banking down through Barclays. It used to be £6.50 with great suit of benefits called mybusinessworks.

Barclays - main banking for all the big transaction
Mettle current - for routine royal mail purchases (I wish they give me a credit account that I could just pay one bill a month, but hey ho)
Revolut suite of accounts (they have merchant, current account all in one).

Revolut and mettle are free. Barclays is pay for at £8.50

For the longest time I kept barclays as I thought if there are ever any issues with my account, if acounts get frozen or something, I can always go into branch and sort issues out. Does that ever happen any more, or do they try and get you to do stuff over the phone with head office?

Anyone else ditched a high street business account for a challenger bank?

 

[AndyWalesUK]

Hi

For over 10 years I've had my business banking down through Barclays. It used to be £6.50 with great suit of benefits called mybusinessworks.

Barclays - main banking for all the big transaction
Mettle current - for routine royal mail purchases (I wish they give me a credit account that I could just pay one bill a month, but hey ho)
Revolut suite of accounts (they have merchant, current account all in one).

Revolut and mettle are free. Barclays is pay for at £8.50

For the longest time I kept barclays as I thought if there are ever any issues with my account, if acounts get frozen or something, I can always go into branch and sort issues out. Does that ever happen any more, or do they try and get you to do stuff over the phone with head office?

Anyone else ditched a high street business account for a challenger bank?

Hi Karimbo , I was once in the same predicament before I made the decision to ditch barclays. I held onto the account for the longest time because it had a physical branch but unless your depositing cheques and cash then there isnt much need to go into a branch, you can always get help on the phone.

My main reasons for leaving were the spendng abroad fees and the fraud prevention procedures. I do a lot of work abroad so I was running a second account with Starling to avoid the fees , The starling account is now my main account as its just easier and the app is exellent.

Fraud prevention with Barclays is a nightmare when you have to pay a lot of freelance staff at the end of the week. They freeze your account and you have to wait on a call back and go through about a dozen questions. I was spending so much time on the phone it was really annoying. I still get the fraud prevention notices from Starling but the procedure to sort it out is so much easier its really just a few questions and entering your passcode.

I also dropped the Barclays credit card for 'Capital on tap credit card' as they give me a higher credit limit , they have better rewards and its so easy to create virtual cards for staff and manage spending limits etc.

My only regret is I didnt make these changes years ago.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

There is no high street bank where I live

 

[Mark T Jones]

Some time ago I had a situation with Lloyd's (should have been simple, changing the name on a banking mandate)

Frustrated by the online / 0800 call centre, I walked into a branch - the chap there was very friendly and helpful, but actually did exactly as I did - and got equally frustrated no secret direct line or shortcuts!

For many years I kept an eye on banks to recommend those who offered a superior serve. Before giving up 2 years ago it went:

AIB - withdrew from UK

Metro - now hit and miss

Handelsbank - were less than supportive to some clients during lockdown

TBH, if your banking is entirely straightforward, any online bank will fo - make sure they are covered by FSCS

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Go to Barclays and ask them why you should continue giving them £100 a year?

If you want to stay with them, see if they can give you a no frills foundation account - with no benefits, there is less reason to charge.

BTW, I think we are still lucky in the UK as in many countries, there is a cost to banking. We are used to it being built in to personal accounts and some business ones, but whilst it is there, voting with your feet may make banks like BAaclays realise that all of these fillers are not worth the cost!

 

[potato632]

If your account is frozen, walking into a Barclays branch is not guaranteed to unfreeze it - usually when they are investigating things they cannot give any information at all.

Lots of free business bank accounts out there

 

[nelioneil]

As long as your bank accounts are FSCS covered then there is no need to go to a high street bank if the non high street banks offer better options.

What I will say is you should have at least 2 bank accounts each for business and personal banking - and preferably with other banks not in the same banking group.

 

[ecommerce84]

We still have a bank with Lloyds as we require change, so have to pay the £6.50 fee.

To their credit, every interaction I have had with them has been fantastic - our bounce back loan for instance was processed and deposited in around 48 hours and the people in branch know us, who we are and what our business is all about (we are in a smallish town).

So at this stage we’re sticking with them. But for anyone who doesn’t require in-branch services (such as change) then there are probably free options that are just as good.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Yes.
No.
It depends on what you want from an account.

 

[ArabianNights]

Hi Karimbo , I was once in the same predicament before I made the decision to ditch barclays. I held onto the account for the longest time because it had a physical branch but unless your depositing cheques and cash then there isnt much need to go into a branch, you can always get help on the phone.

My main reasons for leaving were the spendng abroad fees and the fraud prevention procedures. I do a lot of work abroad so I was running a second account with Starling to avoid the fees , The starling account is now my main account as its just easier and the app is exellent.

Fraud prevention with Barclays is a nightmare when you have to pay a lot of freelance staff at the end of the week. They freeze your account and you have to wait on a call back and go through about a dozen questions. I was spending so much time on the phone it was really annoying. I still get the fraud prevention notices from Starling but the procedure to sort it out is so much easier its really just a few questions and entering your passcode.

I also dropped the Barclays credit card for 'Capital on tap credit card' as they give me a higher credit limit , they have better rewards and its so easy to create virtual cards for staff and manage spending limits etc.

My only regret is I didnt make these changes years ago.

That’s very useful and I can vouch for your claim about Barclays fraud prevention procedures. Thankfully, I haven’t had much issues with foreign transactions on the Barclays Bank, because I use the Starling bank for those foreign transactions, mainly because the exchange rate is much better and there are zero fees. I only have a few occasional foreign transactions on the Barclays one, which have had no issues, but I am having issues at the moment up to 7 times a day with Barclays stopping payments of reoccurring transactions multiple times a day with a supplier who is UK based! I have transactions with the same UK supplier for at least 3 times a day everyday and Barclays STILL stop the transaction! Highly fustrsting, but for me it’s a case of having to log onto app and approve the multiple transactions a day - I couldn’t deal with it, if it was me having to call them up daily, especially since I am abroad now.

The day will come when I will have to get rid, but for now I’ll do what I need to do

 

[Ivel]

The only reason for me is that it is easier to get funding from my high street bank, and also I get better rates on loans both personal and business.

 

[Deleted member 356896]

I need a bank that allows bulk payments via BACs rather than paying people one at a time.

I currently upload a file to pay salaries at end of month or select multiple payees and enter values to pay their mileage expenses weekly. Paying one by one would be quite time consuming.

Do any of these online only accounts have this feature and if so at what cost. I can’t seem to find anything definitive online.

 

[AmazonGeek]

I've got accounts with Tide, Monzo and Starling, for 3 different situations (2 businesses and one persona) and have been using them for about 5 years. All are great, work perfectly and integrate seamlessly with Xero and others. The support is great - typically live chat or messages - and I haven't had to step foot in a bank for years. I wish I had moved sooner.