Recommendations for Business Bank Account?

[christh]

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I got a couple of items of mail this morning: my monthly cheque from buy.at (hooray!) and my HSBC business credit card statement (boo). Another bit of paper fell out from the statement envelope too, 'oh great, another increase in charges I bet'. And it was! Annual fee up 40% to £28 a year!

I've just about had it up to here with them - especially after last year's MASSIVE hikes in monthly charges. So my question is who do you guys bank with and recommend? I took a look at the old thread on this subject from last year but decided against any thread necromancy.

Cheers,
Chris

[shyguy0507]

Not really in a position to recommend then my business account is with hsbc - as my turnover is below £500,000 a year - i'm on the direct business tariff

soo

No Maintanence Fee
Recieve up to 30 cheques a month free
Unlimited cheques outgoing a month free
No charges for electronic transactions (BACS, Direct Debits out and Standing orders)
No charges for debit card use.

There is a 2% charge for paying in and withdrawing cash however and a small fee to accept cheques once you've had ure first 30 free a month.

But that is on the direct tarrif (that was probaly no good )

[christh]

Hi Shyguy. Actually that sounds ideal! I might pop over to my local branch and see if I can change to a Business Direct account - sounds like the simplest option. Thanks!

[shyguy0507]

No Problem,

Just checked the tarif again it has changed a little like dropping the limits to 10

Heres the link to the main info page if it's any use (it's got the tariff info on it):

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/a...usiness-direct

[OLBG]

We're with Abbey National but are about to leave as they have been so unhelpful and unproffessional to us. Looking at HSBC & Barclays

[leec]

Hi

Im with Barclays Business, never had a problem

I did go with Alliance & Leicester about a year ago as they offered a free banking service!

lets just say its worth paying that bit extra with barclays


Cheers Lee

[steveaich]

For a basic business account Abbey is fine, although if anything goes wrong the customer service is pretty awful, I'd rather have awful customer service than pay banking fees though. (Not only do they have your money to invest, they charge you for the privilege, now that's a great business). As for Credit Cards, although I couldn't possible condone breaching terms and conditions just use a personal one, keep it entirely for business purposes and pay the balance off each month.

Capital One will even do you one that is fee free and says business card on it, although you are still presonally responsible for it.

[pericom]

You cant login to your Abbey business accounts after 11pm.

Natwest = 2.am.

WTF Do they shut them down that early for ?

[Mogga]

Not really in a position to recommend then th free
No charges for electronic transactions (BACS, Direct Debits out and Standing orders)
No charges for debit card use.

There is a 2% charge for paying in and withdrawing cash however and a small fee to accept cheques once you've had ure first 30 free a month.

But that is on the direct tarrif (that was probaly no good )

Paying in CASH? That sounds insane. Why would anyone want to give the bank that much money?
Would worry me if it was cash and cheques...

[deadgoodundies]

Don't most business bank accounts (well ours did with natwest) offer 1 free year of banking?

So you could do what most people do with credit cards and then just keep changing them every year - if it's not too much of a hassle

[Azam.net]

Yes, you are right justhom. But even better to use Abbey who offer free business banking for life.

[Aceicol]

I'm with Abbey and it can be a bit of a nightmare, I live in Cardiff and there is only one branch and thats the centre of town, that can wipe at least an hour and half out of your day, that always upsets my rhythm. Admittedly you can send them in but I'm new in business and cash flow is extremely important and the odd day can matter quite a bit sometimes.

Also I asked a mate to drop a cheque in once as he was going into town, but with the business account you can't pay cheques in over the counter and only in the ATM's that require your card, obviously you'd/I'd be relecutant to give these out to a mate, so requires me to go into town most times.

I've heard about the HSBC free banking account but couldn't comment on how good it is, but I intend to give it a go.

[shoecake]

No Problem,

Just checked the tarif again it has changed a little like dropping the limits to 10

Heres the link to the main info page if it's any use (it's got the tariff info on it):

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/a...usiness-direct

Cheers for the link. They kept that one quiet, I have a standard business account but only use online banking
Now I wonder if I can keep my account code, I know I will miss changing it at one merchant/network!