Switching bank accounts

[meridian]

Switching bank accounts

Same with transfers to the Halifax. I've been very happy with Santander so no intention of moving at present despite the charge.

They pay a decent interest rate that more than offsets the charges anyway :-)

[SueEllen]

What's the harm in keeping personal and business accounts with the same bank?

There are lots of reasons you don't want to.

The most important one in the past 2 years is the fact that nearly all banks systems have gone down and some have taken a week to come back up.

If you can't manage your money without a phone app you would have been in extreme s*** if you couldn't access your personal and business accounts for that time.

[nigelbb]

Jesus wept. How on earth do some of you run your companies!?

I hear you. No wonder HMRC are all over us.
How can anyone pretend to be a businessman but not be able to handle something as basic as banking without assistance?

How could businessman be so stupid as not to seek advice when it's available? Thank goodness there are some people on this forum who are prepared to share rather than just being snotty.

[Mr.Whippy]

To actually answer the original question of how painful the process is.....

I switched from Cater Allen to HSBC a couple of years back, mostly for faster payments/instant transfers & mobile app banking etc.

The process was completely pain free, I made an appointment and went into the branch and met with a business specialist and we went through the process of opening the account & getting the two factor device setup. They then dealt with Cater Allen to get the existing funds & direct direct debits transferred to my new account. Everything transferred over smoothly without any issues at all.

Well worth 30 minutes of my time in branch to be honest. They even made me a coffee & gave me some biscuits

[LucidDementia]

How could businessman be so stupid as not to seek advice when it's available? Thank goodness there are some people on this forum who are prepared to share rather than just being snotty.

I'll give anyone advice with pleasure. My advice to anyone who can't figure business banking out for themselves: you're NCOTBAC.

[MrWebDev]

How could businessman be so stupid as not to seek advice when it's available? Thank goodness there are some people on this forum who are prepared to share rather than just being snotty.

Thankyou Nigelbb!

I'm currently in the process of transferring to HSBC, I'll let post on here to let you know how it all goes.

For those that are interested, it seems that business bank accounts are also part of the whole 7-day switching agreement, which was one of the things I wasn't sure of at first, I've used this to switch personal accounts in the past with no fuss at all.

For those taking the time out of their day to question my business acumen, as I've mentioned I've done this with my personal account, but never a business one. I wanted to find out if I was about to enter a whole world of pain unawares, and thought that maybe asking the question on a forum with business people who operate and run a similar operation to myself on I would find some reasonable and maybe useful advice.

[nigelbb]

You're correct to say CA don't do faster payments.
You're incorrect to say that CA take 2 days to make payments. It's next day, if you do it online before 3pm, or before 4.30 on the phone (you may need to confirm exact times).

It's Saturday morning & I would like to transfer some money from my Cater Allen business account to my private account & from past experience it won't arrive until next Wednesday. It could be worse it could be Friday evening & I would have to wait nearly five days.

[PerfectStorm]

It's Saturday morning & I would like to transfer some money from my Cater Allen business account to my private account & from past experience it won't arrive until next Wednesday. It could be worse it could be Friday evening & I would have to wait nearly five days.

Absolutely no way I would take an account with them under those conditions.

As for banks that don't do instant faster transfers - Aldermore seems to take about 30 minutes in either direction. Natwest is instant.

[PerfectStorm]

Santander do free banking for a year, but it's £7.50 per month after that. Transfers (to HSBC) are instant - no issues in over two years.

Santander is only when your company is new as well - i.e. a startup. Seems it's £7.50 for anyone already in the game.

So the question should be - what's the best bank for people who are no longer starting up that is free/cheap, good technology, instant transfers etc?

[darrylmg]

Santander is only when your company is new as well - i.e. a startup. Seems it's £7.50 for anyone already in the game.

So the question should be - what's the best bank for people who are no longer starting up that is free/cheap, good technology, instant transfers etc?

HSBC is £5.50 a month.
I can go into countless branches.
Hardly breaks the bank, good online banking, good App and has a feed into Xero Accounts.