Business Bank Account question

[northernladuk]

Very much "challenger bank" of them - accept the businesses they understand and they don't seem to particularly understand 1 person consultancies so they aren't interested.

To be fair that's exactly what I expected from these 'challenger banks'. They are out to cream of the masses of low hanging fruit, not to engage in complex situations. Many banks and mortgage lenders don't understand the complexities of small set ups like us so I didn't think for one minute many of these new set ups would be interested. It does appear I've been overly pessimistic on them as reading the threads about them they seem to have come a long way but I'm still not surprised these setups aren't great at some areas yet.

[SueEllen]

Nope. One owner, no crazy turnover, listed as IT Consultancy. Was a case of (in typical banking style) "we can't have you as a customer and we can't tell you why"

Not very 'challenger bank' of them

You probably don't use enough services and get in enough debt for them on your personal account.

[PerfectStorm]

You probably don't use enough services and get in enough debt for them on your personal account.

Quite possibly. I don't have 'Plus' and don't get overdrawn, no loans etc.

[Maslins]

I'm baffled, I'd have thought IT contractors would be right up their street. Happy to use online/smartphone apps for banking. Unlikely to have much/any cash/cheque demands. Limited number of transactions. Potentially fairly high balances with negligible expectation of interest.

I wholeheartedly understand the "low hanging fruit" idea, so totally understood why they politely told us to go elsewhere...but I'd have thought simple one person consultancy businesses would be their low hanging fruit.

If they say they can't tell you why, makes me wonder if it was an AML flag raised as part of their due diligence. Not suggesting you've done anything dodgy, but on occasion our checks raise weird stuff. Perhaps you've got the same name as a "person of interest". A politician, or sanctioned oligarch! Flags like this don't stop them/us taking people on, but they/we need to do extra checks. Possibly they decided wasn't worth the effort.

Or possibly they've just got tons of new customers/are understaffed atm and are fobbing people off whilst they get on top of things.

[SueEllen]

I'm baffled, I'd have thought IT contractors would be right up their street. Happy to use online/smartphone apps for banking. Unlikely to have much/any cash/cheque demands. Limited number of transactions. Potentially fairly high balances with negligible expectation of interest.

They probably have their quota of IT contractors so want businesses who run up overdrafts and use other services they charge for.

Anyone can check if they have a similar name to someone on the sanctions list as it's available on gov.uk

[Grah]

Virgin M for business appears to be free for the foreseeable future unless I'm missing something

https://uk.virginmoney.com/business/...-for-business/

I saw the other day and was similarly suspicious based on the theory that it seems too good to be true so there has to be a catch. Is Richard still involved? He might be trying to get the numbers up so he can flog it off.

[Grah]

It says on the header page No monthly fee and free day-to-day digital banking. Dug a bit deeper into their tariffs - You do have to pay 95p per manual debit and credit and a few other stuff for borrowing. I am not going to be doing the latter but it is a matter of working out how many manual debits one does in a month.

You could also question their definition of 'day-to-day digital banking' - is a manual debit not digital banking?

[PerfectStorm]

It says on the header page No monthly fee and free day-to-day digital banking. Dug a bit deeper into their tariffs - You do have to pay 95p per manual debit and credit and a few other stuff for borrowing. I am not going to be doing the latter but it is a matter of working out how many manual debits one does in a month.

You could also question their definition of 'day-to-day digital banking' - is a manual debit not digital banking?

I saw that and wondered what ‘manual’ meant in that sense - is it a CHAPS, or a Faster Payment? Is it free is automated with a date and charged if done instantly? Their tariff doesn’t seem to clarify.

[Grah]

I decided against them.

Any downsides of using the same bank as I have my personal account with?

To be clear I do not mix the two or conduct business activities through my personal account.

[ladymuck]

I decided against them.

Any downsides of using the same bank as I have my personal account with?

To be clear I do not mix the two or conduct business activities through my personal account.

No issue at all. In fact, for a new business, it can be helpful as the bank will already have history on how you conduct your account which will make KYC checks easier.