Business bank account application with no turnover

[Contreras]

Santander are introducing a monthly fee on what was "free for life" business banking. So having looked around for alternatives I decided on NatWest, which is free for 2 years*.

Potential hiccup is that I've been out of contract for a fair while. No turnover for more than a year and the last 2 year's accounts submitted a loss (after salary). The company has a trading history of ~15 years and is solvent still due to retained profit. I plan (hope) to refill the coffers with a contract before the current year end.

NatWest have queried the online application with a request for more info on "Trading Activity". I'm guessing caused by stated low turnover and bank balance. I sense a "computer says No" response to follow.

I'm minded to try and resolve this at a local branch rather than enter responses into an anonymous online free-form text box.

I'd appreciate other's thoughts on this please. How to best present the facts? Am I over-thinking it? Worst case of course I just suck up the Santander monthly fee while touting for a contract.

Related -

The company holds a lump sum in a deposit savings account. The monthly interest from this is sufficient to cover expenses not including salary. According to the application questions this makes my company a Passive NFE (Non-Financial Entity) - something I was not previously aware of and will take up with my accountant - I guess this has a bearing on NatWest's handling of the account application as well.

* including FreeAgent, which I don't currently use.

Thanks for reading!

[Dorkeaux]

Santander are introducing a monthly fee on what was "free for life" business banking. So having looked around for alternatives I decided on NatWest, which is free for 2 years*.

Potential hiccup is that I've been out of contract for a fair while. No turnover for more than a year and the last 2 year's accounts submitted a loss (after salary). The company has a trading history of ~15 years and is solvent still due to retained profit. I plan (hope) to refill the coffers with a contract before the current year end.

NatWest have queried the online application with a request for more info on "Trading Activity". I'm guessing caused by stated low turnover and bank balance. I sense a "computer says No" response to follow.

I'm minded to try and resolve this at a local branch rather than enter responses into an anonymous online free-form text box.

I'd appreciate other's thoughts on this please. How to best present the facts? Am I over-thinking it? Worst case of course I just suck up the Santander monthly fee while touting for a contract.

Related -

The company holds a lump sum in a deposit savings account. The monthly interest from this is sufficient to cover expenses not including salary. According to the application questions this makes my company a Passive NFE (Non-Financial Entity) - something I was not previously aware of and will take up with my accountant - I guess this has a bearing on NatWest's handling of the account application as well.

* including FreeAgent, which I don't currently use.

Thanks for reading!

I've had a few business bank accounts, mainly to spread out the corporate funds to take advantage of the FCS 85k protection.

All of them have asked for a turnover figure, but none of them have cared what it is, nor checked it. Why would they?
Just tell them 0, or what you hope to turn over when you get a gig. It's just an estimate.
Having worked in financial service, they probably look at weirdly large numbers as risk rather than low ones.

Nothing against NatWest nor Santander, but lately for business accounts I find the the non-traditional banks offer better service, simpler fee structures (like, none..) and are pretty non-intrusive.

[Contreras]

It feels like I'm talking to a machine.

The query also asked about "day-to-day activities of your business", "main costs and outgoings", "weekly takings", etc.

So I responded with a couple of paragraph 'elevator pitch' about the company, which took some effort to get wording that I was happy with (though to be fair also a useful exercise for me), as well as answers to the other questions including turnover history. Everything me thinks that a sensible human could look at and see as a one-person 'IT' contracting co. with variable income.

It* waited 28hrs before posting back, seemingly picking on the keywords from my pitch and asking "we would appreciate a brief explanation of how this is incorporated into your services".

*it could be human of course, but I fail to see the relevance of what they're asking, or at least I wouldn't ask it that way.

I'll just answer as though I'm training a language model, as soul crushing as that is.

Nothing against NatWest nor Santander, but lately for business accounts I find the the non-traditional banks offer better service, simpler fee structures (like, none..) and are pretty non-intrusive.

Yep. Main reason for going with NatWest is it's free for two years. The market could move in that time, and maybe free-ish will become the norm, or the non-traditional banks will introduce fees. So I figured get it while it's available, along with the chance to effectively trial FreeAgent over the same period.

[Dorkeaux]

That's intrusive. And far more detail than Metro Bank, Monzo, Starlin and Tide ask.

BTW, Metro Bank, Monzo and (either Tide or Starling) are free. Also low or no interest, but free.
As I've posted elsewhere, I like Metro Bank. Free, very simple, and they have High Street branches.

[Contreras]

Application approved.

So I guess they were doing the "know your customer" thing in the most impersonal way possible.

That and populating the database for future targeted marketing.

No fees for 2 years, and in the meantime I'll be watching out for the others mentioned. Thanks.