Choosing a business bank account

[Wodewick]

One possibility: Cater Allen

Who are also part of Santander - Shirley?

[strawberrysmoothie]

I've been with santander for about 5 years. No problems and I've always found them very helpful about transfering money between accounts and it's always been been done instantaneously over the phone. However I do agree eith earlier commentors, getting the papers is a pain. But after that happy days

[VectraMan]

I have both my personal and business account with Barclays, and that does have the advantage that transferring money is an instant electronic transaction, rather than the medieval ox-cart method that still seem to prevail when transferring money between different banks (I can't think of any other explanation for it taking 3 days).

My suggestion would be to do whatever's the most convenient, and forget about the largely insignificant differences between the banks.

[escapeUK]

Abbey aka Santander are the worst bank I have ever had anything to do with. Its only free if it actually works and you actually get it. 5 Weeks trying to get an account, I have perfect credit history. They would send out irrational e-mails that you couldnt reply to, only ring up, claiming that they didnt believe my trading address.

"Trading Address: We can not accept the document you provided for confirmation of trading address."

The most annoying thing was that the retards on the phone would say one thing,for instance that my VAT certificate would be perfect proof as "It doesnt get more official than that does it" to find this was rejected a week later.

What's next?

(6) Trading Address: We require further confirmation of your business trading address. Please provide either a copy of your business' standard letterhead, a utility bill or bank statement addressed to your company, a letter from your solicitor/accountant or professionally produced marketing materials for your company. Either document should clearly state your business trading address as it appears on your application form. Please note that we are unable to accept utility bills or bank statements that have been printed from the Internet.

Lets remember that as contractors we dont actually have a trading address other than our homes, we arent butchers who have a place where customers will visit. I had already sent council tax bill and elecy bill to prove this was my real home. So I spent 5 weeks trying to prove something that didnt really matter, to people who were stupid.

Even the letter from my accountant wasnt good enough. So on Monday of week 5 I rang Natwest and I had an account set up the same day, by a real person who had the authority to approve the account and set it up.

Santander is a bit like Linux, its only free if your time is free, assuming you ever get it to work of course. Also surprised so many people are endorsing them, especially as they were found to be the top of the complaints league.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011...ins-worst-bank

[SueEllen]

Its only free if it actually works and you actually get it.

In my experience all banks and building societies are like that.

Some banks/building societies just employ more stupid employees than others.

BTW Due to having personal difficulties with Natwest I would never trust my business banking to them.