Business banking

[Cactus]

Abbey: Free banking forever, internet banking and reasonable rates for the reserve account.

Haven't had to use their helpdesk yet and they did take their time (3 weeks) opening the account but no probs since.

HTH

Agreed, been with Abbey for 7 Months now. Slow to setup about 3 weeks but no problems and its free and easily accessible via their business internet banking site.

[Darren@UptonAccountants]

BTW, there is also no minimum if you set up a Cater account through Nixon Williams. They will also set up your company for free. (I am really kicking myself now).

Oh well! We also offer the free company and CA account....the CA account can be set up at anytime, not just when forming the company.

[ftwig]

Nationwide Business Invester

Is free buy limited in the number of withdrawals a month (I think 6). Basically I used to do everything through my personal account and just withdraw once a month.

I now have a managed limited company so don't have to worry.

Ben

[rawly]

Alliance and Leicester currently have a special offer for busineses less than 6 months old. Everything is free for 2 years. Even after the two years you only pay for handling more than £1000 of cash per month. All electronic transactions are free anyway even with their standard business account. Their linked Deposit account is 4.75% up to £50,000, 5.25% above £50,000 - Guaranteed till 31st March 2008 PLUS it tracks BOE base rate + 0.15% - and as rates have just gone up! (below £50,000 is tracked at -0.34% - which means this has also gone up as of today).

By the way - you don't need to be in Business for less than 6 months to get these interest rates. Offer ends 31st March. And NO I don't work for them! I am thinking of using them for my new Ltd comany I need to set up soon.

[XLMonkey]

Agreed, having had a good look round the Alliance and Leicester account seems to be the best overall (though agree that CA runs it a very close second, the fact that A&L offer internet access and have marginally better interest rates tips it for me). I'm just in the process of switching over to them right now...

[Bluebird]

Just signed up with HSBC they offer free banking, free internet access, a curretn & deposit a/c and company credit card.

looks good to me.

[Maxamus]

Just signed up with HSBC they offer free banking, free internet access, a curretn & deposit a/c and company credit card.

looks good to me.

whats their interest rate?

[BoredBloke]

Just wait till it all goes tits up! On the 5th I was told that I SHOULD have all the stuff to start using the internet banking by the 12th, when I went in to complete the paperwork. Called them today to find out that the info had only been posted to me on the 12th and that I should allow 5 working days - what postal service do they use?

In the 9 years I have been with them their levels of service have dropped through the floor. For instance, if you want to arrange an overdraft for the business they now charge a min of £50 or a percentage (whichever is better for the bank) as a setup fee. They also do a full credit check on the directors of the company. There is no discretion available to their business manager. In the downturn after the whole 2000 thingy I almost lost the lot and the business manager was brilliant - old school type. He provided encouragement and kept in touch regularly and I was able to keep things going with his help. The next guy was OK but seemed to just be there to try to sell me stuff - most of which I didn't need. The 'business contact' I have now is useless.

Some of the things they have done which I had to spot and rectify

1 - Debit my business account by £10k instead of £1k on a cheque I wrote. Luckily it was written to me and so I could move the funds back. I guess this would have been somewhat harder had the funds gone elsewhere.

2 - Lock my telephone banking when I was unable to give the pounds and pence value of a cheque which had gone out of the account - I was away on business and the cheque book was 6000 miles away at the time. They then gave me incorrect information as to unlocking it and promised on a number of occasions that it would be unlocked only to find that this had not been done the next time a problem arrose.

3 - It is impossible to speak to anybody in the branch when you want/need to.

HSBC might as well be a series of cashpoints and a call centre. Their branches are only there as a means to sell their uncompetitive financial products and services.

I'm going to spend the next few weeks getting the details of other banks with a view to moving my business. They are truly crap!

[Bluebird]

I had a letter on the 10th saying I'd have the stuff within 7 WORKING days, it actually arrived on the 12th.

From my initial enquiry on the 22nd of December I'm up-and-running as of today, I make that 12 working days - not bad in my book.

As for future service, I'll have to wait and see, I was very impressed with the level of service so far, but I guess a lot of that is sales - once the day-2-day stuff kicks in we'll see.

[Bluebird]

Interesy rate is 2.5% for the savings and about 0.25 for the current - but they do say you get a lot of free things - have a look at the website

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/accounts

I went for the business direct one.