Business Bank account for NewCo

**Paracelsus** · 17 July 2025, 01:01

Starling has been fine for me. Straightforward setup (aside from the usual LTD stuff that makes it more complicated than a personal account), mobile app is nice and clean, no fee.

No interest but I move excess cash into a seperate savings account. The best rates seem to be from old-school banks who invariably have terrible web interfaces compared to Starling and other 'fintech' banks, but I'll put up with that for the rates.

**Dorkeaux** · 17 July 2025, 08:06

Originally posted by financial analyst View Post

I just opened a NewCo for a single project (initially) outside IR35, in UK, for a one-man-band PSC.

I'm out of touch with Bank accounts (used HSBC and Metro before) and tempted to try one of the digital / challenger banks such as Tide or Starling.

Keen for any recommendations (or suggestions to avoid) based on actually using one for your LtdCo.

Priorities are simplicity to open and operate, security - especially if digital, low (or no) recurring monthly costs. I'm not too worried about accounting software as there will be very few transactions and I can pop them in a spreadsheet for the accountant.

Thanks in advance.

For business accounts, I use and like Metrobank. I walked into one of their "Stores", and left a half-hour later with my business account, and a bank card that they printed off on the spot.

They also cash cheques (refunds from Hector, usually) though you must walk them into a branch or mail them in. No scanning.

If you start to hold a lot in your company account, you may want to open a couple more to take advantage of the deposit protection.

I've also used Monzo, Starling and Tide. All properly regulated banks, but no high-street branches. They are also pretty good, though Starling and Tide interfaces irritate me when it comes time to make statements available for my accountants.

All of these are straightforward to set up.

I've used HSBC in the past, they were terrible IMO.

**malvolio** · 17 July 2025, 11:20

Originally posted by Dorkeaux View Post

..snip...

I've used HSBC in the past, they were terrible IMO.

Funny. Used HSBC for thirty years. Had one problem in 2005 (corrupted account password), fixed over the phone in 20 minutes, never had a glitch of any kind ever since. It just works...

For the financially sensitive among us, it costs £8 a month in bank charges now, or around £2k since I opened the account.

**Andy2022** · 17 July 2025, 11:43

Starling has been fine for me, know others who are OK with Monzo

Had some bad experiences with Tide but they're not really a bank just a service running on top of ClearBank

**sadkingbilly** · 17 July 2025, 11:55

Natwest is free for 24months. and gratis version of freeagent.
used them for decades personal/business with no probs.
but i don't carry my life around on a 'phone.

**malvolio** · 17 July 2025, 13:00

Originally posted by malvolio View Post

Funny. Used HSBC for thirty years. Had one problem in 2005 (corrupted account password), fixed over the phone in 20 minutes, never had a glitch of any kind ever since. It just works...

For the financially sensitive among us, it costs £8 a month in bank charges now, or around £2k since I opened the account.

AH. Not long after posting his, I got a letter from HSBC saying the £8 a month is being dropped so no further routine charges...

**ladymuck** · 18 July 2025, 11:39

Originally posted by malvolio View Post

AH. Not long after posting his, I got a letter from HSBC saying the £8 a month is being dropped so no further routine charges...

Yep, got the same letter recently. Obviously the cheaper challenger banks are having an impact.

What annoyed me recently about HSBC was that they know I am based in West London but still sent a debit card to a branch in Brighton because that's where the account was assigned to, 20 years ago. I asked if they could post it to the correspondence address or, failing that, the branch that's 5 mins away from said address and... silence. So I opened a business account with Monzo and keep a small float in there for the occasional debit card payment I need to make.

**jamesbrown** · 18 July 2025, 17:18

FWIW:

https://www.bva-bdrc.com/business-ba...great-britain/

**malvolio** · 18 July 2025, 20:03

Originally posted by jamesbrown View Post

FWIW:

https://www.bva-bdrc.com/business-ba...great-britain/

Speaking as someone working in and around customer service for many years, there is potentially a fallacy at work.

It occurs to me that many companies are stressing the quality of their service, when what it really means is that you need to make use of their support services because something isn't working as it should.

So you can also infer that if things don't go wrong you don't use their support services and so they score less on the quality of that service.

Business Bank account for NewCo