Reply to: Who's good for easy business banking these days?

[adubya]

I've recently moved from Cater Allen to Starling for my business current account. The move process was all manual as dinosaur CA don't support CASS (current account switching service) so that was a bit of a pain. All done now though and Starling is great, near-instantaneous integration with Freeagent, instant faster payments, app notification of account credits. All good.

[SuperLooper]

Starling / Xero integration appears to be working like a dream, FWIW.

A little bit of a pain getting all the payees sorted out, they didn't come over very cleanly in the transfer from our prior bank. Looks like all direct debits came over ok. So far, pretty happy with this.

Nice. Thanks for reporting back.

[WordIsBond]

You may as well just sign up and give it a try then; you've got nothing to lose, and you obviously don't need to switch away from your existing bank if you're not completely happy. You could well be the first person on these forums to try out the Starling/Xero integration, so please report back.

Starling / Xero integration appears to be working like a dream, FWIW.

A little bit of a pain getting all the payees sorted out, they didn't come over very cleanly in the transfer from our prior bank. Looks like all direct debits came over ok. So far, pretty happy with this.

[WordIsBond]

Which to me sounds like the money for each individual account is secure? I don't think they would get away with lying about it?

Oh, they aren't lying. They also aren't telling you what happens if Barclays goes out of business, are they?

If any group like this has anyone with brains behind it, they will be telling you that your funds are protected to £85K by FSCS. They will say so very, very specifically. They aren't telling you that. So either they are idiots or your funds aren't protected to £85K by FSCS. I'll opt for the latter, they aren't idiots.

If Barclays goes under, you'll lose your money. Yes, it is probably safe if Coconut goes under. Barclays would never fail, of course. No banks ever do, right?

I can't see using it at all, but if I did, I certainly wouldn't be leaving much money in it.

[genius]

If Barclays goes out of business, are you protected by FSCS, or not? Is the money in a Barclays account in your name, or in Coconut's? Is £85K of your money protected, or £85K of Coconut's (spread across all their account holders, meaning effectively nothing)?

It says

In the unlikely event that Coconut or our payments provider PPS, which is owned by Mastercard, went out of business, your money is only accessible by you."

Which to me sounds like the money for each individual account is secure? I don't think they would get away with lying about it?

So not a proper bank - hard pass. Although I can see the value in it for people that don't use accountant that offers FA/Xero.

What is the risk of coconut? I don't keep a lot of money in my coconut account (less than £10k atm). But interested if I should look for a different alternative.

[Spoiler]

Another bank I'm keeping my eye on (well, acutally I've opened a business account with them as a backup): mettle

- Free banking
- Curently lets you have a balance of up to £100k, but I tend to shift my balance into a savings account anyway
- Part of NatWest

[sal]

Be aware that Tide doesn't run on jailbroken phones. That ruled things out for me.

Clydesdale/Yorkshire, TSB have been nice and easy for me and run on all devices.

Why on earth would you risk putting your banking on a jailbroken phone? (Why even jailbreak a phone for that matter...)

Coconut is a business current account, not a bank. The Coconut current account is an e-money account

So not a proper bank - hard pass. Although I can see the value in it for people that don't use accountant that offers FA/Xero.

Personally the only reason I haven't moved to Starling and keep paying Barlcays £6.5/month is that my main personal account is with Starling and I don't like the risk of having both personal and business account with the same bank.

Looked at Tide, but didn't like the £0.2/transaction fee.

Metro bank is free for the most part, but they are wobbly at the moment so not worth the risk of switching to them.

I will postpone the decision until I start my next contract, but most likely will take the risk and go with Starling as they have been brilliant with my personal account thus far and mitigate the risk of having both with the same bank in other ways.

[Amanensia]

I've been with Cater Allen for nigh on 20 years. Their almighty cluster-... when updating their (admittedly antediluvian) internet banking software recently has driven me away, so I opened up a Starling account. I'd been playing around with the Starling personal account for a year or so, not as a main account, just seeing how it worked out, and it was good enough that I decided to move my business banking.

I'm only a few weeks in but it's looking very good. Moved over all my regular transactions manually easily enough, and no fees. It appears they don't have plans to introduce fees for small companies - and to be honest I can't see why they should need to, after all the personal accounts are free (and indeed pay interest) and they must make money on those - does it really cost any more to run a business account, particularly a small company where there aren't hundreds of transactions a month?

I've kept the Cater Allen account with £100 in it for now just in case but I can't really visualise wanting to go back.

[WordIsBond]

Although Coconut guarantees the safety of your money in a different way, it seems ok, if not better:

If Barclays goes out of business, are you protected by FSCS, or not? Is the money in a Barclays account in your name, or in Coconut's? Is £85K of your money protected, or £85K of Coconut's (spread across all their account holders, meaning effectively nothing)?

With Transferwise, it's the latter. I use TW all the time but never leave money in it because it isn't protected. £85K of TW money is protected, which is meaningless.

[genius]

Also had a look at Coconut.
However I'm getting confused as to what you need nowadays
I have Cater Allen, Dolan & Freeagent.

When I look at Coconut I don't need FreeAgent or maybe even an Accountant.
The lines are blurred it seems.

If I change to say Starling - as the Business Current Account, and use Coconut - then I don't really need anything else?
Quite impressed with what I see at the Coconut on web site they explain their tech stack and even a public product roadmap on trello.

The one thing missing for me in Coconut is VAT returns, but it says on their site that feature is in development.

But Starling is a real bank with the 85k FSCS guarantee and Coconut isn't. Although Coconut guarantees the safety of your money in a different way, it seems ok, if not better:

"With Coconut, your funds are held in a segregated account in Barclays, protected under the FCA's safeguarding rules.

If you deposit your money in a traditional bank account, your bank can lend out your money to other customers and it means that the funds are at risk. Because of this, the banks pay into an insurance scheme called Financial Services Compensation Scheme which guarantees up to £85,000 in the event that the bank finds itself unable to pay back your deposits.

We come under the FCA's e-money rules and your deposits with Coconut aren't lent out or put at risk by us, so they aren't covered by the FSCS. They are held in a safeguarded Barclays account and there are strong restrictions on what Barclays can do with the funds. In the unlikely event that Coconut or our payments provider PPS, which is owned by Mastercard, went out of business, your money is only accessible by you."

[genius]

They will soon, otherwise they have no future


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Maybe in the future but it definitely hasn't been announced so it's misleading to say that.

Coconut already has monthly fee options but none of the features offered are things I need. I think Starling however is always free.

[GhostofTarbera]

Starling and Coconut

Both don't charge any fees

They will soon, otherwise they have no future


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[ravenscroft]

Also had a look at Coconut.
However I'm getting confused as to what you need nowadays
I have Cater Allen, Dolan & Freeagent.

When I look at Coconut I don't need FreeAgent or maybe even an Accountant.
The lines are blurred it seems.

If I change to say Starling - as the Business Current Account, and use Coconut - then I don't really need anything else?
Quite impressed with what I see at the Coconut on web site they explain their tech stack and even a public product roadmap on trello.

[genius]

Starling and Coconut

Both don't charge any fees

[WordIsBond]

you've got nothing to lose

except time and hassle, if it doesn't go well.

This doesn't look promising, TBH. That's recent, no indication on the thread that things were resolved.