Reply to: Company credit card Q

[veryinteresting]

I have a company card offered by MBNA. No annual fee. Only complaint I have is that they didn't offer the option of automatically paying the balance in full by direct debit without me having to phone them up and arrange it. (I'm sure you can normally opt for this on the form when you apply for a card.)

I doubt it they have just changed their t&C to make their minimum payment what ever the monthly interest is + £5.

They are actively going out of their way to make you pay your balance off over a longer period.

[holsson]

Yeah great that deposit account:

If you have savings or surplus funds that you will not need to access for three months or more."

No such restrictions on Cater Allen and one account gives you both free banking and high interest.

Next (moron)

HSBC do also have their Business Esaver account with 3.96% gross interest.

[ratewhore]

cash is king!! Mine is stuffed in my mattress and like a true contractor, my nose touches my bedroom ceiling...

[DimPrawn]

I thought that with your fat savings 3 months shouldn't be a problem, little prawn...
Anyway I just wanted to give some useful info...your response proves that sometimes IQ is not proportional with the rate
BTW I opened last month a new savings account via Internet Banking, have you heard of that concept?

Yes Viktor you win, it's a great deal, well done, enjoy, have a pint on me.

I'll stick to getting a grand in interest and having a no limits or restrictions, no costs, one single simple account with a superb UK call centre.

[DimPrawn]

We use HSBC and have been very impressed, we have a pesonal business bank manager, she is very good, no free banking, but ho hum, turnover is nice and high. Business CC, the works, what is also nice is if you need to raise the limit of a card for a month or two they will just do it, good example is one card had a 10k limit, and I needed an extra 5k on it for a month, she said no problem, do you want an extra 2.5k !!! very very good, only problem is the call centre is in Asia somwhere, but with the busniess bank manager I don't need to use it!!!

So you get no interest, pay bank charges, have limits imposed on your card (Cater Allen has no limit on cards) and your call centre is in India.

Sounds great, where do I sign?

[Viktor]

Yeah great that deposit account:

If you have savings or surplus funds that you will not need to access for three months or more."

No such restrictions on Cater Allen and one account gives you both free banking and high interest.

Next (moron)

I thought that with your fat savings 3 months shouldn't be a problem, little prawn...
Anyway I just wanted to give some useful info...your response proves that sometimes IQ is not proportional with the rate
BTW I opened last month a new savings account via Internet Banking, have you heard of that concept?

[n5gooner]

We use HSBC and have been very impressed, we have a pesonal business bank manager, she is very good, no free banking, but ho hum, turnover is nice and high. Business CC, the works, what is also nice is if you need to raise the limit of a card for a month or two they will just do it, good example is one card had a 10k limit, and I needed an extra 5k on it for a month, she said no problem, do you want an extra 2.5k !!! very very good, only problem is the call centre is in Asia somwhere, but with the busniess bank manager I don't need to use it!!!

[DimPrawn]

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/a...usiness-direct

you have free banking for annual turnover up to 500.000 £ (should be enough even for DomPrawn and his fat rates FFS )

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/s...t-deposit-bond

"If you want a guaranteed rate of interest up to 4.40% AER/Gross* with fixed terms up to 3 years (*annual interest)." - you need minimum 5.000 for a 3 months deposit

Sorted.
Next...

Yeah great that deposit account:

If you have savings or surplus funds that you will not need to access for three months or more."

No such restrictions on Cater Allen and one account gives you both free banking and high interest.

Next (moron)

[Viktor]

The biggest benefit of Cater Allen (apart from the best call centre in the UK), is that for their investment account (which is ideal for IT contractors who only make a small number of transactions) pays you interest at 3.546 gross % (AER), which means you may get over £1000 free over a year for using them.

Which of the other banks charges zero and pays you a grand for banking with them? And after 6 months you get a free Visa deferred payment card.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/a...usiness-direct

you have free banking for annual turnover up to 500.000 £ (should be enough even for DomPrawn and his fat rates FFS )

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/business/s...t-deposit-bond

"If you want a guaranteed rate of interest up to 4.40% AER/Gross* with fixed terms up to 3 years (*annual interest)." - you need minimum 5.000 for a 3 months deposit

Sorted.
Next...

[DimPrawn]

The biggest benefit of Cater Allen (apart from the best call centre in the UK), is that for their investment account (which is ideal for IT contractors who only make a small number of transactions) pays you interest at 3.546 gross % (AER), which means you may get over £1000 free over a year for using them.

Which of the other banks charges zero and pays you a grand for banking with them? And after 6 months you get a free Visa deferred payment card.

[IR35 Avoider]

I have a company card offered by MBNA. No annual fee. Only complaint I have is that they didn't offer the option of automatically paying the balance in full by direct debit without me having to phone them up and arrange it. (I'm sure you can normally opt for this on the form when you apply for a card.)

[martinb]

Seems that Cater Allen is a favourite bank for most contractors here...
Do you have some esoteric advantages if you go with them? I mean some fantastic high-interest rate etc. ?I am with HSBC, they have free banking (even after 12 months), Internet banking (we are in the 21st century FFS ), interest above 4% for 3 months deposit, business credit cards etc.

Agree with you. I'm also with HSBC. Opening the account was simple (might have helped I have held a personal account with them for 20+ years). Credit card straight away. The oft quoted "advanatge" of Cater Allen is that they have a UK Call Centre which is free. But since I use internet banking (which Cater Allen dont seem to have) thats also free. I've never had to call them.

In fact, HSBC called me when I had some spare money floating in my business account suggesting I may want top move it to a different account with better interest. And last week I got a phone call from them inviting me to a workshop to review their services for small businesses - for which they would pay me £50.

[Denny]

The great thing about CA is that they give you a freephone number to ring and a real person actually answers it within 2 seconds of dialling the number.

Far cry from endless menus and human robots who can only speak fluent script.

[Badgers Armpit]

Just checked with Cater Allen, same outcome as djfoot - they won't consider the application until after 6 months, unless you can provide details of another account holding with a minimum of £15K balance.

Will now have to consider if I can get a company credit card elsewhere, or just use my personal one . . .

[MrsGoof]

Do you have some esoteric advantages i.

Nope

I've just moved from tem to Abbey (a very slowwwwww painful experience)

The only thing I can see they offer is that the call centre is manned by UK based personnel and they know what they are doing.

HTH

MG