Originally posted by chef
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Anyway, it did take them over a month to open my account. You may read some reports if you search of people moaning about poor customer service and mistakes. I read about this, but then when I then looked at all the other Buisiness current accounts then none of them rated very highly at all! Out of 10 Marks, they were all around the 1-2 mark. So, I assumed this was people posting extreme examples about all the banks.
Anyway - may be the long delay was due to excessive start-ups at that time, as lots of organisations had lots of new applicants (wonder why!)
Anyway, with A&L I chose their Business Builder account at that time which was meant to be No Fees at all for 2 years, BUT! I only recently discovered they require proof of your business being <6 months old and they never asked for this (even though I ticked the box), and hence until this month when I noticed they charged me £5.
To cut a long story short, you need to fund the 'Current' Account with at least £1000 a month otherwise they charge £5. This seems odd though as if the money comes form another A&L then they deem this not to be external. So, if it so happens the agency or company you work for also banks with them you will always be charged £5 no matter what! Seems silly to me.
For reasons Alan Nixon mentioned earlier - about moving money around to linked higher interest account. A&L link your current account to a 'Reserve' which does pay well. Because of the fiddling about, I changed my incoming BACS payments to go directly to the reserve account as it saves moving it about later. Although having said that, as it is an internal account when you transfer funds it all happens same day anyway. But it can get messy.
Thing about the 'Business Builder' is they told me I could transfer back onto it - which means I'd save the £5 admin fee, as it would be NO FEE and no minimum finding required. BUT! If you choose Business Builder you don't get any interest on the Current Account! You need to balance what Float you think you'll have in the Current Account which does pay a good 6.5% on the first £1,000 only and then 0.1 for the rest.
Sorry to go on so much, but with £1000 in the current you'd earn about £5.41 a month, whereas with Buisiness Builder you'd avoid paying £5 admin if you don't credit it with £1000 from a non A&L account - but you get NO INTEREST with Buiness Builder on the Current Account.
For me, I've decided not to move to the Builder as the two things above cancel each other out, and I'm still 41p better off! I could change my direct deposits back to my Current, but then I never know what Bank payments will come from and then you have to fiddle every week tranferring money to the Reserve Account.
Clear? Good! Also, they will default to sending you an 'Electron Card' - this is useless for most places. I phoned them up and then sent me a Debit card with no problem within a few days.
By the way the Reserve account is currently 4.85 on the first £50,000, then 5.55 above, and you can still setup outgoing BACS and incoming just the same as the Current. I only transfer funds back to the current when I need to write a cheque - which isn't often. (every 3 months for VAT, etc.....) Still worth keeping a £1000 float in it anyway due to the higher interest on the first £1000. 6.5%
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