Banking (woohhoooo)

[Richard]

Ok, probably the most boring topic to ever be posted on bluemoon, but nonetheless I need your advice. Just started my own business and need to know which the best bank is to go with. Do different banks offer certain different things or are they pretty much all the same for small business? Im not asking for a loan or anything like that I just merely need a bank account to store all the millions Im going to make. Anyone in that industry or knows things like that?

Oh and to liven the thread up..............

 

[bornblueegg]

Depends on what you're going to do with that cat mate!

No really depends on what type of banking requirements you have?

Will you need regular overdrafts, large capital outlay for stock etc.

If you know a good(!) IVA who could help

 

[Ghost in my house]

A few points that have worked for me:
Look for a bank that will offer free banking (or free for a decent period). It's accepted that business banking is chargable as a service eventhough you may make less transactions that a personal account. For example, I use my HSBC business account to receive payment for my consultancy services and then transfer that cash to my First Direct personal account. The good thing with the HSBC/First Direct relationship means that my funds clear immediately when being sent from my HSBC business account. Remember that it might take 3 days if you are transferring between non-affiliated banks.

I can recommend going into a branch to set up your account rather than over the phone/internet as there are unavoidable delays in posting forms back and forth if using the phone/web. Saying that, do ensure that you can set up a zero fee web account in store. I did with HSBC but RBS were adament that I had to complete my full application online and via post to get the zero fee account.

Be prepared for mountains of junk mail......!!

 

[scall11]

I'm with HSBC, got a years free when I signed up, but most people offer that as standard. To be honest, it'll be little things like what their online banking's like that would persuade me. (HSBC's online banking is pretty easy to use). It just depends what business you're going into. I'm a gardener, so am constantly paying cheques in. And they charge you every time you take money out with your Switch card and stuff, so just watch out for things like that.

But apart from that, it's like computers, people always ask "Is this a good computer? What about this one, it's got blah blah of RAM etc". They're all the same to be honest.

Look at factors like:
- How often are you going to go to the branch, if it's often, which branch has decent parking
- Where's your nearest bank, do they offer business banking, if so it'll make it easy to pop down if you need to
- Who looks like they offer more extra freebies if you sign up?