Business Bank Accounts

well the need to use a proper business account has finally arisen.

I do all my personal banking with Barclays and I rate them pretty highly but they are one of the most expensive for business banking.

Has anyone got any views on HSBC. They’ve got better rates and 18 months free but I’ve been on hold for over half an hour trying to talk to them about the application I’ve started online!

A quick google shows they were voted 9th in customer satisfaction survey carried out on business accounts in August.

Not sure whether to stump the extra money a month for Barclays.

 

I've got Barclays personal and business...I think it's £6/mo for the business plus fees for paying in. A rip-off in my mind but very useful having them both available in the one app. They even made the decision for me not to renew my debit card....because I didn't use it (actually I did on the rare occasion I paid cheques in).

 

I wouldn't recommend HSBC. Their business account portal (hsbcnet) is an appallingly bad interface - every time we have to do something for the first time we need to get on to their help desk for an hour at a time to get it configured.
There are far more important things that a business needs to concentrate on than trying to figure out how their banking software works...

 

if you're in the federation of small businesses you get (mostly) free banking from CoOpBank

they charge you to pay in cash, first £1000/month is free

they haven't charged me for anything else, cheques in/out, online banking, direct debits, transfers etc. etc.

 

I was with Barclays for twenty years, buisiness account, then they started closing branches & became very expensive. Totally unhelpful so i switched to Loyds TSB, they were much better. Following the IT debacle recently a lot of people left.
I have stuck with them, good service in a local branch & much better deal all round. Current account with interest as well.

 

im with hsbc there all robbing b ankers

 

I have been happy with Natwest since i changed at the start of the year.

 

Yep Nat West for me too. Only chose them as they had a branch next to where I was working at the time. They've closed it since, but they seem ok. £5 monthly fee

 

I’m with NatWest and my free period is nearly up, I like them so far but let’s see what it’s going to cost me

 

I run two businesses with Lloyd’s after changing from HSBC.

Lloyd’s good.
HSBC bad.

 

Natwest for us, £5 a month max charges but any use comes out of until you hit £5....
Used TSB for another business and that was awful!

 

I had mine with HSBC but they have decided to close it for some unknown reason. Today I met with the business manager at Lloyds and opened an account with them. Pretty quick meeting and it was all sorted.

Online banking available straight away and will have a card in 7 days.

 

You are going in to the welding/manufacturing industry? Go for the one offering the largest overdraft facility

 

Just contract welding thank god. Had that headache before so know what you mean!

 

Used HSBC, and they closed both personal and business accounts, absolutely terrible service anyway so won’t be going back.

With Yorkshire Bank currently, as I got 18 months free banking with them. Didn’t get an overdraft as I shouldn’t need one

 

Good luck with HSBC Brad. Your experience of too much wasted time on the phone is one of the reasons I closed my business account with them only this week. My problems started a few months ago with their "safeguarding" review (check out others problems with this before you commit), which kept insisting I hadn't entered correct address details, even though they have been happily sending all correspondence to it for the last 6 years. I even received letters at this same "incorrect" address to say that if I didn't supply "correct" information, the account would be closed.

I changed to the Yorkshire Bank. No more bank charges for the next 18 months and much cleaner interface to use online.

 

I think I’ll go with Barclays!

That’s terrible.

 

HSBC are very active on CiSP, doesn't help on the charges front, but they are very security aware.

 

I have banked with lloyds since god was a boy and things have changed for the worse, managers are all gone and everything is dealt with by a call center which normally means a morning in the office sorting things that used to take seconds.Really not impressed with faceless banking and preferred the branch manager set up.

Bob

 

You must have heard my feed back last time barclays rang me, about their customer service. Think they are all as bad as each other one way or another!