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Wrekin C S

  • Posts: 486
Free Business Banking?
« on: July 05, 2010, 04:46:47 pm »
Hi,

Im looking for free business banking anyone know of any banks doing this? I heard of someone on here a good while back saying they had got it permenantly through co-op  - I think? Cant remember who it was now?...

Cheers
Wrekin

SB Cleaning

  • Posts: 4284
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2010, 04:59:54 pm »
Natwest free for 2 years.

LWC

  • Posts: 6824
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2010, 05:09:50 pm »
Abbey/santander for life

Paul Coleman

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2010, 05:39:02 pm »
Hi,

Im looking for free business banking anyone know of any banks doing this? I heard of someone on here a good while back saying they had got it permenantly through co-op  - I think? Cant remember who it was now?...

Cheers
Wrekin

Possibly me but it may have been someone else.
My experiences with free business banking are as follows:-

Started with Abbey/Santander.  Up to 100 cheques per month (month is counted from the date in the month when account is opened rather than 1st of the month).  Also up to £3k cash permonth.  Beyond these limits, 50p per item is charged (or a % of cash).  No problem.  Those limits will cover most sole traders.  The big problems with Abbey/Santander are (a) the generally poor communication and (b) they will not show you the reference numbers that you give customers who pay by bank transfer.  (b) will probably become more and more important as cheques are phased out.  I put in a formal complaint about it because they used to show the references then they removed them.  Although I had few enough BACS payers to be able to track down who had paid, it was awkward at times when a surname and an amount were duplicated e.g. which Smith who pays £20 has the payment come from?  The references I supply to customers are their house number (or an abbreviation of their house name) plus their postcode.  Clearly, removing these references would cause me a problem as the number of BACS payments increases in the coming years.
So my next move was to open an account with Co-op.  This is free but only because I pay to be a member of the FSB.  However, even allowing for that it is a very cheap account.  For a sole trader, FSB membership costs £100 a year (a bit more for the first year).  This is tax deductible so will probably only cost c. £72 in reality.  Also, the Co-op pay £25 a year into your account each anniversary making the real cost £47 (it may be a bit more if the £25 has to be taxed - I haven't looked into that yet).
With the Co-op, the BACS references are displayed as are the names of the paying customers.  Unfortunately, it can be tricky paying in cash and cheques as they have to be done via a pre-nominated  post office. You can nominate up to four.  I was going to nominate four POs dotted around my business but you're not meant to do that (I didn't understand why).  However, depositing with Abbey/Santander is easy for me as I'm a few minutes walk from a cashpoint.  Deposits must be made by ATM or post with them.

So I am now in the situation where I have two business accounts for one business.  I use Co-op to receive the bank transfers and Abbey/Santander to deposit cash and cheques via ATM.
Trying to get Santander to understand my predicament was like headbutting a toilet brick wall.
So I gave up.

4Taz

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2010, 05:56:14 pm »
I use Santander/Abbey. Very happy to date. Pay in through any Post Office.

Ask customers to put their address down in the payment reference - easy as.

jjames

  • Posts: 142
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2010, 05:59:49 pm »
I Use Santander for 1 business and they are very very good. I use co-op for my other business and they are hard to deal with and I find very disorganised. I would defo recommend Santander>

e newlands

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2010, 07:59:34 pm »
lloyds

Paul Coleman

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2010, 08:03:48 pm »
I use Santander/Abbey. Very happy to date. Pay in through any Post Office.

Ask customers to put their address down in the payment reference - easy as.

But Abbey/Santander do not display that reference.

prestige cleaners

  • Posts: 1038
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2010, 08:05:59 pm »
i changed from lloyds as the charges were just rediculous, 20p per check, 50p each time you deposit, it would have worked out about £30 per month after the 2 yr free banking ended.

im with alliance and leicester now its mostly free (soon to become santander) and like the fact i can deposit at any p.o.

the only the gripe is the £7.50p charge for bounced chqs, had about 4 in a month the other day, not happy.  

Paul Coleman

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2010, 08:06:45 pm »
I Use Santander for 1 business and they are very very good. I use co-op for my other business and they are hard to deal with and I find very disorganised. I would defo recommend Santander>

I agree Santander are OK but for the lack of pay references.  I have had other issues with both banks but that is probably no more than you would get with any bank.  The important bit is what a bank does in order to resolve an error and how long they take to do it.

4Taz

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #10 on: July 05, 2010, 08:33:29 pm »
I use Santander/Abbey. Very happy to date. Pay in through any Post Office.

Ask customers to put their address down in the payment reference - easy as.

But Abbey/Santander do not display that reference.

They do on mine   ;)

Paul Coleman

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2010, 08:45:22 pm »
I use Santander/Abbey. Very happy to date. Pay in through any Post Office.

Ask customers to put their address down in the payment reference - easy as.

But Abbey/Santander do not display that reference.

They do on mine   ;)

I've just noticed that you can pay in at Post Offices.  Does that mean you have the Alliance and Leicester version of Abbey/Santander?  It can get a bit confusing keeping track of it  ;D .  I think there's the Bradford and Bingley version, the Alliance and Leicester version and the Abbey/Santander version - all with different gremlins and benefits.  I imagine Santander will make them all uniform eventually and it is in the lap of the gods which system they will adopt for all accounts.  And therein lies part of the problem IMO - they are poor communicators and keep customers guessing too much.
I even asked the complaints dept. at Santander if it was OK for me to pay my credit card bill to them by just quoting "P Coleman" as the reference instead of the 16 digit card number.  My sarcasm was not appreciated  ;D .

prestige cleaners

  • Posts: 1038
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #12 on: July 05, 2010, 08:53:59 pm »
ha ha nice one paul.

4Taz

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #13 on: July 05, 2010, 10:06:57 pm »
I use Santander/Abbey. Very happy to date. Pay in through any Post Office.

Ask customers to put their address down in the payment reference - easy as.

But Abbey/Santander do not display that reference.

They do on mine   ;)

I've just noticed that you can pay in at Post Offices.  Does that mean you have the Alliance and Leicester version of Abbey/Santander?  It can get a bit confusing keeping track of it  ;D .  I think there's the Bradford and Bingley version, the Alliance and Leicester version and the Abbey/Santander version - all with different gremlins and benefits.  I imagine Santander will make them all uniform eventually and it is in the lap of the gods which system they will adopt for all accounts.  And therein lies part of the problem IMO - they are poor communicators and keep customers guessing too much.
I even asked the complaints dept. at Santander if it was OK for me to pay my credit card bill to them by just quoting "P Coleman" as the reference instead of the 16 digit card number.  My sarcasm was not appreciated  ;D .

Yes - mine is A&L version. Just ask for custies to identify their property in the payment info & name if possible. Get two different references - not sure what they are called but they are more easily identifiable online (next time I log on to my account I will look what they are called). On the paper statements they are not quite so clear.

I never send cheques to be paid in by post - always by the Post Office. I've only ever had one cheque go astray & that was in A&L offices. It was quickly found as  it had account number on reverse.

prestige cleaners

  • Posts: 1038
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2010, 11:10:09 pm »
i should write my account no on my chqs, too lazy, never had a problem in the year ive been with them though,

4Taz

Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #15 on: July 06, 2010, 10:03:21 am »
I use Santander/Abbey. Very happy to date. Pay in through any Post Office.

Ask customers to put their address down in the payment reference - easy as.

But Abbey/Santander do not display that reference.

They do on mine   ;)

I've just noticed that you can pay in at Post Offices.  Does that mean you have the Alliance and Leicester version of Abbey/Santander?  It can get a bit confusing keeping track of it  ;D .  I think there's the Bradford and Bingley version, the Alliance and Leicester version and the Abbey/Santander version - all with different gremlins and benefits.  I imagine Santander will make them all uniform eventually and it is in the lap of the gods which system they will adopt for all accounts.  And therein lies part of the problem IMO - they are poor communicators and keep customers guessing too much.
I even asked the complaints dept. at Santander if it was OK for me to pay my credit card bill to them by just quoting "P Coleman" as the reference instead of the 16 digit card number.  My sarcasm was not appreciated  ;D .



Just looked this morning - last payment in to account had custies name & 1st line of address in 'Transaction Description' & address repeated again in 'Payment Reference'. These headings do not appear on paper statements but the details still do.

DaveG

  • Posts: 6347
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #16 on: July 06, 2010, 11:33:55 am »
Nationwide..(dont tell them its a business account tho!!!)  ;)
You can't polish a turd

Alistair@AWC

  • Posts: 880
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #17 on: July 06, 2010, 11:38:35 am »
the only the gripe is the £7.50p charge for bounced chqs, had about 4 in a month the other day, not happy.  

I'm with Alliance & Leicester and that is my only gripe as well, luckily the charge is being abolished in a couple of months!

prestige cleaners

  • Posts: 1038
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2010, 06:58:00 pm »
where did you hear that al?

Alistair@AWC

  • Posts: 880
Re: Free Business Banking?
« Reply #19 on: July 06, 2010, 07:12:08 pm »
I read it in the new terms & conditions that they sent through as a part of the switch over to Santander