[RO-Sheen]

When I started my biz 17 months ago I was given 18 months free banking with lloyds but it is now running out. I resent paying the charges for cash and cheque deposits therefore would like to find a bank that offers free banking.
I know Aliance and Leicester do but you need to deposit via a postoffice.

Any ideas?

[Clear Vision]

Well........

Only one answer to that.

Use a personal account.

I know plenty of self employed people who do.  It's not ilegal, its just frowned upon by the bank as they are loosing out.

[RO-Sheen]

I did consider that but I would prefer to have my customers writing my company name (RO-sheen) on the cheques.
I had a meeting with my bank manager the other day and I told him that I do not want to pay the charges for deposits but I was happy to pay for the £3 monthly charge. Still waiting to hear back......................

[Clear Vision]

I did consider that but I would prefer to have my customers writing my company name (RO-sheen) on the cheques.
I had a meeting with my bank manager the other day and I told him that I do not want to pay the charges for deposits but I was happy to pay for the £3 monthly charge. Still waiting to hear back......................

I know what you mean.

Up to you in the end.

Hope you hear something possitive back from your bank

[Trevor Knight]

Banks are a funny lot.

It really depends on what your turnover through the bank is that will determine what your charges are structured at.

If you are banking lots of cheques the bank derive a lot of interest on the back of this transaction as the money sits in their holding account whilst they tell you it takes 5 days to clear etc...Try and get your customers to pay direct into your account or on Standing Order, takes the same time to clear but less work for the bank!

Likewise with cash, its like us in a way, the more cash we use the more our money sits in the bank earning interest so think along those lines.

I recently had a review with our rogue of an account manager and hard balled him into giving us free transactions on all cash and cheque deposits with a fixed monthly account fee. Remember these guys are target driven and if you walk out the door taking a turnover of x away from his figures he inturn has to be accountable for this!

Try to pay your bills via online facilities, the more cheques you write the more administration you cause the banks, we pay everything via BACS and have never written a cheque for as long as I can remember for the business. Again this all helps towards reducing costs.

Maybe in the future banks will become so automated that they will be run via call centres and the need for premises and staff that we the customer pays for will be a thing of the past.

Who knows?

[Pittmonkey]

I'm with A+l Everything free for 2yrs for new start ups. After two yrs if you deposit 1k plus a month into account it's still free. otherwise I think it's a std £5 for the month.  

More info
https://www.alliance-leicestercommercialbank.co.uk/content/HP000001.asp

It's very handy for me as the PO is directly across the road from me. Nearest bank is 2.5 miles away. You can deposit by post for cq's. Keep cash for your drawinngs.

Wayne

[Paul Coleman]

I'm with Abbey.
100 cheques per month free.
Up to £3,000 a month cash free.
Electronic transactions free.
This is "for life" (it doesn't state whether it the length of your life or their's) 
The account is pretty basic.  The biggest drawback is that if someone pays you electronically from a personal account, you only get the account holder's name.  You won't get any reference number you supply until the monthly paper statement comes in.
The branch won't deal with you directly.  All deposits must be carried out at the cashpoint.  It can lead to a glut of coinage if you have a lot of domestic customers who pay by cash.  I just use these as part of my personal drawings though.  I occasionally get funny looks if I go out for a meal and pay by coin but they smile again when they get a tip    .

[Central Window Cleaners]

I have used Abbey for 4 years now free of charge, like you say the only draw back is the lack of facilities to deposit coins.

[Paul Coleman]

I have used Abbey for 4 years now free of charge, like you say the only draw back is the lack of facilities to deposit coins.

I find the coin issue an inconvenience.  I feel that the biggest inconvenience is  not getting the payer's full details until the paper statement arrives.  If they would resolve this and supply those full details on the internet banking site, I would be trying to switch a lot more of my customers over to electronic payments.  As things stand, I only have some commercial jobs (company name supplied on internet banking) and a couple of domestic customers paying electronically.  With a postal strike threatening, this could be a serious inconvenience.  A large percentage of my cashflow comes through my letterbox and I could end up in serious difficulties without that.  Also, many of my commercial invoices are posted though I could get their email addresses and supply .pdf files for those.
If only Abbey would actually listen to its customers.
I am considering switching banks after 25 years purely because of this one issue.

[Count Phil]

open a new account with a slightly different name.
So Ro-sheen cleaning services. You can still take cheques with Ro-sheen on or the full name. To make it a bit different call it Ro-sheen carpet cleaning. Seems like a totaly different business to the n=bank, the customers still write cheques to Ro-sheen and are none the wiser. 18 months more free banking.

[Helen]

RO, go back an talk to Lloyds, they may just put you on a sliding scale discount over the next 5 years. we had this agreement and it works well. Remember that bank charges are reclaimable, so come off your year end figures. We looked at other "free" banking, but to be honest none could offer the service that Lloyds have given us.

[niceandclean]

Were with Co Op, free business banking for life. I joined through FSB, cost £100 to join them, but has been worth every penny, used there legal advice 3 or 4 times, got discounts on nemerous things. Will defo sign up with them for 3rd year!

[TVCS]

I`m with the Co-OP too. I was with Lloyds (theiving) TSB and as soon as the free banking period was up I switched. 
Join the FSB and look into it.