Business bank accounts

[Muffster]

Does anyone use them?
I keep getting told if a bank charges me to use an account for business purposes then simply move to a different bank. I thought all banks would charge for this type of account.
So, which one do you use, is it possible to set one up without being stung for associated costs?

Thanks.

[trickywoo]

Most will do 12 months free for new customers but then charge after that.

Lots of cash being deposited and foreign receipts / payments will generally cost more.

You can of course keep changing banks every 12 months.

[0000]

I don't pay anything with Cater Allen.

[jammy_basturd]

0000 said:

I don't pay anything with Cater Allen.

Ditto.

[R1 Indy]

Hsbc only charge me for banking cash.
Bacs transfers are free.

Any cash i pay in, i pay into my personal account then transfer it to the business account

[bp1]

jammy_basturd said:

0000 said:

I don't pay anything with Cater Allen.

Ditto.

You pay once you go over 30 transactions per month at 75p a pop.

[hotchy]

R1 Indy said:

Hsbc only charge me for banking cash.
Bacs transfers are free.

Any cash i pay in, i pay into my personal account then transfer it to the business account

This. Before internet banking i used to pay into a nationwide, write a check and put it in my business bank. Used to give me no fees. They stopped that though.

[All that jazz]

I've had a business account with Santander <spit> for donkeys now and never paid a penny in charges. It's somewhat basic in that there are no counter services and you must use the deposit envelopes for cash and cheques via Santander ATMs but it's extremely rare I ever need to use them as 99% of my business income is BACS into the account. On the odd occasion I've had cause to contact them, the business banking call centre in Glasgow(?) have been good at quickly sorting stuff out.

Now Santander non-business side, on the other hand......

[Muffster]

The account will be for a small property company to hold some cash in and pay rent into.
Never heard of Cater Allen before. I only really need some basic facilities. Would they be able to do this?

All that jazz, could i do direct payments into the account rather than going into a branch and depositing?

Thanks.

[All that jazz]

Muffster said:

The account will be for a small property company to hold some cash in and pay rent into.
Never heard of Cater Allen before. I only really need some basic facilities. Would they be able to do this?

All that jazz, could i do direct payments into the account rather than going into a branch and depositing?

Thanks.

What exactly do you mean by "direct payments into the account"? If you mean electronic BACS transfers from one bank account to another, yes, of course.

Cater Allen is for powerfully built company directors only and has strict rules. You need £5k opening balance and you need to maintain that or higher otherwise you'll be fined.

[jammy_basturd]

All that jazz said:

What exactly do you mean by "direct payments into the account"? If you mean electronic BACS transfers from one bank account to another, yes, of course.

Cater Allen is for powerfully built company directors only and has strict rules. You need £5k opening balance and you need to maintain that or higher otherwise you'll be fined.

Unless you open it through an introducer like crunch.co.uk or contractoruk.com - then there is no balance requirements and, if you keep to under 30 debits per month, no fees at all.

There online banking system is a bit basic, but it does everything you need and their customer service is second to none.

[Muffster]

Ok thanks.

Do I need to grow a goatee as well.

[jammy_basturd]

Wouldn't hurt.

[rich888]

All that jazz said:

Muffster said:

The account will be for a small property company to hold some cash in and pay rent into.
Never heard of Cater Allen before. I only really need some basic facilities. Would they be able to do this?

All that jazz, could i do direct payments into the account rather than going into a branch and depositing?

Thanks.

What exactly do you mean by "direct payments into the account"? If you mean electronic BACS transfers from one bank account to another, yes, of course.

Cater Allen is for powerfully built company directors only and has strict rules. You need £5k opening balance and you need to maintain that or higher otherwise you'll be fined.

That's not entirely true, if your account dips below £5000 you pay £15 for that particular month.

BTW, Cater Allen is part of Santander, and yes you can make and receive electronic payments, however the 'faster payments' system isn't exactly very fast in this day and age because any electronic payments you make will be actioned upon the next working day NOT the same day! For inbound cheque payments they supply 1st class envelopes for you to post the cheques into your account.

And for reasons only known to Cater Allen management, the electronic bank statement only displays 10 transactions at a time rather than a months worth like paper statements, so you have to keep clicking next, next, next... and the same goes for your list of payees at 10 at a time, so if your supplier ends in 'Z' you are clicking through a lot of pages... WHY?

Having said all of that, the Cater Allen customer service is very good indeed and you don't get put on hold for hours and/or diverted to a call centre in India to be processed by an incomprehensible drone which most other banks seem to thrive on, and they do seem pretty competent which is a blessing nowadays, so top marks to Cater Allen staff and management for that.

As for time to opening an account, well you can forget about 7 or 14 days which is a pipe dream, perhaps 4 or 5 weeks if your paperwork is in order and if you're lucky, blame the stupid politicians for all this pen-pushing pointless anti-money-laundering and time-wasting pomp.

[Terminator X]

I get charged to put cheques in which always amuses me. Small monthly fee too.

TX.

[twoblacklines]

Lloyds is 2 years free then I think it is £19.99 a month off the top of my head, plus exchange rate charges because my business income is primarily USD.

[K12beano]

twoblacklines said:

Lloyds is 2 years free then I think it is £19.99 a month off the top of my head, plus exchange rate charges because my business income is primarily USD.

I got a free period, then £5.50 per month.

But the hassle is that their "security" systems mean that I can randomly book up accommodation or train tickets on some occasions and be denied at others. Complaining and writing to them produces no tangible reasons.

[RegMolehusband]

twoblacklines said:

Lloyds is 2 years free then I think it is £19.99 a month off the top of my head, plus exchange rate charges because my business income is primarily USD.

I'm with Lloyds and used to pay a supplier's USD invoices via online banking. That is until I realised they applied alarming exchange rates on top of charges. I now use Forex companies like Baydonhill and have saved a few thousand pounds.

[Muffster]

rich888 said:

All that jazz said:

Muffster said:

The account will be for a small property company to hold some cash in and pay rent into.
Never heard of Cater Allen before. I only really need some basic facilities. Would they be able to do this?

All that jazz, could i do direct payments into the account rather than going into a branch and depositing?

Thanks.

What exactly do you mean by "direct payments into the account"? If you mean electronic BACS transfers from one bank account to another, yes, of course.

Cater Allen is for powerfully built company directors only and has strict rules. You need £5k opening balance and you need to maintain that or higher otherwise you'll be fined.

That's not entirely true, if your account dips below £5000 you pay £15 for that particular month.

BTW, Cater Allen is part of Santander, and yes you can make and receive electronic payments, however the 'faster payments' system isn't exactly very fast in this day and age because any electronic payments you make will be actioned upon the next working day NOT the same day! For inbound cheque payments they supply 1st class envelopes for you to post the cheques into your account.

And for reasons only known to Cater Allen management, the electronic bank statement only displays 10 transactions at a time rather than a months worth like paper statements, so you have to keep clicking next, next, next... and the same goes for your list of payees at 10 at a time, so if your supplier ends in 'Z' you are clicking through a lot of pages... WHY?

Having said all of that, the Cater Allen customer service is very good indeed and you don't get put on hold for hours and/or diverted to a call centre in India to be processed by an incomprehensible drone which most other banks seem to thrive on, and they do seem pretty competent which is a blessing nowadays, so top marks to Cater Allen staff and management for that.

As for time to opening an account, well you can forget about 7 or 14 days which is a pipe dream, perhaps 4 or 5 weeks if your paperwork is in order and if you're lucky, blame the stupid politicians for all this pen-pushing pointless anti-money-laundering and time-wasting pomp.

Rich, could you elaborate on the paperwork issues. What/why is it a long drawn out exercise. Is this just with Cater Allen or would it be less painful with a conventional bank?

Thanks.

[rich888]

Muffster said:

rich888 said:

All that jazz said:

Muffster said:

The account will be for a small property company to hold some cash in and pay rent into.
Never heard of Cater Allen before. I only really need some basic facilities. Would they be able to do this?

All that jazz, could i do direct payments into the account rather than going into a branch and depositing?

Thanks.

What exactly do you mean by "direct payments into the account"? If you mean electronic BACS transfers from one bank account to another, yes, of course.

Cater Allen is for powerfully built company directors only and has strict rules. You need £5k opening balance and you need to maintain that or higher otherwise you'll be fined.

That's not entirely true, if your account dips below £5000 you pay £15 for that particular month.

BTW, Cater Allen is part of Santander, and yes you can make and receive electronic payments, however the 'faster payments' system isn't exactly very fast in this day and age because any electronic payments you make will be actioned upon the next working day NOT the same day! For inbound cheque payments they supply 1st class envelopes for you to post the cheques into your account.

And for reasons only known to Cater Allen management, the electronic bank statement only displays 10 transactions at a time rather than a months worth like paper statements, so you have to keep clicking next, next, next... and the same goes for your list of payees at 10 at a time, so if your supplier ends in 'Z' you are clicking through a lot of pages... WHY?

Having said all of that, the Cater Allen customer service is very good indeed and you don't get put on hold for hours and/or diverted to a call centre in India to be processed by an incomprehensible drone which most other banks seem to thrive on, and they do seem pretty competent which is a blessing nowadays, so top marks to Cater Allen staff and management for that.

As for time to opening an account, well you can forget about 7 or 14 days which is a pipe dream, perhaps 4 or 5 weeks if your paperwork is in order and if you're lucky, blame the stupid politicians for all this pen-pushing pointless anti-money-laundering and time-wasting pomp.

Rich, could you elaborate on the paperwork issues. What/why is it a long drawn out exercise. Is this just with Cater Allen or would it be less painful with a conventional bank?

Thanks.

Many banks are signed up to a charter to guarantee a painless transition from one bank to another whereby the old bank is supposed to provide the new bank with all standing orders/direct debits, etc, unfortunately in the real world this doesn't happen very quickly if at all because the banks don't like dealing with a competitor, and due the paranoia of computer viruses many banks won't accept a list of payees as an attachment to an email, it has to be a hard copy which you can post to them which they will scan, unfortunately this then leads to errors with bank account numbers and sort codes, etc. which you then have to manually check. Obviously if you have a large number of suppliers to pay it is a right ball-ache to have to re-enter all these details one by one.

Unless the Cater Allen sign up process has changed recently you have to be introduced by a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised and regulated Financial Adviser, so speak to your accountant if you have one because they may be able to help, you cannot simply phone them up, download the relevant documents and sign on the dotted line like it used to be in the olden days, and of course due to anti-money laundering regulations you have more hoops to leap through what with proof of identity, etc.

You can download all the documents required by following the following link which can be found on their homepage if you hunt around for it long enough: https://www.caterallen.co.uk/literature-downloads and make sure you download ALL the documents in order to find the account that is right for you and you haven't overlooked anything!

This isn't an isolated Cater Allen thing, this is caused by strict banking regulations introduced by paranoid politicians in order to tick all the right boxes.

From what I can gather they are pretty good in what they provide and are a lot better than many of the better known high-street names.