Business bank account for holding company

[JCKST1]

Evening guys,


I run a few a few companies and we use various banks, the main company is with Barclays and has been for about 8 years, the two smaller companies we are with Starling & tide as they are sufficient for their needs.

They all work ok, Barclays being the main one which has quite a bit of money in the account and approx 500k in turn over however in the whole time I have been with them I have never really seen any loyalty, incentives or even a call for an update which personally I think is a bit stty of them.

I am now moving to a holding company set up via my accountant and will initially be putting approx 140k in the account to start with another 60k-80k by the end of the year. This company will be mainly used to purchase assets cash which will then (after work) be moved to some of the sub companies or sold for a profit so it will have quite a high turnover and regular large payments put in it.

Obviously I need an account for this holding company and Barclays was my first thought but then I think if I am doing the above there should really be some benefits for choosing them again?

Can anyone else recommend a bank who might be able to help, I am not interested in Starling/Tide etc as I need a 'proper' bank for this, some of the assets will be BTL properties so it would be good to build up a relationship with the bank/account manager.

I have heard of Barclays premier business banking if thats an option or an alternative?

[JCKST1]

StevieBee said:

In what way is Starling et-al not a 'proper' bank?

I've put similar sums to you through three of the big ones over the past 20 years but currently using Starling and Metro and would say that these are the best of the lot in terms of service.

Metro even has biscuits for the dog!

In regards to a 'proper' bank I mean one I can go to on the high street to withdraw cash at varying levels and have someone on hand should I need assistance.

As mentioned above I am with Starling and Tide with my other companies and they dont do anything wrong but sometimes you need a high street bank and as mentioned one who I can perhaps work with for years to come in regards to moving properties in to a mortgaged portfolio, additional lending etc. This is where the online banks fall short.

[JCKST1]

simonrockman said:

Run away from Tide. Very fast. We got a payment they deemed suspicious, so didn't put it into our account. They just sat on it. They didn't tell us they had done it so I was ready to bk my customer for non-payment before we found out what happened. It took days of extreme action to get it sorted.
Extreme including turning up at their office to find that it was an empty floor they had never moved into, lots of social media posts and ultimately posting the CEO's private email address on their support forum. Until I did that they ignored all emails.

We use it on a very basic business/side line but I am very wary of the new pop up banks, I previously tried N26 for a basic personal EU account to pay utility bills etc at a property abroad. There wasn't a huge amount in the account (maybe 2-3k) and all of a sudden the account was locked, no warning, the app was not letting us log in etc and this went on for about 4-5 weeks, due to some technicality we had fell outside their T&C's and that was it, they sat on our money until they could be arsed to look in to it. The calls/live chat were to an indian call centre who were reading from a script telling us to email the support team.

It was a right pain in the arse because all out bills then were overdrawn and we had to set up another EU account shortly after, this is why I want to stay away from these banks with the holding company, if I am purchasing a property cash at below market value its about being quick and if for some reason my account gets locked then from past experience its not easy where as HSBC, Barclays etc I can go to the bank or have a proper account manager to fix the problem.