Business Banking

[NozSpark]

Doesn't matter as my company name is "My name Electrical" so all cheques go through

the only reason they caught me was because a business made a cheque out to "My name Electrical" when the account was only in my name.... If you get what I mean

 

[Lurch]

Is your name also My Name. or are you in the electrical contracting division of CI5?

 

[Pyro]

I have been with Abbey Business & Professional Banking (now Santander) since 2001. Free banking, no charges if you are in credit and they pay interest on credit amounts. No complaints. Some payment instructions are done by phone; I'm not interested in using the internet for banking. Cheque deposit is by post using Sandander's free-issued "Freepost" envelopes. The nearest branch is 7 miles away, but that is not too much of a problem. Business Current account is linked to Business Reserve account, which is a higher-interest savings account. Santander's overall rating: :Applaud

Regarding cheques, if your account is "Mr X trading as Matty Electrical", it will not matter if clients pay "Matty Electrical" or "Mr X" because your name and the business name are tied together.

I had a nasty experience with NatWest many years ago and will not say a good word about them - EVER. Their logo is a graphical anagram of a swastika - with business practises to match. X( X( bad day explode NatWest :red card

The Barclays logo looks like a vulture.

HSBC - Highly Suspicious Bank Charges. Prior to becoming HSBC the bank was known as Midland, with the logo of a Griffin - another bird of prey!

Lloyds logo - Dick Turpin's steed.

 

[Lurch]

Everyone has an opinion on this and as such it's almost a pointless question as the thread turned out exactly as I suspected, person A says bank X is great, person B says bank X is rubbish, person C says bays bank Y is rubbish, person D says bank Y is great etc...

You just need to pick the one you like the most, or that is closest, or that offer the most free pens or whatever. Basically choose your business bank on what it can do for you and what it needs to do for you, not on other peoples experiences as these things can very wildly from person to person and branch to branch.

 

[Voltimax]

I get the impression that Pyro is a conspiracy theorist maybe?

 

[cloverman]

I was orginally with lloyds TSB but to be honest thought their charges were a bit of a rip off ! As a member of the FSB I now get free banking with the co-operative bank which is basically part of the Alliance & leicester ! I can use the Post office to pay in cheques/cash and get a

 

[Pyro]

I get the impression that Pyro is a conspiracy theorist maybe?

I had not considered it....... but it's an interesting thought.....

The banking thing is partly personal experience and partly an eye for seeing the company logos in ways that apply to the experience:

NatWest did me no favours (a very long story).

Barclays have the advantage of being international, which served a useful purpose for 3 years. Everything at the foreign branches was chargeable and customer communication was poor.

Midland, at the time of the change-over to HSBC, tried to charge for services that all the other banks provided for free.

Lloyds themselves are OK, but I'm still unconvinced that their takeover of TSB was such a good move.

There have been no problems with, or complaints about, Abbey / Santander...... so far!

 

[Voltimax]

There have been no problems with, or complaints about, Abbey / Santander...... so far!

Give em time

 

[sellers]

I started with abbey but mr barclays offered me a pen and a filofax, this started an immense bidding war and now i quit being an electrician to sell stationary. oh and i dont bank with anyone anymore because i live in a caravan and pay no tax.

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

OK...

Marginally Off topic...

but not much...

I had a phone call from the bank a few weeks back..

(Trying to sell you more stuff and invite you in for an account review..

Which I hate....)

I didn't recongnise the name of the person calling

It was actually about our joint personal account (me and mrs Special)

But I explained that our personal account is also a tied referenced to my Business account and the business bank manager keeps an eye on both...

Then they say..

Oh yeh your business bank manager died about a month earlier!!!

All of a sudden...

Now I don't know how old she was but I guess approx 40ish tops!!!

:_| :_|:

Even though I don't particularly like Bankers it did remind me

Bank staff are people too!!!

(not good for anyone when taken so young! )

 

[fletchflash]

I've just signed up for business acount with HSBC, had a quick look round but main reason i went with them was because my personal account is there too.

Thinking of possibly changing already, they won't give me a debit card for at least three months, which means i'm using my personal account sometimes aswell, kinda defeats the object of a seperate account.

Santander look quite good actually, i may well give them a go. cheers for advice keith.

Its such a nightmare trying to compare between banks, ive only just started out by myself and dont really want to be messing about later down the line

 

[fletchflash]

I am now a Santander customer!

Took about 15mins to open the account on phone.

Took about 2 months to open the hsbc one, phone and 3 visits to branch