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A&L vs HSBC small business accounts

Hi,

I am starting a small consultancy business and need to open a bank account. The turnover is fairly low and there is no buying/selling of goods nor lots of small credits/debits, just monthly (hopefully!) credits and occasional cheques or other debits out. I don't want to pay hefty charges for this.

I've looked at the HSBC Business Direct account and the similar Alliance & Leicester Commercial Business Builder/Business Banking accounts. They both seem to offer what I need.

So, my question is.. does anyone have any advice re. which of these to choose?

(To be picky - please don't just say "HSBC" or "A&L", but give your reasons, otherwise I'm no further forward.)

I've looked them up on the 'net but inevitably found messages saying both are bad. In fact, I suspect you'd find messages saying "Bank xxx is sh*te" whichever one you asked about. Also, no-one posts saying "everything's fine" do they, hence you only see complaints.

Another thing - any particular reason why one can't use a regular (i.e. personal) bank account for a business?

Thanks in advance, John

Reply to
John Fryatt
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I've had a business account with HSBC for 11 years, never had any problem with them apart from the amount of junk mail they bombard me with. Their online banking works well, I haven't been into my branch for at least 5 years, and that was only to pick up a draft. The call centre is in Bangalore unfortunately, which can lead to slight issues as they are not empowered to authorise anything at all, but this is easily solved by just telling them to have your account manager call you, he then bends over backwards to sort things out IME. My charges work out around a fiver a month, easily offset by the interest earned on my current account balance.

Reply to
peter

Natwest business accounts seem okay. Real people to talk to in the branch and uk call centres without exception.

Reply to
linkuk

One can, subject to a number of small problems. Where the number of business transactions is going to be low, one may as well just use the normal personal account.

The bank might get miffed if they discover what you're up to and have a product they would consider more suitable. Though most banks offer free personal banking, most (with some exceptions) don't offer free business banking, and they would prefer to be able to charge you for business services they provide. Another issue may be if you have a personal overdraft arrangement, it gives you easy access to a business overdraft which would not otherwise be so easy to come by.

If you have a business name which differs from your own name, your customers might expect to make cheques they write to you payable to the business name unless you warn them. It can maka a bad impression.

You need to take extreme care to mark, in your bank statements, which transactions are personal and which business. This is to let you reconcile your business books with what would be the business bank statements if there were any. Of course it's easier if you opened a

*separate* personal account from the normal one, just for the business, but the bank would then notice sooner what you're up to, assuming they're bothered.
Reply to
Ronald Raygun

Reply to
Adam

Unless you want to do anything remotely complicated, like raise the credit limit on your credit card or pay a cheque in a foreign currency into your account. It may be dealt with by real people, but not by helpful people.

Their charges also seem quite high.

Adam

Reply to
Adam

Have you looked at Abbey?

I've been very happy with them, and pay no bank charges.

Regards

Simon Clark Business Telecoms

Reply to
simonclark123

No I haven't, but I may well do, as I've been meaning to switch. What kind of paperwork is required to open a new account as a limited company? I looked a few months ago at switching to A&L, but was put off by the length of the application form (well, more of a book than a form) and the amazing amount of supplementary information I would need to provide, which looked like it would take not only a substantial amount of my time but also require me to get my accountant to help with a lot of it.

Adam

Reply to
Adam

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