I suppose if I traded under my own name then I could get away with running a personal account.
I also have a Barclays Merchant account which I'm sure would not go down to well with a personal account!
What I'd like to find is either an online forum or newsgroup where I can find out what other small business owners have done to reduce bank and other charges. Also to bounce some ideas about.
Abbey National I use, pretty good with online banking, snags are: Visa Electron card supplied with account not accepted everywhere. You are only supposed to pay in via hole in wall which adds a day to the process - 5 days instead of 4
Yes, mine is small business account - just reading the latest blurb:
Two tariffs, one completely free within defined transaction limits, other free for 18 months followed by competitive charges- this is for higher volume banking. Interest on credit balances forever guaranteed.
Not a comparison but I've been using an Abbey National business account for my Ltd. company for the past year or so and it seems to work OK and it's free, unlike just about all other Ltd. company accounts. It even pays interest on current account balance.
It's only free for a limited number of transactions (30 to 40 a month or so I think) but that's no problem for me.
Yes, I think they're just about the only free business account at the moment now that Flemings/Cater Allen have gone (odd, since Cater Allen are Abbey National anyway).
Well it was '3% until Jan 2003' according to the out of date stuff I have. Dunno what it is now. As I said, the only snags are: You must pay in by envelope in cash machine which takes 5 days instead of
4 - but I get around this by paying urgent cheques over the counter telling them 'my card is knackered-machine won't take it' You can also pay in by post. The Visa Electron card WAS accepted almost nowhere, but in the past 12 months things have improved and probably 60% of places do take it
- so you have to shop around if its your only card.
I don't use an overdraft, so have only got hit a couple of times for bounced cheques, so I don't know what they are like if you consistantly run the account in o/d conditions.
I just tell my bank that they make enough interest from my float compared with what they pay me in interest, so I don't want to see any changes on the account thank you very much.
Occasionally, they need reminding of this agreement, but it's been fine for the last four years.
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