Business banking - any recommendations?
Discussion
Morning all,
I need to find a new business banking partner. Barclays have decided to be Barclays and no matter the outcome of my current issue with them, I have lost any, all and whatever little trust and faith I had left with them. Astonishingly annoyed with them.
Anyway...recommendations please about who to go with for Biz banking these days. If possible, Id like them to also be able to handle personal banking, I have zero desire to leave my personal accounts with Barclays, so it would be nice to take the whole lot across. I don't overly trust any of the high street banks these days as they all appear to removing themselves from offering any human contact to punters! So any online and/or private banks are also on the table.
The biz banking is for an SME that does transactions in different countries and currencies.
I need to find a new business banking partner. Barclays have decided to be Barclays and no matter the outcome of my current issue with them, I have lost any, all and whatever little trust and faith I had left with them. Astonishingly annoyed with them.
Anyway...recommendations please about who to go with for Biz banking these days. If possible, Id like them to also be able to handle personal banking, I have zero desire to leave my personal accounts with Barclays, so it would be nice to take the whole lot across. I don't overly trust any of the high street banks these days as they all appear to removing themselves from offering any human contact to punters! So any online and/or private banks are also on the table.
The biz banking is for an SME that does transactions in different countries and currencies.
Harveybw said:
Metro have been good for me...everything is pretty simple and a proper account manager who visits in person is a nice thing to have.
Careful with Metro if you deal in currencies other than GBP, USD, EUR. Some of my clients pay me in SEK and they’ve always returned those payments without even telling me they’ve done so. Do you need a physical bank? Is it just simple business banking? I use Starling, all set up on-line, done in no time, you can also have a personal account that runs along side. App is really good. It's 'free' banking'. They also do USD and EURO accounts.
https://www.starlingbank.com
They don't do credit cards, but you can get one elsewhere. Barclaycard Buisness does 1% cash back.
https://www.starlingbank.com
They don't do credit cards, but you can get one elsewhere. Barclaycard Buisness does 1% cash back.
I use Starling for my company bank account (NOT my client-segregated accounts, I hasten to add - that's all separate, different bank). Have also just opened Starling for a personal account in order to take up one of their "connected" cards to give to the childcare. Not needed them much, but their in-app chat facility has been fairly good when I've needed to use it.
megaphone said:
Do you need a physical bank? Is it just simple business banking? I use Starling, all set up on-line, done in no time, you can also have a personal account that runs along side. App is really good. It's 'free' banking'. They also do USD and EURO accounts.
https://www.starlingbank.com
They don't do credit cards, but you can get one elsewhere. Barclaycard Buisness does 1% cash back.
Despite others suggesting otherwise, I'd agree with Megaphone on Starling. Having previously dealt with NatWest, HSBC and Lloyds, I find Starling to be wonderfully hassle free and efficient.https://www.starlingbank.com
They don't do credit cards, but you can get one elsewhere. Barclaycard Buisness does 1% cash back.
The only annoyance which may affect the OP .... they only accept USD if those Dollars come from the US. I occasionally do a bit of work for the UN and they pay me in USD from Geneva. That money has to go through my Wise account.
We have accounts with Nat West and Barclays (poor)
and
Starling & Revolut ( good, especially Revolut)
Good things about Revolut:
1 it plays nicely with Xero (Xero is overrated BTW, takes way too many clicks to process one line of an expense claim)
2 it plays nicely with Stripe
3 You can have multiple ‘sub’ accounts for different currencies (and exchange when the forex rate suits you)
4 it does helpful things such as allowing monthly statements for all accounts/sub-accounts to be downloaded with one click
HTH
and
Starling & Revolut ( good, especially Revolut)
Good things about Revolut:
1 it plays nicely with Xero (Xero is overrated BTW, takes way too many clicks to process one line of an expense claim)
2 it plays nicely with Stripe
3 You can have multiple ‘sub’ accounts for different currencies (and exchange when the forex rate suits you)
4 it does helpful things such as allowing monthly statements for all accounts/sub-accounts to be downloaded with one click
HTH
DeejRC said:
All things Barclays will be wiped from my existence. They need nuking. From orbit. Just to make sure.
I have admit that my Barclaycard account is all a bit clunky and old school, when I had to call them to sort out an issue they where poor, took ages to get through, online chat never responds, app is poor, slow to approve transactions etc. BUT.... I get £50+ cash back very month, makes up for the poor serviceDeejRC said:
Handelsbank seem a good recommendation, so will be looking at them. Thanks folks 
Ive just about calmed down from dealing with those utter w
kers at Barclays.
Always heard good things but at a couple of hundred thousand turn over they weren't much help. They did also insist that all personal banking was moved to them as well.Ive just about calmed down from dealing with those utter w
kers at Barclays.I find Starling excellent but if you need borrowing facilities they'll be useless.
DeejRC said:
Handelsbank seem a good recommendation, so will be looking at them. Thanks folks
Ive just about calmed down from dealing with those utter wkers at Barclays.
If there’s stuff you need from Handlesbanken, make sure they commit to it in writing before you move. Each branch operates with a high degree of autonomy so service levels aren’t always consistent. Clearly others have had better experience, but I’d find it impossible to recommend them. Ive just about calmed down from dealing with those utter w
kers at Barclays.Gassing Station | Business | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff