Banking

wildgoose1uk

Time for a business bank account! (I have been using a separate account though!). I was going to go for Santander's free offering but it seems they no longer do it.

What I am looking for is just a no frills basic service. I want it to be free and I don't mind getting what I pay for!!

Does anyone have experience of the RBS free offering or know of any others?

Cheers

wg

T.C.

Most seem to be removing free banking, but do try HSBC because they were offering free banking if all transactions are internet based.

wildgoose1uk

Thanks for that TC.

The HSBC offering looks similar to the RBS except that HSBC limit you to 5 free cheques per month for paying-in and a further 5 you can write. But most payments are done electronically these days. The HSBC one seems to have better security with a fob.

PGM

Is there any such thing as free banking...

We had "free banking", but we paid for BACS payments and the interest was rubbish. Now with Natwest with a paid account, but it works much better for us getting interest with the deposits we have.

T.C.

I guess it will also depend on whether you intend to have money in the account, ie whether you want interest on savings. I tend to only use mine for business transactions and move any surplus to my private account.

peaman

I recently opened a business bank a/c with HSBC - free banking for 18mths, then it switches to the rate that you mentioned '5 free cheques per month etc.', which I think I should be able to keep too, as you stated, everything is done electronically now.

I also got a commercial card which is free for the first year and I have the security fob, which is easy to use and smaller the crappy calculator sized thing that Barclays gave me.

wildgoose1uk

I went for the HSBC offering. Applied online and got approved in principle, went in to see them yesterday and was up and running by lunchtime yesterday.

I know there is no such thing as a free lunch but this seems pretty close to it