Business Banking? Or do you not have one?

Shop Talk
1

Hi all!

I am looking to open a new business bank account and wondered if anyone had any good/bad experiences that they could share? Looking online they all seem to be much of a muchness price wise so was wondering if anyone got ant good advise/advisors/benefits that came with theirs!

Thanks! Dottie :slight_smile:

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So as nobody replied does that mean you do all your shop transactions through your personal accounts? Or is it not PC to discuss this even in the 21st Century? :slight_smile:

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I wish I made enough money to need one! :grin:

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I do all of my transactions for the jewellery through a personal account but a separate one to the account that things like the gym membership and haircuts go through. I told the building soc that I was self employed so needed the second account for all of the work transactions to go through and they were fine with it.

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5

Well I don’t either really but when I started out and was doing fairs I needed a merchant account to get a card reader and you couldn’t do that with a personal acc. I think with mobile phones and paypal apps etc you don’t need that anymore tbh!

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Oh that’s a good idea. I am trying to separate things apart without it costing so maybe that’s an option for me :slight_smile: Thanks!

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I use my personal account. Had a business account years ago when I was IT consulting and it cost an arm and a leg for nothing at all except my monthly cheque going in and several days later being released out to my personal account. Never again if I can help it.
Only occasional downside is remembering to tell customer paying by cheque to use my personal name and not Joysofglass.

PS We do have a separate account we keep empty (has not overdraft facility) so I can safely give that account number to people wanting to pay me direct if I’m not 100% sure of them.

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Thanks Joy :slight_smile:

9

I just use my personal account

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10

I do have a business account but that’s because I’m self employed and need it for that. If it was just for use with Folksy, I wouldn’t bother. I suppose it depends on the tax situation and if you’d meet the threshold with your craft work.

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11

Santander has been our business bank for over 20 years. We pay 12-50 p/m for our account services but the cashback on paying in cash covers that charge annually. On the down side the interest earned each year wouldn’t buy a ham sandwich.
The main advantage of having a business account is keeping business and personal spending/transactions separate. Also some card terminal operators won’t allow you to pay into a personal account ( less now than used to be the case ).
Ultimately it’s your choice but we wouldn’t want to have the work of separating transactions every year when we do the accounts. Also would be nightmare if we were unfortunate enough to have a HMRC investigation.

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12

Thank you :slight_smile:

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Thanks :slight_smile:

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Thank you :slight_smile:

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15

I joined the governments “enterprise allowance scheme” when I set up my business, back in the 80’s and they required us to open a No2 personal account specifically for our business transactions. I have stuck with it ever since. The bank tried to tell me there were benefits to having a business account, but in fact it would just have cost me lots, so I stuck with the personal account.

I have a business PayPal account, and use their card reader for fairs, so a lot of my transactions happen there, I deposit the money into the bank in lumps, rather than every transaction, so they can’t complain I am over using the bank account.

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16

I do the same as Sasha, and have a separate personal account. I told the bank I need an account for my craftwork. :blush:

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17

Ah I remember that! I worked briefly in a Job Centre - was a good scheme! Thanks :slight_smile:

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I spoke to my bank and told them I wanted a separate account for my artwork that would hopefully involve me selling some of it. They said unless I envisaged a high level of transactions, then a personal account would suffice. I’m sure if I started accumulating thousands of pounds, they might have a conversation about a business account, but I’m still a long way off that!

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19

I just have a personal no 2 account for my business transactions. I don’t make enough to pay the bank fees for a business account.

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20

Me too, as others have said, simply have a separate current account no.2 with its own debit card. All my sales monies go in, and all my business costs come out of that one. I once did a short business course, and we were advised that unless you are making a certain threshold, tho cant remember what that was, it wasn’t worth having a proper business account. Once in a while I put in cash from my Paypal account. When I pay myself out of it (ha!) I was told to label that as “drawings” on my tax return.

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