Need to open a business account asap as have gone ltd for contracting.

Santander seem good and have no fees for typical transactions but slightly higher monthly fee after the free period.

HSBC is looking most attractive right now as initial free period followed by year of no transaction fees and the after that most will be electronic transfer anyway so could take advantage of slightly lower fee.

Lloyd’s have an 18 month free period. Rates for transactions seem decent and most will be online so free anyway.

Any others worth a look or good/bad experiences?

Metro purely for their customer service.They are open 8 til 8 Monday to Saturday with short hours on Sunday. I think there’s no charges if you kep £5k in there.
Just being able to phone up my branch and speak to someone I know rather than battling through a million options to speak to someone in India as we used to do with hsbc has been a revelation.

If you can afford to loan the company £5k…
https://www.caterallen.co.uk/reserve-account

Customer service was excellent a few years ago. No recent experience with them.

Try here for recent experience.
http://forums.contractoruk.com/

We run two fee earners thru a contracting company using HSBC (been with them years). Bank charges never exceed £10 per month, so I wouldn’t particularly be focusing on their cost when choosing a bank/account.

Still not got round to this and away this weekend…urgh. This work malarkey gets in the way of living! Especially when you combine it with and hr each way commute, having to check the sheep every day and trying to get to the gym. Missing my dog walks too as I used to do at least an hour a day out with the dog 🙁

Looked at the first couple but don’k it’s for me. Metro would be interesting but want an actual physical branch near me just in case I need to go in.

Barclays could be good as there is a branch near work which could be handy so will check them out.

Clydesdale working OK for me. As I think you have discovered, best to go with one where you have a branch nearby.

I’m with Cater Allen (as above). Opened via my accountant and so didn’t need the £5K opening deposit a £100 cheque was sufficient.

Their payments system isn’t fantastic but is reliable and it’s free banking.

Ask your accountant for recommendations.