Right, this is all new to me so please be gentle. I’m going to be taking on some work that entails me having a limited company to invoice through. I’ve set the limited company up but need a bank account to go with it for my invoices to be paid into. My own bank (RBS) looks like it has some fairly eye watering charges for moving money into and out of a business account IE % based on the total amount being moved and not a fixed fee.

Any experienced contractors on here & which banking service are you using?

TIA, Dave.

I use santander. It’s free banking for the first 18 months. Many banks offer similar.

I used Cater Allen, they were free.

Clydesdale, cos they used to have a branch here.  Most have a free intro, but think carefully about whether you’d move after its all established.

I have an RBS business account, but after seeing the charges being applied a couple of years ago, it morphed into a business savings account. Mobile banking, no charges…

Caveat: this is experience from a few years ago, dyor etc.

+1 for Cater Allen, you might have to pay a set up fee if you’re not referred by an accountant (get a referral). As long as you’re not doing “business” levels of banking you’ll be fine – the CA account was almost designed with contractors in mind. IIRC, Up to 10 transactions a month were free.

They are part of Santander.

Starling Bank – it’s free and cool as a penguin who’s got locked into a deep freeze in winter. Online only, built on AWS, really good app.

+1 for Cater Allen

Bit of a pain that they don’t do fast Bank Transfers (it’ll get done next Business Day) but apart from that had no problem

Many thanks for all the replies. I’ve been under a different tax regime the whole of my working life (Diving) so this is a bit of a departure from the norm. I’ll have a look at the options above.

Cheers, Dave.

I’m with HSBC – it was free but now £5/month.

@Murray – cheers for the Starling bank recommendation – just signed up for an account so now in the process of moving over.  It’ll only save me £60/year but that buys me a few beers 🙂

I’m with Cater Allen and a lot of us contractors are as the accountants push them, and you usually get no fee through the referral (fees for some things though like cheques and over a certain number of transactions but basics it’s free).

Crappy website though and antiquated compared to consumer banking sites. Annoyance is the “fast” transactions are only fast when the transaction occurs but they’ll queue them up and pay them later in the day or more likely the next day. Also using an existing payee to make a payment you have to go through hoops to change the reference including getting a text confirmation message.

I’ve always been a “traditional” big four customer, but recently changed to Starling too and am amazed at how simple and fast the App is at balances and spending trends (like I need to know, but still it’s interesting none the less)

Set up in <5mins and card ordered in seconds and Apple Pay accepted and setup in two clicks.

Honestly, why go through the “traditional” ID verification process and “interview” from the big players.

And…. yeah I work for a big four.

Honestly, why go through the “traditional” ID verification process and “interview” from the big players.

Yeah, when I set the HSBC account up I was in the branch for ages – loads of forms to fill out, etc – Starling took a few minutes, very impressed so far and the app works and looks great.

Santander for me. Does the trick for me.

Did this recently and used Tide. Much like Starling and easy enough to set up in 5 minutes