Best Business Account
Hi,
Just set up a ltd company to trade on Amazon and looking for feedback on what you think is the best business bank account in the market today?
44 replies
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Depends on where you are located and where you are trading from etc. If you are based in the UK and will mainly be doing business in the UK then pretty much any high street bank such as Barclays, LLoyds, HSBC, should serve you well and shouldn’t get much issues when it comes to verification checks.
You may also want to consider joining Federation of Small businesses and through them you can get free banking with the co-operative I think.
They are all much of a muchness and most of it is online based, branches are becoming a thing of the past.
If you are going for a smaller bank, you may want to check that Amazon accept them as a clearing bank for payments.
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
Don’t want to intrude, but do you really need a limited company when starting out, and are you aware of the responsibilities ?
Hopefully you have researched and and looked into all that is required.
Seller_LEraDYZE3W6hS
Hi Yes just changing from sole trader to business so know the in’s and out of Amazon.
Sell in UK only but purchase stock from China.
Didn’t know if any of these new online banks were any good…
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
That was what I was thinking - you do not have to be a limited company to sell on Amazon, sole trader is fine.
I’ve just had a quick look back at your previous post, and we explained exactly what was needed.
Presumably you have now registered with HMRC, but as a limited company rather then sole-trader ?
As this is a side-line business alongside paid employment are you sure you have done the right thing ?
Just to clarify - Sole trader is NOT the same as Individual, and Professional is not the same as Business.
Have you now changed the legal entity on your account from Individual to Business ?
Seller_2IqU6eYHmCUaV
Been a Sole Trader for 30years using Lloyds Bank all the time . Hint play one bank off another and you should get a good deal )) Good Luck
Seller_Iti0OkAyMPN7I
I use TSB Business Bank, they are particularly hot on security and not had any issues with them apart from me forgetting passwords as they force changes regularly and on the one occasion they didn’t resolve on first call (always UK based support) they deposited £30 into my account, was looking to move after free banking expired but they soon put that back on without any fight, payments in and out are very fast (apart from NAT West which always seem to take forever, fortunately not many of of my customers use them).
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
I use Starling and they’re mostly free and have had no issues at all with Amazon, just needed to have transactions on my bank statement when I first opened it before amazon would accept it
Seller_VZZFmxUVShXgl
Not getting involved with the Ltd vs non Ltd thing but Starling are unbelievably good and I never thought I’d say that about a bank. You have to have (I believe) a personal account with them to set up a business one, but you don’t have to use it and the personal account takes about 5 minutes to set up, then the business one takes about two minutes. No issues at all with Amazon as they’re a registered UK bank.
Big thing is the debit card exchange rates. No commission or charges for overseas transactions. You get the Mastercard rate which is pretty much mid-market. We save about 5-10% from our old Barclays account.
Customer service is immense. During COVID, I got a bounce back loan in something stupid like 3 hours (actually paid into our account) when all the other banks had crashing websites and were taking a couple of weeks to even look at them.
By the way, banking is free. No 12 month deal. Just free.
Seller_A4clBfzN2yKfJ
I use Starling…I used them when I was a Sole Trader and then a Ltd Company. They seem very good and it was straightforward and quick to get approved. They came recommenced from my FA too 
Seller_0a8JwzVCco9bA
I too can confirm Starling is an excellent bank in terms of ease of use and setting up. The only problem I had was when I changed to Ltd company there was no easy way to transfer the account from sole trader to Ltd company, it’s all an automated process and to this day I do not understand why Starling refused me a Ltd company account.
I then found Virgin Money business bank which is just as good as Starling if not better. Virgin Money is part of Clydesdale Bank, I applied for the account on-line and it was set up and running within 2 hours.
I have banked personally with Santander for over 13 years and when I asked them to open a business bank account they wanted me to travel 20 miles to be interviewed by a business account manager (who’s earliest appointment was 14 days hence) just to get the opportunity to apply for an account…!?
