Business Banking Review – Abbey & HSBC

As you may know I’ve been self-employed as a freelance web designer for about 4 months now, and it’s going really well.

The only major bugbear I’ve hit during that time is finding a business bank account that comes up to my expectations. Now, I don’t think my requirements are that major, what I’m looking for is:

• Easy to use internet banking, that gives full control over the account (on a par with Halifax’s personal banking system)
• Decent level of service from the supplier, in terms of opening accounts in a speedy manner, fulfilling the “switching” service successfully and speedily. The capacity to resolve issues in a timely and appropriate manner
• Reasonable banking charges

Initially I chose HSBC, their charges seemed reasonable, they’re carbon neutral and given the time they’ve been around I figured they’d be a safe bet. Unfortunately there wasn’t a demo of the online system, so I just had to take my chance.

For speed of opening the account, and the general management, I can’t fault them – but – the online system SUCKS. It’s slow, difficult and cumbersome to use and, for someone with discalculia, practically useless.

Being an internet-based business, managing my accounts online is essential (plus I don’t want to schlep to the bank every other day), so I decided to do some more research and settled on moving to Abbey.

Abbey offer free business banking for life, and looking at the online system screenshots it looked like this was going to suit me a lot better.

Sooo, once again I went through the rigmarole of opening an account with a new bank – providing proof of ID, getting re-credit checked etc. and my new account was on it’s way.

In addition to the business account, a personal account (with overdraft) and credit card we’re also opened for me. So far the only thing that has come through without a problem is the credit card.

The personal account was opened without them ordering a debit card or cheque book, and because of how Abbey have set-up their systems you can’t register for internet, or telephone banking for an account without supplying a card number. I spoke to someone on the customer service telephone line (eventually) and they told me that a card hadn’t been ordered on the account and I’d have to go into a branch to request one. This I dutifully did. After about 2 weeks, I went back in again to see what was going on and the branch told me that they cannot now order a card for that account – the system won’t let them. So basically I have an unusable personal account.

I’d like to report on the quality of the online business banking system, but I don’t have access to it yet, months after opening the account. The slow and unwieldy process that Abbey use to register for internet banking has completely fail me and I have no choice but to manage my account by…schlepping to a branch every couple of days.

They’ve also completly failed (between them) to migrate my direct debits etc from HSBC to the Abbey account . Now I know that either party can be to blame for “switching” issues, but that doesn’t help the fact that I’ve ended up with money coming into my new account and going out of my old one. It doesn’t take Mr. Micawber to know that doesn’t end happily.

So now I’m in a quandry. I’m really displeased with both of the accounts I have, though at the moment the HSBC is looking like the lesser of two evils. Because of the number of credit searches/applications I’ve had to go through recently, I’m pretty much prevented from opening another account elsewhere without harming my credit record.

Can anyone out there recommend their business banking provider? I’m considering RBS, Lloyds TSB and BOS – any feedback or alternative recommendation would be greatly appreciated!

Phew, that’s the longest post here for a while! But in the worlds of the late great Joyce Grenfell “It’s done me the power of good to explooooooooode, and get it all off my chest!”