I’m looking for a modern business account with an API. I don’t mind paying good money in the form of fees or whatever - I just want a no bullshit account and an API.
I’ve opened a Starling one hoping they’d offer the API they have on their consumer accounts but no luck - I’m considering reverse-engineering their app but in the meantime does anyone know any other modern banks with proper APIs?
I’ve currenty applied for Tide so we’ll see tomorrow or next Monday what it’s about - unfortunately they still don’t have Apple Pay and they’re not a bank - merely an e-money institution which means no FSCS protection.
Just an update on Tide, one of my colleagues has it and last time I tried to do a Faster Payment to it, it wasn’t instant (and according to him it’s always been like that), so that’s out.
Any other options?
Checked out Coconut, looks good until you look at their pricing page. ATM withdrawals are at 1£, which is problematic if you occasionally need very small withdrawals (1£ for a single 10£ withdrawal is very expensive), they plan to charge for bank transfers, and have a max balance limit of 40k£ (which is definitely an issue considering you may need to keep that money around for the taxman even if you already spent all your profits).
I found CountingUp which is a business prepaid card but not only is everything “coming soon in 2018” (when? we’re already in 2018) and didn’t bother to look further once I noticed the 2.75% foreign transaction fee. They can get the middle finger. I don’t mind sensible fees (like a flat monthly account fee) but this is ridiculous.
That’s the first thing I checked, but they don’t support Starling. I wonder if I can get in touch with TrueLayer and see if they support it.
Now I know I could go with a legacy bank that the aforementioned services support but I would still have the issue of transactions being delayed 3 days as that’s how most legacy banks operate so it isn’t ideal either.
Edit: TrueLayer says they support Starling - I wonder if they also do the business accounts. My guess is no but I’m gonna give it a try.
Edit 2: no luck with TrueLayer either. They support Starling however there’s the same issue I’m getting with accessing the Starling API directly - the fact that the authentication flow relies on using an option in the Marketplace section of the Starling app which is not available for the business accounts:
Did you have any more luck with this? My wife runs a small Etsy business and is looking a free business account which doesnt require you to have an additional personal account and with instant transactions. I’ve been trying to help her find one but I’m struggling!
Tide looks pretty shonky. They have a whole page explaining how they’re better than a bank by not being a bank, and btw you don’t need FSCS anyways. When I signed up there were so many bugs in the signup process. And further bugs in the app. I got sick of reporting stuff; it’s so much less polished than Monzo. They’re basically just a prepay card broker in different clothing, and I don’t think that they have the technical chops to make it. I also heard that their head of development got poached by none less than… Monzo, heh. Avoid - don’t entrust your business money to them. At least Starling looks reliable (though I wish there were a good dedicated option).
Starling has now updated their app and added a way to get official API access for business accounts through the app, so I would recommend them.
For a freelancer/sole trader (not working through a limited API) take a look at Coconut; their offering is basically a current account (although not sure if it’s a proper bank yet, so maybe they don’t have FSCS protection as of now) with accounting & invoicing included, which takes care of your taxes and VAT automagically. I’m eager to test their limited company offering so I can move off my current setup for Starling (plus some custom code to integrate with FreeAgent).
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I don’t mind sensible fees (like a flat monthly account fee) but this is ridiculous.