So I have a limited company already with business banking with HSBC.
Why is it such a nightmare to open a business account with banks?
I’ve just formed a new company as I’ve purchased a new business and trying to open another account is farcical!
The only common sense person I’ve spoken to is at Metro Bank which sadly is 60 miles away but it may come to that as the rest seem complacent.
The attraction of a new business takeover with good turnover, profit and a hefty initial deposit doesn’t seem to be attractive for them to pull their finger out.
HSBC want me to wait nearly two months for an appointment.
Personally I’d take the reviews of freezing accounts with a pinch of salt, you could say the same about Monzo if you believed a lot of the TrustPilot reviews. Banks don’t freeze accounts just for fun, they’ve got legal obligations to meet regarding suspected money laundering, etc.
Opening a business account is incredibly difficult because… the law makes it really difficult.
I’ve heard lots of problems with all the new banks (Tide, Starling, etc.) freezing accounts but this is likely because of… the law.
We use Metro Bank but it was still a major pain in the arse to get setup with, they made us fill in the same BS forms HSBC do, they just made us do it in the branch and then typed it into the computer screen. 3 hours later we thought we were done but they told us we’d have to come back in a couple of days to complete opening our account.
Will hop to Monzo once they provide their offering. Metro Bank are okay but very old fashioned and they’ve wound me up by getting rid of Google Pay in the last few weeks.
Trust Pilot reviews for all the new “challenger banks” such as; Monzo, Starling, Revolut are all bad and are along the lines of “froze my account no reason” (broken english intended).
One of the reviews, Monzo have replied and said something along the lines of “We cannot discuss this any further due to FCA regulations”.
If these banks said “we have frozen your account because we suspect you of money laundering” or “a court have ordered us to freeze your account” then any criminals would probably bail and not face any legal action
Starling’s Business account is extremely quick and easy to set up and you get pretty much the same benefits as their Personal account. I’d urge you to give it a try
The reason I am with metro now is you can walk in and open a metro business account. You need to bring your incorporation certificate and id etc but they even make the card for you while you are there.
