UK
IRE
AU
CA
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ZANo annual or monthly fee
September 2023
For a personalised banking report, and access to tailored funding and savings opportunities for your business, simply register here.
Choose your business current account options
Use the checkbox beside each bank’s name to select and compare banks:
Account fee
Free
Opening time
1 day
Bank transfers
£0.20
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeNo annual or monthly fee
Account fee
Free
Opening time
10 mins
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeCalculates taxes & VAT for you automatically
Account fee
Free
Opening time
1 day
Bank transfers
£0.20
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeFree tools for accounting and invoicing
Account fee
Free
Opening time
Up to 5 days
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeIBAN accounts in GBP, USD and EUR
Account fee
Free for the first three months
Opening time
3 mins
Bank transfers
£0.30
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeAccounting features included
Account fee
Free
Opening time
10 mins
Bank transfers
£0.20
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeNew Limited company registration
Account fee
No monthly or annual fees, just an initial £9.95 card fee
Opening time
4 mins
Bank transfers
First 3 free and then £0.99
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
doneIntegrated with all accounting packages
Account fee
£8
Opening time
15 Days
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeFree banking for 12 months
Account fee
£50 per year
Opening time
Your account can be opened on the same day you apply
Bank transfers
Free in 20 major currencies, 1.5% fee for other currencies
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
closeManage business expenses easily with complete control & get great rates on international transfers. Free for charities & non-profits. No credit checks.
Account fee
FREE for 12 months, then £7 per month
Opening time
9 Days
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
doneInterbank Agency Agreements
Account fee
FREE for 12 months, then £7 per month
Opening time
9 Days
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
doneInterbank Agency Agreements
Account fee
FREE for 12 months, then £7 per month
Opening time
8 Days
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
doneInterbank Agency Agreements
Account fee
FREE for 12 months, then £7 per month
Opening time
8 Days
Bank transfers
Free
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
doneInterbank Agency Agreements
Account fee
FREE for first 3 months then £12.50 per month + an application fee of £55
Opening time
4 hours
Bank transfers
£0.30
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
closeNo credit checks
Account fee
£25 per month
Opening time
3.5 days
Bank transfers
First 100 free then £0.20
Invoicing
doneOverdrafts
closeEcommerce: accept payments on your checkout page and with platform plugins
Account Fee
from £29
Opening Time
Within 1 week
Bank Transfers
From 1 EUR
Invoicing
closeOverdrafts
close* Swoop’s service features a selection of providers from whom we receive commission.
banks selected For a personalised banking and saving report tailored to your business, simply register and securely integrate your bank account through our Open Banking technology.
Register your business with Swoop and integrate your bank account for your personalised reportA small business bank account is simply a bank account aimed at startups and small businesses. It can provide a host of free tools and support to help you manage your business’s financial transactions, including helping you with tasks such as invoicing.
If you’re a sole trader, such as some freelancers and contractors, there’s no legal obligation to open a business bank account – but doing so can make it much easier to juggle your business’s income and expenditure with your own.
On the other hand, if you’ve set up your business as a limited company in the UK and it’s registered with Companies House you will legally be required to open a business bank account.
If you’re not legally obliged to open a business bank account, you might prefer to use your personal bank account for your small business banking needs. However, should you choose to do this, keep in mind that some banks may specify your personal current account should be for personal use only and could threaten to close your account if they see a large number of business-related transactions.
There are also several benefits to using a business account rather than a personal one:
To open a small business bank account, you’ll usually need to provide the following documents:
Additionally, you may be asked to provide the following:
In August 2021 the BVA BDRC published the findings from its Business Banking Service Quality survey. Undertaken as part of a regulatory requirement and published at the request of the providers and the Competition and Markets Authority, the study surveyed 16,800 SME bank account customers between July 2020 and June 2021.
Each customer was asked how likely they would be to recommend to other SMEs –
The results show the proportion of customers of each provider, among those who took part in the survey, who said they were ‘extremely likely’ or ‘very likely’ to recommend each service. A detailed breakdown for each category can be seen in the table below.
Source: BVA BDRC
Providing you manage your account sensibly, opening a business bank account can help you to build your business credit score and this can make it easier for you to get credit in the future.
However, this also means that if you run into financial difficulty and are, for example, unable to pay back your overdraft, you could end up damaging your business credit score. What’s more, if you’re a sole trader, your personal credit score could also be affected if your business faces any financial problems. You should therefore talk to your bank as soon as possible if you have any financial concerns.
Yes – although this will partly depend on the account and your credit score. Many business bank accounts will offer an overdraft providing you have good credit, with smaller businesses tending to be offered smaller overdraft facilities than larger, more established businesses.
If having an overdraft is important to you, it’s worth comparing your options carefully to look for an account with the most generous overdraft facility and low fees.
Note that if you have a poor credit score, you may not be offered an overdraft with your account.
Yes you can – many small business bank accounts won’t charge any monthly or annual fees at all, while others might waive fees for the first 12 to 18 months. Be sure to check what the fee will be after that period is over.
Although it can be more of a challenge to open a small business bank account with poor credit, it is certainly still possible.
When you apply for a small business bank account, a number of app-based providers, such as Anna and Cashplus, won’t require a credit check as part of the application process and can therefore be worth considering if you have poor credit. However, many banks will indeed run a search on your credit history to check your creditworthiness and those with a poor credit score may be turned away.
Yes you can have two or more business bank accounts if you choose to. You may find this helps you to better manage your money or set aside funds for certain projects or business needs. You could choose to split your accounts for day-to-day spending, online payments, one for providing staff with debit cards for spending, and so on.
As well as having its advantages, multiple bank accounts can make it harder for you to keep track of your finances. Some accounts also require a minimum balance to waive certain account fees which can be more difficult to monitor if you have more than one account.
The right choice for you will depend on the type of business you run, your personal circumstances and how you plan to use the account.
The quickest and easiest way to find the best small business bank account is to shop around using our business bank account comparison tool. This will enable you to select which bank account features are the most important to you, such as the number of branches, foreign exchange, overdrafts and so on.
Once you’ve researched your options and found the right account for you, simply click through to fill in the online application form. If you choose a digital, app-based provider, the whole process of opening your account can be completed quickly and easily online – you’ll usually be asked to upload photos of your ID and record a short selfie video for identification purposes.
Written by
Rachel has been writing about finance and consumer affairs for over a decade, helping people to get to grips with their finances and cut through the jargon. She’s written for a range of websites and national newspapers including MoneySuperMarket, Money to the Masses, Forbes UK, and Mail on Sunday. Rachel has covered almost every financial topic, from car insurance and credit cards, to business bank accounts and mortgages.
To read our editorial policy, please click here.
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