The best business bank account: a critical unbiased comparison

What is a business bank account?

A business or corporate bank account is a dedicated account for businesses and corporations in and from which all financial transactions are made, such as bank transfers. Often, the managing director and the company accountant are co-signatories to this type of account to ensure accountability.

Obtaining a business bank account separate from your personal account is a good way to show accountability to potential financiers and creditors. It also ensures that you can do your annual accounts and tax filing more easily since the bank statement is a good way to monitor cash flow. 

Also, due to the peculiarity of the business bank account, many banks offer different incentives as a way to help small businesses achieve their goals. In a way, they provide these incentives to get more customers. 

However, they do help these clients, especially those new to the world of business with certain tools that can boost sales and profits.

What makes a good business bank account?

There are a lot of criteria you should consider before opening a business bank account with a manager. It is important that you know beforehand that the kinds of services these banks provide to their customers are tailored to providing advisory and financial oversight to these businesses. Hence, while some businesses need help managing their portfolio, others are just in need of financial help which comes in various ways like loans, grants, low-interest rates, etc. 

The criterion or criteria you choose is dependent on what your business needs. Hence, it is beneficial for you to understand the financial needs of your business before you make a choice of which bank you are opening an account with.

In the next subheading, we will be making a list of criteria that small businesses and startups generally look for in banks with examples of banks that fit into each criterion.

Best app business bank accounts of 2023

Before we go on, it is important that we point out here that while most banks can issue a business bank account to you, there are dedicated banks for businesses called business banks. 

Depending on the types of businesses these banks cater for, they can be grouped into retail banks (giving banking services to individual businesses), investment banks (providing banking services to capital markets), and banks that deal in the combination of both.

What we have listed in this section is a list of various needs for businesses and the banks that cater to those needs adequately.

Best business bank accounts for new businesses/startups

• Monthly Fees
  • Free – It could be annoying when the bank keeps deducting charges from your account even when there is no apparent transaction being carried out with it. The following banks would charge you nothing per month when you open a business account with them – 
    • Virgin Money M Account, 
    • Mettle Account from NatWest, 
    • Monzo Business Lite Account, 
    • Companies: Revolut Free Account, 
    • Freelancer: Revolut Free, 
    • Tide Business Bank Account, 
    • ANNA Money – Pay As You Go, Cashplus Business Bank Account, and 
    • RBS Startups Business Bank Account.
  • No fee for between 12 – 30 months – some other bank accounts are free for the first year and then they begin to charge you fees. 
    • Virgin Money offers a Business Current account that is free of monthly charges for the first 25 months and then a monthly charge of £6.50 applies. 
    • HSBC kinetics also charges £6.50 per month on the business account but is free for the first 12 months. 
    • TSB Business Plus Account (monthly charges of £5 after the first 30 months but can be waived if your account balance is over £10,000 monthly), 
    • Card One Money Business Account is free for the first 3 months after which £12.50 monthly fees apply, and 
    • the Cooperative Bank Directplus Business Account charges £7 per month but is free for 30 months if you can keep your account balance at £10,000 or above.
• Bank Transfers – the rates charged per bank are different depending on the package each bank is offering per time.
  • Unlimited – if your business makes payments a lot and you would like to keep charges for interbank transfers to the barest minimum, the bank accounts listed here are your best bet. They include 
    • Virgin Money M and Business Current Accounts, 
    • HSBC Kinetics, 
    • Mettle by NatWest, 
    • Tide Plus and Cashback Business Accounts, 
    • Monzo Business Lite and Pro Accounts, Anna Money Business Account, 
    • Revolut Companies Grow, Free, Scale and Enterprise Accounts, 
    • Revolut Freelancer Free and Professional Accounts, 
    • Llyods Bank Business Banking Switcher and Start-Up Accounts, and 
    • Bank of Scotland Startup and Switcher Accounts.
  • Limited – the following banks offer limited transfers and they vary from 20pence to 99pence per transfer. Some offer some months of free transfers. They are 
    • ANNA Money Pay As You Go (20 pence), 
    • Cashplus Business Bank Account (30 pence but free for the first 3 transactions, 
    • Card One Money Business Account (30 pence for direct debits and next-day online transactions), 
    • Countingup Starter, Standard and Premium Business Accounts (free for the first 3 months and 30 pence per payment thereafter), 
    • Acorn Business Account (free direct debit and 30 pence for next-day online transactions), 
    • Fair Everywhere Business account (30 pence for direct debits), 
    • Cooperative Bank Directplus Business Account (free for the first 30 months and 30 pence thereafter if account balance of £1000+ is maintained, 70 pence if below), 
    • RBS Startup Business Account (free for the first 24 months, thereafter 35 pence for automated transfers or 70 pence for manual transfers), and
    • Cashplus Business Account with 1% cashback (first 3 transfers per month are free and then 99 pence is charged per transfer thereafter; direct debit is free)
• Overdraft – taking overdrafts against a business account is a good way to bankroll your business without taking direct loans. The following business accounts offer overdraft options to customers with terms and conditions of course.
  • Cooperative Bank Directplus Business, Business Current and 1% cashback accounts,
  • RBS Startup Business Account 
  • Llyods Bank Business Banking Switcher and Start-Up Accounts,
  • Bank of Scotland Startup and Switcher Accounts,
  • TSB Business Plus Account,
  • Virgin Money M and Business Current Accounts, and
  • HSBC Kinetics
• Access – while app-only or app and online-only banks are the rages these days, many businesses still require the confidence that physical banks give. The following banks are categorized based on how you can access them.
  • App-only banks include (no check deposits allowed)
    • ANNA Money
    • Countingup
  • App and online-only banks include (no check deposits allowed)
    • Revolut
    • Card One Money
    • Acorn
    • Mettle
    • Tide
    • Monzo
    • Cashplus Bank
    •  
  • Other banks accessible online, in-app, and in-branches
    • Starling Bank
    • Cooperative Bank
    • Bank of Scotland
    • Lloyds Bank
    • TSB
    • Virgin Money
• Other add-ons – some banks offer different add-ons to help clients manage their businesses more efficiently. Some of these may include access to some accounting apps and softwares at discounted prices.
  • Virgin Money M account comes with a free insights dashboard M-Track that includes tools such as Xero, Shopify, Google, Sage, etc.
  • Mettle account by NatWest offers a FreeAgent account for free when you make at least one transaction on your account per month.
  • Monzo Business Pro Account a free Xero accounting platform account for 6 months
  • ANNA Money Business, Pay As You Go, and Big Business Accounts come with free VAT and invoicing tools
  • Cooperative Bank Business Current and Directplus Business accounts offer free access to the Go Get Paid app.

Conclusion

There, you have it. Based on your business needs, you can choose any of the banks above considering the combination of offers they provide to new and existing businesses. Taking advantage of these could be an efficient way of managing your cash flow such that you are not bleeding money unnecessarily.