Business Bank aCCOUNT

andosgaf

Hi,
Can anyone recommend a bank I can set up a business account in?

If any?

thanks in advance

jimmii

I would have thought you can do that with all of them no? I use AIB and its all been pretty good so far and you get 2 years free banking (I think most banks have that offer for business customers).

srsly78

Can't recommend any of them, once the 2 year period runs out the fees are outrageous.

I suppose you could change banks every 2 years, but that's really annoying...

jimmii

srsly78 wrote: »

I suppose you could change banks every 2 years, but that's really annoying...

Thats my plan! Once every two years isn't too bad and i'm sure the new bank are more than willing to make the process as smooth as possible.

srsly78

If it's a company everything needs the signatures of both directors, so double the annoyance. If it's for a sole trader why bother using a "business" account in the first place...

Also note that with some banks (BoI) the business online stuff is MUCH worse than the normal personal online stuff.

sandin

srsly78 wrote: »

Can't recommend any of them, once the 2 year period runs out the fees are outrageous.

I suppose you could change banks every 2 years, but that's really annoying...

Unfortunately bank staff don't work for free and neither do banks get free rent or free rates.

I never understood "free" banking as its paid for somewhere, somehow. The trick is to minimise the charges. If you need coin, possibly do a deal with a local church or charity - they get charge for lodging, you get charged for buying, so you both save.

Cheques are a no no these days -its about 2 years since I wrote a cheque.

Forget paper bills - download everything. Haggle on credit card commissions - I've just got below 1% for 1st time ever, down from 1.3% - in a year that will save me 12k!

AIB or Bank of Ireland are the 2 that are giving loans out if that's important. Ulster probably have the lowest charges (at the moment). At the end of the day, see which suits your needs (I like a carpark for security and traffic free location)

srsly78

I agree that expecting free is a bit rich, but the banks really take the piss on their business offerings.

Example:
BOI - e15/month just to have access to online banking.
BOI - e5/month just to have access to credit card statement online - That's right, not included in the above.

That's in addition to all the "usual" fees.

unnamed

Hi,

I've been searching for a new business bank account also.

I'm currently with Bank of Ireland and as a bank it's just fine (but the fees are high). Unfortunately the Business Banking Online is dreadful, it breaks very often, and I cry thinking that I have to use it for another month. It took me 2 hours to transfer my salary into my personal account last week.

I've done some looking:

BOI - Good bank, dreadful and expensive online offering (IE/Windows Only)
KBC - don't do business current accounts yet.
Ulster - Looks good on paper, but they have had a lot of technical problems recently.
AIB - They declined to create a business account for me when I started a few years. (I didn't want a loan, credit card or overdraft services - I never quite understood why).
Danske - Are leaving Ireland
PTSB - Website is very unclear, I'm not sure what they offer.

Anyone else I should check?

Thanks.

Axwell

With AIB a few years now, no issues and their online banking is very good.

Retailer

keep an eye on this crowd http://realexfire.com/

they are supposed to be launching a business version of their personal account although the site doesn't indicate when.

I set up a personal account with them. Admittedly I don't use it much at all but I really only set it up in the hope that their business account would launch soon. With the personal account I have a BIC and a sort code so it's just like a normal bank account.

It may be an option for some people if/when they launch