JohnMac Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Evening All, Tonight received the letter from my bank Santander announcing that they are cancelling the Free Business Banking service, and that they will be imposing a monthly fee of £7.50. :( Another bank showing by its deeds, its’ contempt of customers and that it cannot be trusted. One-thing is for certain, once my investment bond matures, its’ been moved to somewhere else. Nominations please, for other small business friendly bank to transfer to. Regards John Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevieR Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Is it not a little naive to assume that a banking service should be totally 'free'? They are a business providing a service and surely they should be able to charge a fee for this service? Now I don't know how Santander's fee structure works. For us, its a charge on transactions. Is this £7.50 a flat monthly fee that includes all transactions? If so, then that's better than we're on. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 True, they are providing a service. But they are also benefitting from that service by having working capital to lend to other people on which they charge interest at a higher rate than they pay to accounts that are in credit. They also charge arrangement fees for loans on top of the interest, fines for un-arranged borrowing and a percentage on every transaction received by card payment along with many, many other charges. Is it really reasonable that they should charge a fee on top of these fees just for the privilege of letting them use your money in this way especially when you have no say over how they use your money? Years ago I could understand the need for a monthly fee as each branch had its own manager who kept a close eye on their own clients. Accounts were to be looked at by a PERSON who along with several other similar people reported to the bank manager all of whom had to be paid. These days banks don't have managers, they have "customer service team leaders", people who have no autonomy when it comes to decision making, they have computer systems capable of monitoring thousands of accounts at a time requiring minimal human intervention. In short the banks costs have come down, their attitude to risk has worsened and trusting them with your money has never felt so risky. Yet they think that this change of service is worthy of payment? Sadly they'll get away with it as nobody has the power to stop them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 We have free business banking with Cooperative bank. After being with HSBC for a number of increasingly unhappy years, coop is great. Best thing is you can ring them up and instantly talk to a real person in Manchester who isn't reading from a script. Branches are a bit sparse though, we do most things by internet, post or phone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowan.b1000 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Yet they think that this change of service is worthy of payment? couldn't agree with you more. They have our money so why should we have to PAY!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramdram Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 They should be paying us for the loan of OUR money to do whatever business they use the capital on! Banks need a constant supply of cash to survive...and as we have seen are not that fussy how they obtain it. Goodness only knows how they got away with squandering quite a lot of cash...and then come cap-in-hand for a bailout from us, via HMG. Or, how they considered doling out credit cards to nippers straight out of school or even worse conniving at the introduction of store cards...madness...after all someone had to set up the systems. Well, actually we do know...incredibly poor business practices and ethics and the then FSA almost useless. And, how on earth these banking whizz kids really expected to make money in the sub-prime mortgage market was utter, utter stupidity. Or introducing status free mortgages...how could that ever be financially prudent banking advice? Trouble began when the banks wanted a slice of the action formerly the preserve of Building Societies with the result a free for all and ever increasing house prices. Anyone who was enticed into buying a property with the bait of retiring on the profits after becoming empty nesters and downsizing or got conned into the "release your equity" should sue for being given duff advice. You may have noticed that after a bit the TV ads came with a caveat on the hoped for profits. If anyone really believes that being charged for banking "services" on a current account, which is kept in the black, is "OK" then it begs the question should they be allowed out on their own and they should be permitted to handle any sharp objects. Dear oh dear oh dear, the country's going to the dogs. End of rant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Years back a good mate was called in by his bank manager (remember them?) and told he wasn't running his account well since ALL cheques were cashed in pubs and he ran out of cash every month. "Tell you what" my mate said "how about the bank gives me a couple of grand at the beginning of the month, I let you have it back when you need it and I will only charge you £30 a month?" "It doesn't work like that. That would be stupid!" said the manager "Swap seats?" said my mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 These days banks don't have managers, they have "customer service team leaders", people who have no autonomy when it comes to decision making,...Sounds like I'm in a minority. My bank invites me in for a chat with a real person on an annual basis both for my business account and my personal accounts. In both of those meetings they offer to lend me almost any amount of money I want at interest rates lower than anything you'll see advertised, a lot lower. But then I have been with the same bank since I was at school. I have a *very* good credit rating and a *very* low risk rating. I guess loyalty does count for something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 I got fed up with Barclays, who I'd been with since leaving school. Not so much for service, but the cost of my business account. I switched to Alliance & Leicester, now part of Santander, and run it totally on line, and assuming you have more than a grand going in each month, it's free. If you don't, they charge a fiver! Advice on the phone if you need it. I'm very happy with it. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Sounds like I'm in a minority. My bank invites me in for a chat with a real person on an annual basis both for my business account and my personal accounts. In both of those meetings they offer to lend me almost any amount of money I want at interest rates lower than anything you'll see advertised, a lot lower. But then I have been with the same bank since I was at school. I have a *very* good credit rating and a *very* low risk rating. I guess loyalty does count for something. I doubt you are in the minority, Is the person you see a bank manager or do they have a different title? Something like business relationship manager? They invite you in every year for a "review" and then they try and sell you a loan at a good rate because you have a good credit rating. The person you speak to is only there to sell you financial products on which the bank make more money and they have sales targets like any other sales person. If you take them up on their seemingly generous offer you're tied to them for a few more years if you don't they'll come back with an even better rate. With any luck (for the bank, I don't wish you any ill) you'll borrow more money than you can afford and default on a payment entitling them to change the terms of the loan and put you on a much higher interest rate and make it even harder for you to pay them back meaning you refinance over a longer period giving them even more money. However something tells me that you're more than sensible enough to avoid that situation un like a lot of people. My bank hate me, I only ever run my account in credit, rarely use my business credit card and pay it off, in full, every month. Anything more than £1000 goes straight in to my business savings account on which they pay me interest. I've been offered all kinds of stuff like card payment systems, low rate loans, premium banking services (that have a monthly fee) all of which would end up costing me money and making my life more complicated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevep Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Nominations please, for other small business friendly bank to transfer to. I spotted this in the news a few weeks ago and started looking about - but the charges are mostly very similar. I couldn't find any free ones. Cheapest I could find was HSBC - they have slightly different tarriffs depending on the nature of the account services you use so worth comparing them. I've no experience of dealing with HSBC though and the other post stating some unhappiness with them is a concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Co-op Business Directplus is free for 18 months then £3 per month - if you are a member of the FSB it's free permanently. My main issue with HSBC was that they closed my 2 nearest local branches, then made it impossible to phone the branch they transferred me to. You had to call their indian call centre and go through the entire script with them until you could persuade them that they couldn't help you and you really needed to talk to the branch. This was a few years ago, they may have improved it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonino Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Sounds like I'm in a minority. My bank invites me in for a chat with a real person on an annual basis both for my business account and my personal accounts. In both of those meetings they offer to lend me almost any amount of money I want at interest rates lower than anything you'll see advertised, a lot lower. But then I have been with the same bank since I was at school. I have a *very* good credit rating and a *very* low risk rating. I guess loyalty does count for something. I doubt you are in the minority, Is the person you see a bank manager or do they have a different title? Something like business relationship manager? They invite you in every year for a "review" and then they try and sell you a loan at a good rate because you have a good credit rating. The person you speak to is only there to sell you financial products on which the bank make more money and they have sales targets like any other sales person. wait, banks are businesses trying to make money? what?? (I'm not saying there aren't real problems in the banking sector, but I don't begrudge them trying to sell products. they're a damned sight better than bloody wonga) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 But they are also benefitting from that service by having working capital to lend to other people Yeah, thats a common misconception on how banking works. See Fractional Reserve Banking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mi-ul Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 I use HSBC (with a few branches very close by) and it's free but they charge if you bank or spend over x amount of cheques of deposit too much cash. E-transactions don't have any charges. I can't remember what the levels are as I only use it for about 10 cheques a month and everything else is BACS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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