Like anyone else, to decide on the bank account, I went to the comparison websites to see which bank has the best business current account. At the moment Santander comes up as number 1 in terms of cost and ease of opening, but given the recent scandals in the press, this bank is definitely not the one for me. Don't get me wrong, I am not picky - almost every bank has been involved in some sort of scandal, particularly PPI misselling and LIBOR scandal. But Santander has just a little bit more than others: poor pensioners lost their money as their old accounts were closed without notification, some issues with their computer systems, breach of their firewalls in my local Surrey Quays shopping center...
So, naturally I went for the second choice - NatWest with two years of free banking for a start-up. First, I called and gave my details, and then waited for the branch appointment for about a week, but nobody called me. So I followed up, and they said that they can give me an appointment only in two weeks, however they can pass my details to another less busy branch. Needless to say, other branch never called. Then I applied online for the service of the Direct Banking team. Nobody called me. So I followed up, and some gentleman happily informed me that his team, the Direct Banking team, has been just sold to another organisation, and that if I want to stay with them, they cannot guarantee the terms that are advertised by NatWest. I believe he sounded happy, because he has not (yet) lost his job as a result of this disposal. But it does not help me as a customer.
Then my boyfriend suggested to call Metro Bank (https://www.metrobankonline.co.uk) which is still quite new.
When I read the terms, it turned out that if you keep £5000 on the account all the time, you do not pay maintenance fee and get 50 transactions per month free which is not too bad. The next surprise was that they do not have those horrible automatic answering and call distribution systems which ask you to listen to options and press buttons and then hang up on you after 15 minutes. A lady called Helen answered my call immediately, clearly explained both the application and decision-making process, and the next day I was in their branch filling in forms and drinking nice tea. Really, the tea was nice. They even call it chai not tea. Once the branch manager reviews my application, I should have my account in 3 days. Taste the difference!
Image source: http://www.offshore-private-banking.com/
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