online only banks.... manotea's going fintech

[Manotea]

Anybody use online only banks for business?

Looking at tide....

[psyclist]

I use Coconut, which i’ve been very pleased with to date. Very intuitive.

The only issue I currently have, which will be common for a number of the online only banks, is that they don’t have a facility to accept incoming cheques. I didn’t think I would need that functionality, until I received a VAT refund by cheque. I can set things up to receive future refunds via bank transfer, but still to work out how to deal with the cheque I currently have.

[caerau]

Might not be too useful currently, but my mobile banking app with a famous 'big four' clearing bank (neigh )has a facility to pay in cheques via the mobile phone app - I would assume this will be coming soon to online banks surely.  It's limited to £500 in and to £1000 a day mind.

[Jaded]

Yes, mine too. I have paid in cheques twice like this.

[Ben T]

No but probably would do as it's a pain in the arse having to go in for a meeting during business hours in person! Can't be beyond the wit of man nowadays to verify/authenticate people remotely.

[orienteer]

Still using Smile (part of Co-op Bank). They've always had a freepost address for paying in cheques, but they've stopped accepting foreign cheques. So I also have a Metro Bank account too now.

[Quisling]

I use Triodos for my business, which is suitably ethical.  It all works fine and is sensibly economic for me as I don't do many transactions so my fees are only around £2 a month (I only send out about 20 invoices a year).  I imagine they'd work out more spendy for retailers.

They don't however offer a bank card so any payments I can't make directly by BACS (e.g. all my expenses!) come out of my pocket and I have to claim back as expenses.  This would probably be a hassle for larger organisations.

There is no mobile phone app for their business bank, only their new personal account.

The web-based banking is fine - well laid out and does what I need easily.  They're also on the ball with odd payments.  I had to order a ISO standard document from Switzerland in CHF and I got a phone call from Triodos 5 minutes later checking all was well.  I like them a lot, but I can see their service isn't for all businesses.

[caerau]

I just opened up an account with Starling (mobile phone app only bank) - for once - a random internet advert alerted me to its existence*.  Mostly joined them as I'm off to Greece in a few weeks and it seems they specialise in non-charged banking transactions abroad so it's very useful for avoiding lots of those types of fees - recommended highly on Moneysavingexpert.com


They have a business account that also seems to be highly rated if you don't know of its existence already.













*I hope this doesn't turn out to the be the portent of ultimate doom - an internet advert actually being useful? - well I suppose it only took 25 years for me.