Best startup bank accounts in the UK — 2020 Edition

As a start-up founder, it’s important to manage your admin from day one. It saves you time in the long run and gets you back to focusing on what’s important — building a business.

We’re a startup ourselves and have first-hand experience in choosing tools and services. We thought it’d be helpful to put together a list of the best start-up bank accounts in the UK. So that you can make a quick decision and get back to building your business.

Here are our top recommended banks for a few different categories:

• If you’re looking for a challenger bank with a great app, fantastic product features and a high street presence isn’t a priority to you — we’d recommend Starling Bank.
• If you’re looking for a modern bank with high-street branches and someone you can speak to face-to-face with, then our pick is MetroBank.
• Lastly, when thinking about a great option for a startup doing business internationally — making and receiving payments in multiple currencies, we’d say Transferwise.

Here’s the full list — tailored for startups.

Best Start-up Bank Accounts in the UK (The shortlist)

Starling Bank

The highlights:

• Open the account in minutes, no paperwork required.
• Link your account to your accounting software, e.g. QuickBooks
• Multi-director accounts
• Easy to use overdraft

Starling’s business banking offering is quite promising. When getting down to the nitty-gritty, it offers zero monthly fees, zero fees on domestic transfers, as well as 24/7 support and instant switching via the switching service. It’s aimed at the owners of limited companies and the self-employed.

Business Score suggestion: Starling bank is a fantastic option that covers your needs if you’re a sole trader, the owner of a small business or a small early-stage startup.

What to watch out for: Not the best option if you’re a startup that works internationally, there are no special perks for using your card abroad.

Metro Bank

The highlights:

• Branches open with good hours, 8 am — 8 pm
• Free if you have over £5k in the account and have under 45 transactions, only £5/month otherwise!
• For a high-street bank, the account setup is somewhat better, known to take a few hours but requires physical paperwork

As far as high-street banks go, Metro Bank is one of the fresher faces on the scene. Known for excellent customer service and a somewhat novel approach to their branches. They have several locations across the country, mostly in the South — with great opening hours so you can speak to someone face to face, before or after work. It supports smaller businesses with turnover under £2 million and the fees are simple to understand.

Business Score suggestion: As far as traditional banks go, with high street branches and real people you can speak to, Metro Bank is at the top!

What to watch out for: If you’re just getting started, the fees might be inconvenient and you’re better off with a free business bank.

Barclays

The highlights:

• 4.8 stars (982k reviews) on the App Store
• Free for 12 months
• Customer support telephone lines open until 8 pm

Barclays offers two pricing plans, they’re designed around how your business makes and receives payments. It varies whether or not you use cash or cheques or mostly get paid or pay for things online. You’re charged per transaction which as a startup can be a little surprising. For example, if you’re on the ‘mixed-payments’ plan, which means you receive or send both cash, cheques and electronic payments, you’re charged £0.35 per transaction.

Business Score suggestion: Fantastic choice if you want a great mobile app experience from a legacy bank, shame about the fees!

What to watch out for: Free for the first 12 months, then you might feel the charges.

Natwest

The highlights:

• Free accounting software & receipt tool
• Dedicated ‘start-up’ package
• 18 months free business banking
• 4.4 stars (22k reviews) on the App Store

Natwest’s start-up business account is available for businesses that have been trading for less than a year and have a projected or existing annual turnover of under £1 million. The start-up business account also allows access to accounting tool FreeAgent and their own receipt management software. Pretty nice. Natwest also has a range of additional products, as expected — business loans, business credit cards and insurance.

Business Score suggestion: With some interesting additional perks, it feels as though Natwest understands what startups are looking for. Their app might be the stand-out offering they have, other than that the rest is similar.

What to watch out for: Charges after 18 months might be noticeable if you make a lot of transactions a month.

Tide

The highlights:

• Card usage at home and overseas is free
• No monthly or annual fees, pay as you use approach
• A complete digital offering, mobile and web access

Tide is a digital business bank offering, solely app-based. It’s targeted at small businesses, freelancers and sole traders. Business owners can do their accounting for free, and get a contactless MasterCard plus up to 35 cards. Iwoca is also fully integrated into Tide, so users can apply for business funding and get a decision without leaving Tide.

Business Score suggestion: You can count on great user experience with Tide as the offering is purely mobile and web-based, if you have high expectations on a seamless banking experience, Tide could be the one for you.

What to watch out for: Some forums mention that Tide’s ‘faster’ payments tend to be a little slow.

Mettle

The highlights:

• Apply in minutes
• Owned by Natwest so controlled by a legacy bank
• Create and send invoices directly from your mobile phone (with your logo!)

Mettle is pretty new. It’s an offering from established player Natwest but it’s in its infancy so there still seems to be some wrinkles to iron out and there’s a noticeable lack of features and offerings. However, if you’re looking for something simple and straightforward without any bells and whistles, it could be for you. On a more positive note, with Mettle, you can apply in minutes, lock and unlock your card, see how your balance changes over time and categorise payments for bookkeeping.

Business Score suggestion: Small business owner with not many requirements from their bank, such as additional services — this could work well for you.

What to watch out for: No current account switching service from Mettle and no overdraft facilities.

HSBC

The highlights:

• Make domestic and international payments of up to £100,000 per day
• Get telephone support from a dedicated helpdesk — 7 days a week from 8 am to 10 pm
• Set up multiple users

HSBC customers can make cash deposits, withdrawals or submit balance enquiries at any Post Office branch with their debit card. When the free business banking period finishes, a fixed price of £6.50 a month for the following 12 months will be levied. Customers can deposit up to £3,000 in cash per month during this time. If they exceed this limit, the fee for further cash transactions is 0.50% of the value deposited.

Business Score suggestion: Following the free business banking period the fees are pretty low with HSBC.

What to watch out for: 0.50% fee for cash deposits over £3,000 so might not be ideal for you, depending on your type of business.

Revolut

The highlights:

• Issue an unlimited number of physical and virtual multi-currency corporate cards that you can add to Apple Pay
• Easily manage employee expenses and set monthly spending limits per card
• Use bulk payments to make up to 1,000 payments to employees or partners with a single click
• Hold, send, and receive funds in up to 28 currencies

Revolut for Business is a business account platform for domestic and international payments, designed to save you time and money. You can transfer domestically and internationally, all without hidden fees.

Business Score suggestion: Great option for a startup that might be using multiple currencies to send and receive payments, Revolut specialises in minimizing the fees traditionally associated with this type of thing. The app is pretty great as well and easy to use, would strongly recommend if you hold multiple currencies.

What to watch out for: There’s quite a complex list of fees, such as transaction fees, ATM withdrawal fees, card issuing fees, local transfer and international transfer fees and foreign exchange fees. These change depending on what plan you’re on, a small startup to an enterprise. Sadly there are also no cash deposits.

Transferwise

The highlights:

• Xero integration
• Batch payments
• Monthly statements
• Pay invoices and people abroad
• Receive money with no fees

Transferwise offers a free business account to send, spend and receive multiple currencies with the real exchange rate. Transferwise is a great option if you want to do business without borders. The stand out features of Transferwise relates to the borderless nature of their bank account. You can pay invoices, buy inventory and handle payroll with the real exchange rate in over 40 currencies.

Business Score suggestion: Great challenger offering for those who do international payments, transfers or receive multiple currencies from their customers and suppliers.

What to watch out for: Many features such as having multiple cards are in Beta so you may be a bit strapped for some of the basics.

Santander

The highlights:

• Up to £300 cashback each year
• Unlimited Santander ATM cash deposits
• Interest on your credit balance
• Access online, at Santander branch counters, ATMs and Post Office branches

There is no monthly account fee for the first 18 months, this account is suitable for businesses in their first year of trading. The ability to bank online, over the telephone or in a branch will also appeal to some people. In addition, Santander has won multiple awards for its business current account from financial experts.

Business Score suggestion: Santander is a solid option for a high street bank, with online over the phone and in-branch banking available. They’re known for having an award-winning business current account and offer some unique services.

What to watch out for: After the first 18 months, the fees are £12.50 per month for the 123 current account.

Thanks for reading, let us know which bank account you’ve gone for. We produce content on services startups need and use, so check back for more.

Business Score Team