Choosing the right business bank account is vital for new and existing businesses, yet key product information is almost impossible to find and compare.

 

In this article, we outline the most important factors covered by intellist that you won’t find on other comparison sites - which are often generic, driven by commercial agreements, and provide limited value to the end customer.

 

When choosing an account, our research shows the most important factors are:

 

• Total cost including all fees and charges

• Customer reviews

• Suitability for different business types

• Eligibility e.g. credit check, type of business

• Product features

 

Whilst monthly fee and eligibility are commonly shown, concise and comparable data on total cost, customer reviews and suitability are missing. We dig into these factors below:
 

 

💸 cost, not price
 

Keeping costs to a minimum is essential for any business. Comparison sites will typically show “price”, but this is only a small part or none of the actual cost of the business account, includes fees and extras.

 

At intellist, we display true cost of ownership, based on real usage data from 000s of companies, across multiple types of business e.g. international, start-up, SME. Users will be able to adjust the parameters, based on their specific needs.
 

Below we show estimated total cost for 8 of the most popular business accounts* - Revolut, Tide, Starling Business, Monzo, Virgin Money, HSBC, Cashplus, Barclays business account - for 2 common use cases:

 

1. New start up - assuming:  

• 20 domestic payments of £500

• 4 x ATM of £150 (2 x domestic, 2 x international)

• Card spend: £1,000 domestic, £250 international

 

 

 

 

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2. Start-up making international payments
(only 4 providers suitable) - assuming:

• 20 domestic payments of £500

• 10 x international payments of £1,000 (6 x SEPA, 4 x SWIFT)

• 10 x ATM of £150 (4 x domestic, 6 x international)

• Card spend: £2,000 domestic, £1,000 international

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As you can, actual cost can vary massively between accounts, even if the headline fee is free. This is especially true for international payments.

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*based on publicly available information and specified usage above.
 

 

🗣️ what do customers say ?

 

Customer reviews are great for understanding how actual users of business account rate them - adding colour beyond price, cost and feature set.
 

One popular source is Trustpilot, which allows comparison across providers. Take the rating with a pinch of salt however - a few poor experiences can seriously impact the overall rating, which is a particular issue for high street banks.
 

We combine trust pilot with other customer data including, independent research by the Competition and Markets Authority (although it doesn’t cover all banks).
 

 

🤔 Is it right for my business?
 

Do you need to make a lot euro payments or lock in a rate using FX forwards? Accept card payments? Deposit cash? Get credit / overdraft?
 

Every business is different. With so many business accounts available, one may be especially suited to your business. At intellist, we allow you to sort based on common use cases.
 

You can also filter based the features important to you - for example being a limited company, having multiple team members, or depositing cash.

 

⭐ Bringing it all together

 

All the factors above are a lot to take in when making your choice.
 

We’ve combined all of the data into a ranking including cost, customer review, use case, and features - accompanied by a one sentence summary on our view.
 

For more information on the best bank account for your business, go to our business bank accounts section. We currently cover 8 of the most popular high street and digital banks, with others to follow.

More products, from credit, insurance, investment accounts and crypto coming soon.