HSBC like many of the major high street banks offer free business banking for 18 months for start-up businesses in the UK.
However, once this free period is over then the standard tariff of charges and fees kick in but there are still ways to get a free account so here's our review.
HSBC offer a range of free business banking offers and most of them expire after 18 months. This is of benefit for new businesses though as all transactions are free and you also receive a Google Adwords voucher worth £75 to advertise your business for free.
Here's a summary of what HSBC offer on all their business accounts:
Once your 18 months free banking is finished with HSBC ask them to move you over to their business direct tariff. Although this is mentioned on their website it's not widely publised and you won't be moved over automatically as this effectively offers small businesses with a low volume of monthly transactions completely free banking (although check the rates for cash deposited and cheques written) ...
HSBC offer their standard current account if you don't want the business direct rates mentioned above and split these into two groups - small businesses with turnovers less than £1million and those businesses with turnovers above this amount. The small business tariff is designed to have lower costs as follows:
If you are a larger business with a turnover of more than £1 million then it's up to you to negotiate a rate structure with the bank. There is no standard tariff that's published and HSBC state that you can have a mixture of monthly fees with a number of transactions included or go for a tariff that has individual pricing.
With HSBC you also get access to their other services and they have various offers for small businesses as well. There are also special bank accounts if you run a charity, a school or college, a community or run bank accounts on behalf of clients. Foreign currency accounts are also available under their international bank account service.
HSBC likes to be know as the World's local bank and has their global headquarters based in Canary Wharf in London's new financial district. They serve over 100 million customers worldwide and make most of their profits from so called commercial banking. They have over 8,500 offices in 86 countries around the world and consistently win various banking awards.
The following banks offer free banking for life