Oh my god!
Opening a business bank account has always been tedious. So when my Son and I launched our new marketing agency (www.developingbrands.co.uk) we contacted Yorkshire bank, thought I’d give them a try.
Actually you end up with Clydesdale bank. But I filled the form in online and waited. I waited some more and eventually a large letter arrived asking me to post them some documents. It’s not really an online application then is it? I was also supposed to click on a link in an email which just didn’t work. After much faffing about trying to get the link to work exasperated … and to cut a long story short … I gave up!
Back to square 1
There’s a tendency these days for big companies to hide their phone number. Maybe big banks don’t want to speak to their customers? After much a do I found the number for the Harrogate branch of HSBC and rang them up. “Can I pop in please, bring all my stuff and open a business bank account. Don’t need a loan or overdraft just a bank account.” The answer whilst not entirely a surprise did peev me somewhat: “Im afraid no one can see you for 3 weeks”.
So, I rang Natwest, this is no easy task either. Go on have a go yourself and see how long it takes them to answer the phone and then how long it takes you to actually go and see someone in a branch. Anyway, after a similar experience to HSBC I bailed out of that application too.
So I went online again and found Tide.com. Lets try a challenger bank I thought. The sign up process was indeed very quick. All good so far. I downloaded the App and tried to do anything with it. It just said “no messages” and literally nothing else to click on. No communication for a week, didn’t have a clue what was happening. Emailed them and they happily said I’d get a call back. No call was received! After much chasing and then validating the account it was a success.
We’ve been using Tide for sometime now and it works a treat. The App is now great and although its not free banking quite frankly anything was better than the hurdles put it in front of me from the big boys.