A survey of 16,800 small business banking customers carried out between January and December 2019 ranks 14 banks. Which bank has the best business bank account?
Download your free in-depth guide to the best business bank accounts. Get instant access to expert hints and tips in the click of a few buttons.
Your email address will be used by Simply Business to keep you posted with the latest news, offers and tips. You can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. Simply Business Privacy policy.
Consumer insight consultancy BVA BDRC conducts a regular independent survey for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In this survey, people with a business bank account are asked how likely they are to recommend their provider.
We’ve used the latest survey to list the best business banks. At the bottom of the article, we also compare business accounts that the top providers offer.
Respondents are asked about their provider’s:
BVA BDRC say the results show “the proportion of customers of each provider who said they were ‘extremely likely’ or ‘very likely’ to recommend each service” to other SMEs.
Bank | Percentage of customers who would recommend |
---|---|
Handelsbanken | 82 per cent |
Metro Bank | 68 per cent |
Santander | 64 per cent |
Yorkshire Bank | 57 per cent |
Barclays | 57 per cent |
Nine other banks round out the rest of the ranking:
Bank | Percentage of customers who would recommend |
---|---|
Metro Bank | 73 per cent |
Barclays | 73 per cent |
Santander | 70 per cent |
Lloyds Bank | 68 per cent |
Natwest | 66 per cent |
Here’s where the other banks placed:
Bank | Percentage of customers who would recommend |
---|---|
Handelsbanken | 80 per cent |
Santander | 65 per cent |
Yorkshire Bank | 60 per cent |
HSBC UK | 60 per cent |
Lloyds Bank | 59 per cent |
Only seven other banks round out the rankings here, because fewer than 100 of Metro Bank’s and The Co-operative Bank’s customers provided an eligible score for overdraft and loan services:
Bank | Percentage of customers who would recommend |
---|---|
Handelsbanken | 86 per cent |
Metro Bank | 65 per cent |
Santander | 64 per cent |
Yorkshire Bank | 61 per cent |
Barclays | 59 per cent |
This is how the rest of the banks fared:
Bank | Percentage of customers who would recommend |
---|---|
Handelsbanken | 76 per cent |
Metro Bank | 75 per cent |
Lloyds Bank | 61 per cent |
TSB | 57 per cent |
Yorkshire Bank | 57 per cent |
Here are how the other nine banks ranked:
Here are more details on the products themselves, letting you compare business bank accounts from the top providers.
Handelsbanken came top in the survey for overall service, as well as for relationship management and overdraft and loan services.
It calls itself a local relationship bank, where each branch works as a local business. Handelsbanken say this helps them better understand their customers, the local market and the community.
The bank offers a direct line to an account manager and team at your local branch, as well as current accounts in a range of currencies, and overdrafts (subject to status).
There aren’t any details about fees on their website, so you’ll need to get in touch with your local branch to find out what fees they might charge your business.
Metro Bank came second for overall service quality, but top for online and mobile banking.
Its USP is that its branches are open outside of usual working hours, seven days a week.
To open a business bank account with Metro Bank, you need to have an annual turnover or balance sheet of up to £2 million. There’s further eligibility criteria around business owners being UK residents.
When it comes to fees, there’s no monthly charge for daily balances above £5,000. If your daily balance ends at below £5,000 in the month, you'll pay the monthly fee of £5.
You'll also get 50 free UK transactions each month, but if you exceed this limit, a fee kicks in at 30p for each transaction (balances below £5,000 don’t get the free transactions however). There are other charges too, for non-standard transactions.
Santander came third in the survey for overall service quality. It offers free and discounted banking for startups, and two business bank accounts.
The Business Current Account offers:
The 123 Current Account offers:
If you’re a new business or even just switching to Yorkshire Bank, you’ll get 25 months of fee-free banking.
To be eligible, you need to be a new business opening an account within 12 months of starting up, or a small business with a turnover of less than £2 million switching your main business bank account to Yorkshire Bank.
After the fee-free period you switch to the business tariff – £6.50 a month, with charges for other transactions like Direct Debits and cash paid in.
Yorkshire Bank also offers specialist relationship management and an optional overdraft.
Barclays has specialised products for businesses of different sizes.
Keen to try a new way of banking? ‘Challenger banks’ are becoming more and more mainstream, and often make entrepreneurship and small business management part of their core offering.
A challenger bank is usually a smaller retail bank, set up with the aim of competing with large, long-established national banks like the ones mentioned above. There’s been a rise in the popularity of online-only and mobile-first banks like Monzo in recent years.
Here are three challenger banks you could take a look at for your business:
Whichever bank you choose, it’s important to research all of your options carefully and decide what’s best for you. Please only use this article as a guide, as part of your research.
How do you rate your business bank account? Let us know in the comments below.
As one of the UK's biggest business insurance providers, we specialise in public liability insurance and protect more trades than anybody else. Why not take a look now and build a quick, tailored quote?
Start your quoteWe create this content for general information purposes and it should not be taken as advice. Always take professional advice. Read our full disclaimer
Keep up to date with Simply Business. Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and follow us on social media.
Subscribe to our newsletter6th Floor99 Gresham StreetLondonEC2V 7NG
Sol House29 St Katherine's StreetNorthamptonNN1 2QZ
© Copyright 2021 Simply Business. All Rights Reserved. Simply Business is a trading name of Xbridge Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Registration No: 313348). Xbridge Limited (No: 3967717) has its registered office at 6th Floor, 99 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7NG.