We have our practice bank accounts with Santander so thought it would be a good idea to have our client funds account with them too but they say they don't offer that service for accountants (only solicitors and estate agents). They will open up designated accounts for every single client we get tax refunds for but surely this isn't necessary. The money comes in from HMRC one day and leaves the very same day to pay our fees and the rest to the client. The amounts could be a few thousand pounds but never anywhere near £10,000. We are an ACCA memeber firm and their guidance suggests an undesignated account would be acceptable but as Santander disagree I'm wondering what other small practices do? Can anyone recommend a good general client funds account?
Thanks in advance
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We have an undesignated client account with Lloyds. However we've had it for many years, I'm not certain they haven't changed their policy since.
This is the exact reason that I moved to Barclays last year. They even gave me 6 months free banking whilst I shut the Santander accounts down.
Plus the Barclays app opens on fingerprint, not the password & PIN like Santander.
My Santander app opens to my fingerprint...
No idea why Santander wouldn't offer to accountants, as it's basically just a "no right of offset/aggregation" clause and debiting bank charges to the office account, so the nature of the account holder's business is surely irrelevant? If correct you'll have to move bank imho, as I doubt another bank would offer this as a stand-alone service.
I took out a treasurers account with Santander many years ago for that sole purpose. I'm not sure if they still do it but it works perfectly for me with no bank charges.
I am also ACCA qualified and banked with Santander. They wouldn't give me a client account, which was a shame as I liked the way the account operated. I had to move to Barclays in order to get a client account, but they wouldn't provide it as a stand alone account so I had to move my business current account to them as well. Their fees are £1 a month cheaper than Santander but you have to pay to bank cheques which Santanter don't do.
I opened up a santander business account a few weeks back. Client account was offered but did say extra checks would be done before approval. But they didn't say I couldn't have one.
https://www.santander.co.uk/uk/business/savings/client-saver
the above seems to suggest it would be open to all businesses regulated by an appropriate body, I would have thought ACCA would make that list.