Business Banking - local branch management

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

One for the accountants on here, mainly, but any one else with experience chip in...

35 years with Barclays, and the business banking has gone downhill. As I'm "in credit" and below £1m turnover I can't have a named manager and / or someone in branch.

Instead I have a team of 20 or so people in a call centre who "are energised to grow my business", and do so from Leeds when I'm on the Isle of Wight, through the medium of "taking notes and sharing information internally".

They don't have access to transactions or account management information - which means they are of little value in solving day to day problems.

No email contacts, they only work by phone.

A blocked payment out today led to our accounts being locked and over two hours of phone calls across the day - a large part of which on hold - to get access re-instated.

Anyway, question, which banks, if any, still have a sensible branch based business management team? Or failing that named relationship managers with email contacts?

I really emphasise with some of the posters on here having problems with sausage factory accountants.

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

PS, NLUK, yes, I have asked my accountant.

[northernladuk]

PS, NLUK, yes, I have asked my accountant.

Bugger

[doconline]

I am with Santander and have been for 10 years now. I thought they were always telephone based until January, when I got a letter from the business manager at my local branch introducing himself and asking me to make an appointment to see how they could help with my business banking.

I haven't bothered as I don't think there is really anything they can help me with, bring a standard contractor. But haven't had any issues with then in all the time I have been with them and would recommend them based on my experiences, other people's may be different though.

[kaiser78]

I am with Santander and have been for 10 years now. I thought they were always telephone based until January, when I got a letter from the business manager at my local branch introducing himself and asking me to make an appointment to see how they could help with my business banking.

I haven't bothered as I don't think there is really anything they can help me with, bring a standard contractor. But haven't had any issues with then in all the time I have been with them and would recommend them based on my experiences, other people's may be different though.

Yes Santander offered me face to face contact with their local branch business manager whenever I want. I was in the branch for something else and we just got talking and he offered me this service if I ever need guidance around my business.
This was a couple of years ago just to add.

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

Banks

Metro seem to be ok at the moment, eager to maintain a relationship but not too good if you're outside London.

Found Barclays to be ok for the umbrella company, but that's with having healthy balances within them as you mention.

Previous firm used Santander but they struggled with the personal service side of things and getting simple facilities being put in place, they've since moved to Lloyds. Always found Lloyds to be a bit more amenable to local relationships, could well be worthwhile a conversation.

[Maslins]

Is there a Handelsbanken near you? I'm unsure if they have a minimum size/value for business customers, but if you want personalised service from a local branch I'd recommend at least looking into them.

MVL Online use them for all our estate accounts. It's a bit of a niche, lots of account opening/closing, with a very small number of high value transactions in the 3-6 months of each account being open. Other banks do cater to this market, but they've been great. Some things aren't perhaps as slick as for the bigger banks, but any queries I call the local branch, typically 1 of 3 people answer the phone, and they all know me (whether that's because I'm annoying or not isn't relevant!).

Otherwise, the banks all seem much of a muchness to me. They all work fine 99.9% of the time, but when something goes wrong it's a massive nightmare to sort out. One of our clients basically had his sole business account (HSBC) frozen for 2 months, with them refusing to talk to him about it. Their reasoning was some kind of suspected money laundering thing (hence why they wouldn't talk to him about it), but it was a complete muck up on their part. He'd done nothing wrong, but guilty until proven innocent. Nearly destroyed his business (borrowing money personally to pay business suppliers as he couldn't access his fairly plentiful company funds). Anyway, I'm sure every bank has a few horror stories like that so maybe unfair to pick on HSBC, but was scary how troubled a healthy business became overnight because of a bank cock up.

[WordIsBond]

PS, NLUK, yes, I have asked my accountant.

If you can't get a useful answer out of your accountant, maybe it's time for a change?

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

If you can't get a useful answer out of your accountant, maybe it's time for a change?

You think? Any suggestions...

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Santander came up in another context, and a manger who was touting from us five years ago in still in post, so I'm making contact...