What banks do clubs use for their current account?

alastairgott

Well-known member
in the market for a switch from HSBC for an account. Wanted to sound out if there were any that people swear by, or just they are the closest to your house for dropping the cash.


I'm swaying towards metro bank as they look like they might be open until 6pm, which would be convenient for dropping cash after work. Some are not even accepting new applications and others shut at 4.30pm, which is about as much use a a chocolate teapot, suntan lotion at a tanning salon or taking a comb into a cave.
 

Oceanrower

Active member
I?m not a club (obviously!) but I am with Metrobank. Can?t recommend them highly enough.

Open late, plus Saturdays AND Sundays, cards and cheque books (how old fashioned!) printed in store so no postal delays, free change machines in branch, an app that?s easy to use and a helpline with real people on the end.

Great service. And, no, I don?t work for them?
 

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
We are in a similar position for the Dachstein expedition; I presume you want to switch because HSBC is about to start charging ?5/month...

I found this list (updated in June) but haven't had a chance to go through it yet.
https://www.resourcecentre.org.uk/information/bank-accounts-for-community-and-voluntary-organisations/
 

kay

Well-known member
Trouble with Metrobank is the lack of branches, there's one in Manchester, but none in Leeds for example. That means adding people to the account is done remotely, but they need certified copies of all documentation, which means unless you have a tame financial adviser or similar, you'll be paying ?12.75 for the PO's document verifying service. Metro will accept scanned documents by email, but they don't have a secure email, so you may prefer to send things by registered post.

The have the most willing and eager to help telephone helpdesk I've ever come across.

They still issue cheque books, and cheques can be paid in via the Post Office at 60p? per cheque - but there appears to be a ?60 setting up fee for this - I may have read the documentation wrongly, but as an association which gets perhaps two cheques a year, we reckoned we could manage without. If you're dropping cash, you'd probably just have to pay the fee.

If you have a "two-signatures" system, bank transfers out are secure but convoluted -  Authorised signatory 1 phones help line to say they want to pay so much to this payee, help line says "OK", and sends the request to their payment section, who then phones Authorised signatory 2 to get approval. It can't be done on-line, unless you have one-signature authorisation, which is not something you want to do as a club.

Biggest problem I have with them is that they have not yet signed up to the thing that checks that the account no and sort code match the name of the payee, so you don't have any security against paying the money to the wrong person by mistake, or more importantly any guard against push fraud.
 

Alex

Well-known member
We have the same problem too, wanting a bank that does not charge ?5 a month like HSBC. Does Metrobank charge?
 

pwhole

Well-known member
Is ?5 a month a lot for a club bank account? I spend ?5 a week on sweets, and I'm on a low income. Confused. I know we're not that skint, but sounds like we need to apply for Universal Credit if we can't afford ?5 a month on bank charges? I would only be trading up to bigger banks at the moment, not 'Uncle Joe's Quality Banking Company and Friends'. If the energy market is anything to go by, anyway :)
 

alastairgott

Well-known member
They?re also charging per payment you want to make, or this is what i gleaned from the skim read last night. They made me jump through hoops to go through anti bribery etc. That process was a f... flipping farce.

This is the death knoll for me. Not interested, moving will (hopefully) be a blessing.
 

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
pwhole said:
Is ?5 a month a lot for a club bank account? I spend ?5 a week on sweets, and I'm on a low income. Confused. I know we're not that skint, but sounds like we need to apply for Universal Credit if we can't afford ?5 a month on bank charges? I would only be trading up to bigger banks at the moment, not 'Uncle Joe's Quality Banking Company and Friends'. If the energy market is anything to go by, anyway :)

?60 out of the expedition budget for a bank account that doesn't do anything for 10 months of the year is a bit much for me...
 

Benfool

Member
I've just checked the documentation, as the BPC also bank with HSBC.

It appears that if you're a Not for profit charity (including charitable trusts, clubs and societies) and your annual turnover is less than ?100k, then you should have a community account. These accounts seem exempt from the monthly account maintenance fees, as well as most of the other charges. Might be worth having a chat with HSBC about it.

https://www.business.hsbc.uk/-/media/library/business-uk/pdfs/business-banking-pricelist.pdf

B

 

andrewmcleod

Well-known member
Benfool said:
I've just checked the documentation, as the BPC also bank with HSBC.

It appears that if you're a Not for profit charity (including charitable trusts, clubs and societies) and your annual turnover is less than ?100k, then you should have a community account. These accounts seem exempt from the monthly account maintenance fees, as well as most of the other charges. Might be worth having a chat with HSBC about it.

https://www.business.hsbc.uk/-/media/library/business-uk/pdfs/business-banking-pricelist.pdf

B

That was the case, hence setting up the account with them. However, on 1st November, they will be moving (almost) all those accounts to a new Charitable account, which does attract at least the monthly fee...
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/09/thousands-of-hsbc-customers-to-be-affected-as-bank-reveals-chari/
 

alastairgott

Well-known member
So in the last "proper" year Feb 2019- Feb 2020 we paid in some money over the counter (less than previous years as a greater number have been paying by card).

out of this, ?8 would have gone to HSBC under the new rules, as 0.4% of the over the counter cash gets nobbled by them.

so ?68 would get gobbled in this "standard" year. ?60 of which from the ?5 monthly charge. Whilst i'm not rushing to immediately source an alternative. I take a wounding as i'm no longer near to a HSBC to deposit cash so have to set aside time, and then have them pilfer the money is a bit much.

whilst ?68 doesn't sound like a lot, over 10 or 20 years, its a new fridge every now and again, half a window or 200m of 9mm rope every 3 and a half years.
 

Alex

Well-known member
Is ?5 a month a lot for a club bank account? I spend ?5 a week on sweets, and I'm on a low income. Confused. I know we're not that skint, but sounds like we need to apply for Universal Credit if we can't afford ?5 a month on bank charges? I would only be trading up to bigger banks at the moment, not 'Uncle Joe's Quality Banking Company and Friends'. If the energy market is anything to go by, anyway :)

Yes when your a small club like ours with not much more than 15 members, it's like almost half our income if it's ?5 a month. We are trying lloyds and see how they work out.
 

kay

Well-known member
Alex said:
We have the same problem too, wanting a bank that does not charge ?5 a month like HSBC. Does Metrobank charge?

Metrobank is not charging us, as a community group (looking after a local nature reserve).
 
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