Nutty

Best business bank accounts (2024)

Business bank accounts
International payments

Best business bank accounts

Top pick

Get £175 free cashback*

Tide Bank logo
Experience
4.8 out 5
Features
4.6 out 5
Fees
5.0 out of 5
Customer service
4.2 out 5
Overall rating
4.7 out 5
Visit Tide¹

£75 with business account (deposit £100) and £100 with a saver account (deposit £5,000). Code NUTSABOUTMONEY. T&Cs apply.

Tide

Tide is a super popular business account – with over 10% of all small and medium sized businesses in the UK with accounts, including tonnes of freelancers and contractors (and there’s over 1 million businesses using Tide globally).

It’s an easy to use and straightforward account that is free to open. You simply pay as and when you use it (e.g. a small fee per transaction), and the fees are low overall.

The app itself is great, and although it’s easy to use, it’s packed with features to help you manage your business finances and admin, such as invoice management, expense cards, accounting integrations, admin tools and more.

You can even find loans suitable for your business, and if you’re an in-person business Tide has a range of payment solutions available such as card reader terminals, tap to pay and payment links to take payments.

You'll also get a business savings account with one of the highest savings rates out there, perfect for any extra cash you might have lying around, and you can send money to and from your Tide current account and savings account in seconds whenever you need it.

Pros

• Free account (paid plans with more features)
• Low cost overall
• High interest rate on savings
- Apply in minutes
• Free debit card
• Great mobile app
• Accounting integrations
• Take payments in-person
• Often quick to open
• 24/7 in-app support

Cons

• £1 ATM withdrawal cost
• Can’t receive or hold multiple currencies
• £2.50 fee for cash deposits (or up to 3% through PayPoint)

*Get £75 for free after spending £100 within 30 days, and an extra £100 when depositing at least £5,000 into the savings account and keeping it there for at least 2 months. Use the code NUTSABOUTMONEY when registering to claim your cashback.

Tide review
Revolut logo
Experience
4.5 out 5
Features
4.8 out 5
Fees
4.8 out 5
Customer service
4.1 out 5
Overall rating
4.6 out 5
Visit Revolut¹

Revolut

Revolut is a modern business account designed to suit modern day businesses – unlike traditional banks that run on slow and outdated systems and processes.

Revolut have thought of everything, and the app is packed out with many helpful tools and features to help grow your business. And easy to use.

It’s pretty much perfect for every size of business, from a freelancer to large enterprises.

Pros

• It’s low cost (free to £100 per month)
• Free bank transfers (up to a limit)
• Free ATM withdrawals (up to a limit)
• Hold multiple currencies (25+)
• Debit card
• Accounting integrations (like Xero)
• Save or invest your business cash

Cons

• No cash deposits

It’s also great for international businesses, and receiving payments in different currencies, such as customers based in Europe, paying in Euros. You can hold over 25 different currencies inside your Revolut business account – you can swap one currency for another in a couple of clicks, for a low exchange rate too!

You can also receive payments from customers in-person without needing a card machine, and online without needing other software, and even via text messages.

And, there’s loads of extra features you wouldn’t expect from other accounts, such as payroll and invoicing features, and team expense management.

It’s got pretty much everything you need, and more. Highly recommended.

Note: it’s not technically a bank, it’s an e-money account. Your money is still just as safe and secure.

Revolut review
Starling Bank Logo
Experience
4.5 out 5
Features
4.2 out 5
Fees
3.9 out 5
Customer service
4.0 out 5
Overall rating
4.2 out 5
Visit Starling

Starling Bank

Starling is a popular option for lots of businesses. It’s a modern version of a traditional bank account – e.g. there’s a great app to use, and it links with accounting software.

It’s free to open an account and free to make payments, however for almost every other feature, such as creating invoices, you’ll need to open a paid plan (starting from £7 per month).

Pros

• Free and paid plans (£7 per month)
• Free bank transfers
• Free ATM withdrawals (£300 per day limit)
• Multiple currencies (Euros and Dollars have extra fees)
• Free debit card
• Accounting integrations

Cons

• Cash deposits but cost £3 or 0.30%
• No interest on cash savings

You can also open a Euros account (£2 per month), and a US Dollars account (£5 per month).

Although they don’t accept all businesses. So you might find it hard to open an account, depending on the type of your business.

Monzo logo
Experience
4.1 out 5
Features
4.1 out 5
Fees
3.9 out 5
Customer service
4.0 out 5
Overall rating
4.0 out 5
Visit Monzo

Monzo

Monzo is becoming a popular bank in the UK, it’s a modern business bank account with an app that's easy to use.

You can open a free account where you can send and receive money for free, but for almost all of the other features, such as invoicing, and integrating (linking) with accounting software, you’ll need a paid plan (£5 per month).

Pros

• Free and paid accounts (£5 per month)
• Free bank transfers
• Free ATM withdrawals (up to £200 per month)
• Free debit card
• Accounting integrations
• Save or invest cash

Cons

• No multiple currencies (can receive Euros)
• Cash deposit fee (£1)

Anna Money logo
Experience
3.5 out 5
Features
3.5 out 5
Fees
4.5 out 5
Customer service
3.5 out 5
Overall rating
3.8 out 5
Visit Anna Money¹

Anna Money

ANNA is a business account with a few extras. If you’ve got a simple business, this might be the only account you’ll need to manage everything.

You’ll get tools to manage your business finances, such as creating and sending invoices (and they’ll send chasers automatically too), expense tracking and sorting your tax.

Pros

• Free and paid accounts (£49.90 +VAT per month)
• Free debit card
• Accounting integrations

Cons

• 20p bank transfers (free on paid plans)
• £1 fee for ATM withdrawals (free on paid plans)
• No multiple currencies
• No cash deposits
• Can’t save or invest cash

Love it, or hate it, the card even makes a Meow sound when you use it. Yes really!

Best for international payments / business

Top pick

1 month paid plan for free

Revolut logo
Experience
4.5 out 5
Features
4.8 out 5
Fees
4.8 out 5
Customer service
4.1 out 5
Overall rating
4.6 out 5
Visit Revolut¹

Revolut

Revolut is a modern business account designed to suit modern day businesses – unlike traditional banks that run on slow and outdated systems and processes.

Revolut have thought of everything, and the app is packed out with many helpful tools and features to help grow your business. And easy to use.

It’s pretty much perfect for every size of business, from a freelancer to large enterprises.

Pros

• It’s low cost (free to £100 per month)
• Free bank transfers (up to a limit)
• Free ATM withdrawals (up to a limit)
• Hold multiple currencies (25+)
• Debit card
• Accounting integrations (like Xero)
• Save or invest your business cash

Cons

• No cash deposits

It’s also great for international businesses, and receiving payments in different currencies, such as customers based in Europe, paying in Euros. You can hold over 25 different currencies inside your Revolut business account – you can swap one currency for another in a couple of clicks, for a low exchange rate too!

You can also receive payments from customers in-person without needing a card machine, and online without needing other software, and even via text messages.

And, there’s loads of extra features you wouldn’t expect from other accounts, such as payroll and invoicing features, and team expense management.

It’s got pretty much everything you need, and more. Highly recommended.

Note: it’s not technically a bank, it’s an e-money account. Your money is still just as safe and secure.

Revolut review
WISE logo
Experience
3.8 out 5
Features
4.0 out 5
Fees
4.2 out 5
Customer service
4.0 out 5
Overall rating
4.0 out 5
Visit WISE¹

WISE

Wise business is the best option for multiple currencies. Send and receive money in over 40 different currencies, including Euros and US Dollars, all for a low cost (it’s the cheapest option).

You can even store multiple currencies in one account, meaning you don't have to keep swapping currencies and paying exchange fees.

Another great feature, is being able to save and invest your business money, so instead of your money sitting in your account doing nothing, you can invest it to grow more over time (with the help of experts) – adding a whole new revenue stream to your business – and still allowing you to spend it whenever you need to.

Pros

• Bank transfer cost: From 0.43% to send. Free to receive
• Free ATM withdrawals (up to a limit £200)
• Hold multiple currencies (40+)
• Free debit card
• Accounting integrations (like Xero)
• Save or invest cash

Cons

• Set up fee (£45)
• No cash deposits

WISE review
Airwallex logo
Experience
3.7 out 5
Features
4.0 out 5
Fees
4.5 out 5
Customer service
3.5 out 5
Overall rating
3.9 out 5
Visit Airwallex¹

Airwallex

Airwallex is a business account for global payments – within one Airwallex account you can send and receive over 20 different local currencies across over 150 countries.

Essentially, you can act like a local business, without having to open an account in every different country you operate in (or receive payments from) – you simply use your Airwallex account, and you’ll have local account details to use for each country.

It’s low cost, and you’ll avoid a range of fees (e.g. currency conversion fees), and transfers are typically the same day, or shortly after.

Pros

• Low cost
• 150 countries
• Accept in 20+ currencies and pay out in 60+ currencies
• International debit cards
• Accept payments
• Make transfers
• Card and expense management
• Integrates with accounting software
• Development API for customers

Cons

• Not a bank (doesn’t need to be)

• No cash deposits

If your business runs internationally, Airwallex is a great option to manage all your payments.

Updated
13 November, 2024

Running a business? Or just starting up? Perhaps you’re a freelancer or contractor? A business account is essential and choosing the right one is really important – modern accounts are more than just sending and receiving money, they can help you grow your business, save time, and reduce stress.

It's a tough and important choice, but don’t worry we're here to help.

Our criteria for determining the best business bank account

Whether you’re a large successful business, just starting out, or a freelancer, it’s a good idea to have a business account to keep your business and personal finances separate – and lucky for you, there’s lots of good options out there in the UK.

We’ve compared a range of the most popular business current accounts, and focused on digital account options (that are often cheaper, quicker to set up and all online via a phone app), to put together our list of the best business bank accounts. And, here’s the criteria we used:

  • Range of helpful tools
  • Ease of use
  • Customer service
  • Fees

The business accounts above are all accounts we recommend to our friends and family if they ask, and we also use some of them ourselves here at Nuts About Money.

Best business bank accounts

So, you can be confident that whichever one you pick, your money is in safe hands, and you’ll have the account and tools for your business to manage your business money, so you can concentrate on growing your business!

Interested in learning more? Here’s our full review methodology and how we test.

Which is the best business account for multiple currencies?

If you’re doing business internationally, and receiving lots of different currencies from across the world, or even just one or two, such as Euros or Dollars, you have a smaller range of account options for a bank account – but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any good options!

Lots of the big UK banks don’t like handling multiple currencies, or charge you a lot for the privilege (such as high currency conversion fees), so often, modern digital banks are the best options (see our recommendations above).

These modern options are very low cost when it comes to foreign currencies, and you can manage everything from a single place – there’s no need to create multiple bank accounts.

WISE – Best business account for multiple currencies

Our top picks for multiple currency accounts are Revolut¹, Airwallex¹ and Wise Business¹.

What’s the best free business bank account?

With business banking, there’s not really such a thing as a free account, you’ll likely still pay fees somewhere – whether that’s a fee per transaction (transfer money), or a monthly account fee, or something else like converting currency (e.g. from Euros to Pounds) or paying cash in or taking cash out at an ATM. It all depends on how you use your account.

Currency conversion fee

Let’s assume you want no monthly fees, then the best free account overall is Revolut¹ – you can use the free plan, and get free transactions (up to a limit each month). And you’ll get a debit card and be able to send and receive multiple currencies. It also integrates with accounting software. Plus, a great app to manage everything.

Revolut – Best free business bank account

If you’re just looking for the basics, you could also try Tide¹, there’s a free plan, but you’ll pay 20p per transaction.

Tide website

What’s the best bank account for a sole trader?

Sole traders (running a business in your own name) have a huge range of bank account options – as you can use both personal accounts and business accounts, the choice is yours. However, it can often be best to separate personal and business finances – so opting for a business bank account can be a good choice.

Sole trader

Running a business by yourself can be quite time consuming, so any time saved on admin is super valuable. Therefore we recommend opting for a business bank account that has lots of time saving tools, such as invoice creation, budgeting features, and expense tracking.

So, you could opt for Revolut¹, or ANNA¹ – which are both free accounts with great tools to save time.

ANNA – Best bank account for a sole trader

However, you can’t pay in cash with those options. So, if you are paying in cash, it’s worth checking out Tide¹.

What’s the best bank account for small businesses?

If you're a small business, you’ll likely want to separate business and personal finances even if you’re not a registered company yet (registering your business with the Government). So, you’ll want a business account.

Registered company

And just like sole traders, time is super valuable – getting a business account with the tools to manage your business finances efficiently is super important, giving you more time to grow your business and serve customers.

The best small business bank account is Revolut¹. It’s low cost, has a great range of money management tools, and will also allow you to collect money directly from customers in-person, and online.

Revolut – Best bank account for small businesses

For instance, if you’re a personal trainer, you could collect cash from your clients with card payments, or send them a link (via text or email) to pay, without needing to buy any other software or equipment. It’s pretty cool, and even works for larger businesses such as ecommerce (shopping) sites.

What is a business bank account?

A business bank account is almost exactly the same as your individual bank account, called a personal bank account – except it’s solely for your business, whether that’s a side hustle, or you’re a sole trader, freelancer or contractor, or you’re running a large business.

Business account

You can use your account just for your business income and business transactions (sending and receiving money), rather than your personal account so everything stays separate.

You can still do all the same things, such as set up direct debits (regular payments), and manage things from your phone and on their website (online banking). In fact, there’s typically much more features in order to run your business effectively (such as creating invoices).

You don’t need to be a limited company in order to open a business account, you can still open one if you’re running your business under your own name and have a separate business bank account for all the money you make (and spend).

Note: a limited company is where you register the business as a separate legal entity with the government (via Companies House). This means, it’s separate to you, and if your company goes out of business and has debts, you wouldn't have to use your personal money to clear them.

Do I need a business bank account?

Technically, you don’t need a business account if you’re running a small business through your own name, e.g. a sole trader, or a contractor. Although you might find things get a bit confusing if you’ve got lots of personal transactions coming in too, so often it’s a good idea to open a business account.

If you are running a limited company, you’d technically need a business account as your business is its own legal entity – so your personal bank account shouldn’t mix with business money.

Limited company

Integrating with accounting software

A bit confused with what integrating with accounting software means? Don’t worry, we’ll explain all.

Lots of businesses use accounting software to track the money in their business, things like sales and costs – to work out how much money they are making each year.

Accounting software

The software will also put together the end of year financial statements, such as the profit and loss account (how much a company has made in profit), and a balance sheet (how much money is in the business) – which is required by the Government each year.

There’s lots of other features too, such as paying employees, and sending statements to the Government about tax (HMRC).

Payroll

It can save a lot of time (and money), and you’ll know everything is accurate and correct.

With bank and business accounts, you can link your account directly with the accounting software, and it will then know every transaction that happens and tell it if it's a sale, a cost or anything else. The accounting software will then use it to understand your business and create the right financial statements for you, all automatically.

Integrating with accounting software

How to open a business bank account

This is the easy bit, with our recommended options above, opening an account is all handled online, either via their website, or app, and you can get set up in just a few minutes.

You’ll need to provide your ID (e.g. passport or driving licence) if you are opening one under your own name (for instance if you’re a sole trader), and provide the name of your limited company if you are registering for a limited company account – they’ll check the records in Companies House, automatically, and then you’re all set.

Opening a business bank account

Sometimes, they might want to do more checks, but normally it’s all pretty straightforward.

With typical high street banks, it can take a bit longer, sometimes a few days or even weeks, and you might have to go into a local branch to open an account.

Are business accounts safe?

Yep. It’s perfectly safe to use a business account for your money.

Technically with business accounts, some are banks, and some aren’t banks (but offer business accounts – these are technically called e-money providers).

With a bank account, your money is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). This is where you would be compensated by up to £85,000 if the bank were to go out of business.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)

This scheme is part of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who make sure financial institutions are looking after their customers.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

With e-money providers, such as Revolut, as they’re not a bank, they aren’t able to provide FSCS protection. Instead, they have set up safeguards to protect your money. This means that all of their customers' money is separate from their own business money, and often looked after within a large international bank like HSBC.

E-money-business-account

Your money is in your name, and would be returned to you if the business who you have an account with were to go out of business. So, your money is still safe and protected, in fact, you could say even more so than a bank account with FSCS protection, as there’s no upper limit to what you’re entitled to get back, you’d get everything back.

Let’s recap

That’s it for UK business bank accounts. There’s a range of options, and our recommendations are all great for businesses – and all fairly low cost (most start with no monthly fees).

The best business account for you and your business will depend on what you’re looking for – there’s lots that could factor into how to compare business bank accounts.

Do you need to accept payments in multiple currencies? Would you like lots of tools and features to help you manage your business’s money? Do you need to integrate with accounting software? Or, do you just want the basics to make transactions separate?

Overall, the best option for most businesses is typically Revolut¹. They’ve got a free account (no monthly fee), you can send and receive multiple currencies, and have the widest range of tools to manage your money and grow your business (for instance, receive money directly from customers in-person and online).

If you’re only looking for international payments, check out Wise Business¹, they’re one of the lowest cost and best out there, and have a huge range of currencies available.

And if you just want a no frills UK account to keep your money separate, check out Tide¹, Starling and Monzo. They all offer free accounts for the basics (you can later upgrade for more features).

And that’s all there is to it. All the best for growing your business!

Written by

Christopher Dowling
Christopher Dowling
Editor-in-Chief

Christopher Dowling combines a communications degree with over 10 years experience in the financial services industry in London – with focus on educating people on a wide range of money topics in an easy to understand way. He writes about savings, investing, pensions, mortgages, insurance, banking, loans, business finance and other money topics.

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Get £175 for free

£75 with business account (deposit £100) and £100 with a saver account (deposit £5,000).

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