Business banking is vital for contractors – but high street banks can make setting up an account a major hurdle and often mean ongoing costs. Now, courtesy of the emergence of the Fintech sector, there are quicker, easier and more cost-effective alternatives available.
Contractors seeking a more convenient, low-cost business account should look to the Cashplus Business Account from Cashplus, an online banking company that claims to offer business banking services, but without the usual barriers.
“From speaking to contractors, we’ve found that the main hurdle when it comes to getting off the ground with a limited company is setting up a business bank account,” explains Cashplus commercial director Nick Biggam. “Our solution is quick and easy to set up and requires minimum effort to manage from the contractor’s perspective.”
Breaking the hurdles posed by high street banks
Problems when looking to incorporate as a contractor are generally few and far between. Accountants can typically set up a contractor’s limited company within 12 hours, but high street banks still drag their feet, as Biggam highlights:
“In many instances, the difficult part of establishing a business is securing new customer contracts and securing the funding, which often takes priority. As a result, contractors will often tend to leave organising business banking facilities to the last minute, at which point they find that it isn’t as quick and easy as they thought it would be.”
Biggam notes that, unlike Cashplus and the Cashplus Business Account, many high street banks still operate long-winded paper-based systems. In addition, scrupulous vetting practices often see contractors assessed for things that aren’t relevant to them, such as credit rating.
“At the end of the day, contractors just need somewhere to transact and pay their money into, and yet they find themselves and their businesses being credit assessed.”
Open a business current account in four minutes
With Cashplus, this arduous process need no longer be a concern for contractors. Biggam explains that Cashplus only requests the essential information from contractors that are required from a regulatory standpoint to open an account.
“During the account opening stage, the contractor won’t require credit, so there’s no need for us to include a credit assessment. That’s part of how we make setting up a business account an immediate process.
“On top of that, we are completely online and we’ve managed to automate many of the regulatory checks that we are required to carry out. So, as a consequence, we’ve made the entire process as quick and easy as it can possibly be.”
The result is a business current account that contractors can use within four minutes of beginning the application. Providing the automated verification checks are positive, contractors are provided an account number and sort code upon completion, with a business debit card arriving via the post three to five days later.
Greater transparency and ease of use
Unlike a conventional bank, Cashplus doesn’t supplement the low annual fee it charges users with account management or purchase transaction fees. Biggam notes that this is indicative of Cashplus’s commitment to providing a more transparent service than high street banks.
“With other banks it’s possible to get free business banking services, in theory, for a period of time. But it’s often very ambiguous because, in some cases, those free banking services are dependent on the account holder having a certain minimum balance in the account.
He adds: “Also, once that period of free banking ends, the contractor is likely to be subject to substantially higher fees. But by that point, it’s more difficult for businesses to switch accounts and so they’re less likely to do so.”
Fintech powering ‘on-the-go’ banking
Cashplus claims its solutions are proof that you don’t need a bank, and that seems a fair statement to make when you have all the banking details you need available at your fingertips. As well as aiding efficiency, Cashplus’s Fintech-led solution means contractors can access all of their interactions online or via mobile, on the go and whilst at work.
“Our typical customer – who will in many cases be a contractor – will want to be able to access all of their banking services on the move and online, which is what we enable them to do,” comments Biggam.
There’s also next to no effort required on behalf of the contractor when it comes to managing the account. The Cashplus Business Account’s online system means transactional data can be sent directly to the contractor’s accountant on a daily basis. This data can be uploaded directly into the accountant’s accounting software which is also accessible by the contractor.
“We partner with a lot of accounting firms across the UK,” explains Biggam. “We work closely with them to ensure that they can receive all of the transactional data they need to support contractors in managing their accounts, and in turn they will recommend our product to contractors looking to incorporate.”
“So what this means is the contractor doesn’t have to go into their account, pull out a statement and forward it onto their accountant on request - because the information is already available. It couldn’t be easier.”
Get your own Cashplus Business Account now
Biggam concludes: “A lot of contractors come to us with the intention of switching to a high street bank a few years down the line. But actually, they find that our account gives them everything they need with less hassle and at a low cost.”