Syndicate Bank Accounts

[kevkdg]

Hi,


Do most syndicates use Business Banking Accounts along with their charges, or some alternative (Personal Accounts>?)

[Genghis the Engineer]

I think most use "clubs and societies" accounts.

G

[kevkdg]

Cheers.


I am a tad annoyed now with HSBC, as we opened a normal Business Account. The Business Adviser had a meeting with us where we discussed type of club we were and turnover etc. He should have advised us to open an HSBC Community Business Account rather (as that met our needs) rather than a normal Business Account. So we have been paying monthly fees etc for the last couple of years.


I've a good mind to complain.

[BobD]

Good Luck with complaining to HSBC, and trying to get recompense.


I have been trying to get compensation for a mis-sold small business hedging product that they were taken to task about, for a couple of years, with them moving the goalposts and weaselling out of at every twist and turn.


Sorry - thread drift - rant over.

[SteveR]

Ah bank account fees, I remember those, quaint weren't they?

What's wrong with a normal (free) current account in the name of the treasurer? If you need other people to be able to spend money from it, add them as named individuals and they get their own debit cards.

Presumably it'll always be run in credit, so you can even get interest.

OK, so if group members want to write cheques, they have to make them out to the treasurers. Is that a big deal? Do people use cheques still?

[Genghis the Engineer]

I've seen both.

I think that using the treasurer's personal details is only really workable if it's small and/or basically a personal fiefdom in the way that the syndicate is operated, and you're all happy about that.

If the syndicate is likely to change treasurer from time to time, and/or you want more than one person to have authority over the money, you need something like a "clubs and societies" account.

Both can work, but get it right for the syndicate.


And banking isn't free - the banks have to employ people, run premises, etc. We delude ourselves in the UK into thinking that it's free because our current accounts are paid for by people's overdraft fees! It's really not.

Here's the account one of the aircraft syndicates I belong to uses - it's pretty straightforward and largely fee free. Treasurers' Account | Business Accounts | Business Banking | Lloyds Bank (http://www.lloydsbank.com/business/retail-business/current-accounts/treasurers-account.asp)

G

[papabravowhiskey]

Lloyds do an account for clubs and societies that is free to use. I am a user of such an account and it's working very well.

PBW

[kevkdg]

HSBC apologised and moved me to their "Community" type Business Accounts (similar to Lloyds Treasurers account).


They also refunded ALL the fees we had been charged over the past couple of years... so result.

[chrisbl]

So pigs can fly:ok:

[cockney steve]

Like G says, there are NO free lunches........however, given that you are lucky to get 1/2- 2 1/2 % paid, and they lend it out at~18%, you are, effectively,PAYING ~ 10% of your balance, for their services.....BUT....banking rules allow them to lend several times more than their deposits...IIRC, It's about 3x....this is because, in the early days of banks, someone realised that only a small percentage of total deposits, actually moved, so ther was only a tiny fluctuation....the story becomes a bit convoluted, there's a good documentary about the Rothschild dynasty, on U-tube....suffice to say, your £100 in a current account, allows them to lend ~300 of non-existent money, which they make their 10% on It's a bit mind-boggling, but goes some whay to explaining the recent near-collapse of world finances and all these toxic loans etc.
Banks do nobody favours, they are legalised con merchants.

pay no charges, they need your deposits, despite their protestations that you are costing them money....If that were the case, your account would have been closed yesterday!