About UK Business Bank Accounts

Who writes this

I’m Chris. I’m a director of a small UK digital agency, which is run as a private limited company. The company has banked with Monzo Business for a few years, and we are on the Team plan today. I write and check every page on this site. Where a page says “I” or “we” about using the account, it is describing our own business. Everything else is research from primary sources, and the page says so.

I am not a financial adviser, an accountant, a journalist or an employee of any bank. I am a customer who runs a company’s money through a business account every day and wanted a guide that was more useful than the referral-code pages and generic roundups I kept finding.

Why the site exists

Search for anything about Monzo Business and most results fall into two piles. One is thin referral pages that repeat the bonus amount and little else. The other is comparison roundups that list headline prices and move on. Neither tells you what it is like to run a limited company’s day-to-day banking through the app, or the conditions that decide whether a referral bonus is actually paid.

That second point matters more than it looks. The referral reward is only for people who have never opened a Monzo account before, and the new customer has to download the app, apply, add money and make a first card payment within 30 days. Plenty of people miss out because they once had a Monzo personal account. The referral page explains this up front, and the bonus checker lets you test it in a minute before you sign up.

The rest of the site is a general guide to UK business banking: which account suits a sole trader or a limited company, what FSCS protection covers, and how to switch accounts. Monzo Business is the account we use and the one we recommend for many small UK businesses, but it does not suit everyone, and the alternatives page exists for that reason.

What is first-hand

These are the parts of Monzo Business we use in our own company, so what we write about them comes from doing rather than reading:

• The Team plan. We pay for Team as a limited company. The Team plan page explains what it includes and why we chose it over Pro. Monzo lists Team from £25 a month.
• The savings boost on Team. It is one of the reasons we are on the plan. Monzo advertises savings up to 3.25% AER (variable), and the rate depends on your plan, so check the app for yours. The savings page covers how it works.
• Tax Pots. We use them to set money aside automatically as payments come in. Pro and Team allow up to 3 Tax Pots. See the Tax Pots page.
• The app itself. It is very app-first and feels natural to use, and there are a lot of useful features inside it. The review and the features page go through them.

What is researched

We have only ever used one plan as one kind of business, so a lot of this site is research rather than experience. That includes the free Lite plan and Pro, everything specific to sole traders (including the Making Tax Digital software, which Monzo offers only to sole traders and landlords), lending, cash deposits and international payments. It also includes every other provider: Starling, Tide, Revolut Business, Mettle and the high-street banks are written up from their own published pages, not from holding an account.

We also cannot speak for business types Monzo does not accept. Monzo Business does not open accounts for partnerships, LLPs, PLCs, charities, CICs, companies limited by guarantee, trusts and funds. If that is you, the eligibility page says so plainly and points elsewhere.

How we stay independent

The editorial policy sets this out in full. The short version:

• Primary sources for every figure. Monzo figures come from monzo.com, its fee information and its terms; other providers’ figures from their own sites; tax rules from gov.uk. Every page lists its sources with a checked date.
• One referral link, disclosed everywhere it appears. If you open a Monzo Business account through our link and complete the steps, we each receive £50. That is the site’s only income, and it is the same whether a page praises Monzo or criticises it. The how we make money page has the detail, including Monzo’s monthly cap.
• No paid placements, no adverts, no affiliate links to other providers. Nobody pays to be ranked, and nobody can pay to have a criticism softened.
• We say who should choose something else. Partnerships, cash-heavy businesses and anyone who has already had a Monzo account are better served by the honest comparison, which earns us nothing when it sends you elsewhere.
• No fabrication. No invented testimonials, no star ratings, no “what users say”. If we do not know something, the page says so.

Our other site

I also write ukbusinesscreditcards.co.uk, which covers UK business credit cards in the same way: first-hand where we have used something, researched and sourced where we have not. The two sites are separate publications with their own disclosures. This one is only about business bank accounts.

Contact

Corrections, questions and news of changed terms all go to hello@ukbusinessbankaccounts.co.uk. The contact page explains what we can and cannot help with. In particular, we are not Monzo and cannot see anyone’s application, account or referral reward.