Just as there are hundreds of different types of personal bank accounts, these days there is a bewildering choice of business banking ones. The most basic is the standard business current account for the every day banking needs such as cash banking; sending and receiving payments. Most big high street banks also offer the business customer online banking; with their own debit and credit cards. They also now offer specialised accounting software packages. One area that is very good for the smaller business man is the business savings account – which will offer some introductory sweetener and encourage the account holder to be able to sweep across surplus funds into a high interest savings account. Merchant accounts are those that allow secure payment by card payments in from customers by working with the processing element so can very often be integrated with a point of sale system including cash registers and card terminals which allows the payment by electronic means. In these very international trading times, this type of account allows businesses to trade overseas and encourages this with preferential foreign exchange terms for buying, trading and selling.
There are some notable features of a typical business account – for example there will be transaction limits. Many banks offer their business customers higher limits per transaction, and this applies to commercial customers too. Most bank accounts attract some form of monthly operating fee but there are some companies that offer fee free banking services but will have to make up that money somehow so may have a special deal for a shortened period. The explosion of online banking and mobile banking apps in general has altered business banking in such a way that all sorts of management tools are available at the fingertips by using these mobile apps. Business accounts offer payment processing to allow for direct debit, standing order and BACS which is the movement of money bank to bank.
