Bank or Building Society ?

[mark alexander]

Having been a loyal customer with Natwest for a 4 years im thinking of changing to a building society for our business banking
I'm fed up with charges and poor interest on my money and as alliance and leicester currently offer 4.04% on current account compared to 2 % or so from Natwest(not to mention freebanking with them)
it does seem crazy to stick where we are particulary as customers pay up front and that money could be working much harder
We are currently tied in with Streamline so would probably have to change them to ,they are very good but im sure there rates could be improved
Have any of you guys made this potentially traumatic move over any advice would be great ?? ??

[fleetwood]

We moved from NatWest to Nationwide B Soc 5 or 6 years ago, for day to day banking, but kept a the NatWest account open for Streamline banking.

Annual banking fees dropped from £900 odd to under £50 last year!
Thats the total banking fees I pay to both NWest & Nationwide, excluding Streamline fees.
On top of that I earned interest on the money in the NWide account!

Only disadvantage is a limit on cheques they will accept or that you can write (can pay in no more than 10 per day - although we rarely get 1 per month these days), and limit on free cheques to write of 6 pm, after which they charge.

Business banking is finally getting more competitive, so even if you don't go the BSoc route, shop around, and providing you having a good track record .... NEGOTIATE!