Looking to help small businesses navigate the complexities of choosing a bank account, Fairer Finance, the independent consumer group and ratings provider, has launched a new product ratings for business bank accounts.
The new service expands Fairer Finance‘s product offer to include ratings for over 30 product types across the insurance, banking and credit spheres, helping small firms identify which products offer good value to them. The ratings consider both the benefits and costs of each account, ensuring that business owners understand the value of what they’re signing up for. This includes highlighting the fees incurred over the account’s lifetime that might not apply initially.
James Daley, managing director of consumer group Fairer Finance commented on the announcement saying: “Small businesses are the backbone of economic growth, and it’s essential to reduce the friction they face when they’re starting up and scaling. Opening a business bank account is one of the first hurdles new entrepreneurs encounter, and it can often be a time-consuming and confusing process.
“Our new product ratings are designed to provide a shortcut for entrepreneurs. We want to help them get a handle on which accounts will prove the best value. Firms will still need to do some extra work to understand which accounts meet all of their needs. But hopefully, these ratings will make that process quicker and easier.
“Our goal is to encourage better competition and transparency in this market. We want to drive banks to innovate and to support small businesses to reach their potential and help drive economic growth.”
How to achieve a good rating?
Fairer Finance ranks products out of five stars and will only ever have a total of 15 per cent of products receive a five-star rating. This ensures the ratings are constantly updated and maintains their credibility and value.
In order to get the sought-after five-star rating, a product must offer key features that meet the needs of most customers, be competitively priced compared to its peers, and have reasonable associated fees and charges.
The Fairer Finance business bank account ratings are segmented by high-frequency cash accounts, low-frequency cash accounts, and cashless payment accounts. These are intended to model the typical account usage of, respectively, a business that makes a lot of cash transactions, a few cash transactions, and only electronic transactions.
Business bank accounts that have been awarded a 5-star rating by Fairer Finance
| High-frequency cash account | Low-frequency cash account | Payment (cashless) account |
| NatWest Start-up Account | The Co-operative Bank Business Directplus | The Co-operative Bank Business Current Account |
| Santander 123 Business Account | NatWest Start-up Account | Cynergy Business Current Account |
| Santander Business Account | Santander 123 Business Account | Monzo Business Lite |
| TSB Business Plus | TSB Business Plus | Santander 123 Business Account |
| Virgin Money M Account for Business |
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