Are You Sitting on Some Money You Don’t Know of?

There are several elements forming part of a business which serve to legitimise that business, including some form of formal registration (and perhaps accreditation if the business is offering financial services or securities), a reputable location, even though the trend of virtual businesses is growing rather rapidly, a track-record, and a business bank account. The track-record requirement serves up a little bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario because you first need some business in order to build up your track record, while any form of consistent or big business will only really come your way if you have a good track-record built up.

The business bank account element as a requirement to legitimise your business is perhaps the non-negotiable piece of the puzzle. Under no circumstances will you get any new (and subsequently regular) business if prospective clients are given personal bank details belonging to you as an individual to make a deposit into or to make an advance payment for any product or service they may otherwise be interested in buying from your business. It just looks dodgy and will turn away a lot of potential business, so you definitely need a business bank account.

The process of getting a business account may appear to be somewhat rigorous, but all you really have to do is provide the necessary documentation as part of the due diligence requirements and you’ll be good to go. The problem which comes into play with business accounts is how much they cost to maintain and operate, as there is often no choice for a free account option.

When you start opting into the additional offers which are in effect bundled into your bank account, things start to get a little blurry and it can be hard to keep track of exactly what you’re paying for. This is true even more so if you opt for extra services such as expense accounts, each with their own bank cards issued to various members or partners of the business, like each director perhaps having access to their own card linked to their own allocated pocket of the business account.

If this is the case with you and your business or in fact if it’s been the case for a while, you could be sitting on some money you aren’t aware of. The efforts of specialist companies such as Stanton Fisher PBA have brought to light a practice among banks which could see them having to compensate consumers for mis-sold financial products, particular bank accounts referred to as Packaged Bank Accounts. Packaged bank accounts simply allow banks to slip in some extra fees and charges for services they in a sense force upon clients, but in an indirect fashion.

These are marketed to clients as either upgrades or new products which upon closer inspection, clients would find that they don’t really need and so would subsequently not want to pay for. You may be one of those clients and finding out is as easy as liaising with a specialist financial claims company.