Club Bank Account

[Ray H]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this so please feel free to move it if necessary.

 

Our small club of about 15 members has had a Treasurer's bank account with Nationwide for several years. It generally suited us except that any withdrawals had to be made in a branch - they couldn't be done on-line. We did get interest on the account.

 

Anyway, Nationwide will no longer offer this account from 10th August.

 

I've had a look at a number of other banks for a replacement account and wonder if any club Treasurers care to point us in the right direction.

 

Some of the accounts that I've looked at require an existing account holder, others take a while to process the application and none seem to offer interest. Some want constitutions and meeting minutes, both of which seem a bit excessive for a group of our size.

 

How do other clubs manage?

[KeithMacdonald]

@Ray H - you have my sympathy, many small clubs and societies are in exactly the same situation. Martin Lewis' Money Saving website has an article on this very topic (with links):
 

Quote

 

Options elsewhere: 

Mansfield Building Society offers a fee-free charity account with a minimum deposit of £500 and a notice period of 30 days if you want to withdraw penalty-free. However, this account is only available if the club or charity is located in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or South Yorkshire.
 

Metro Bank offers a 'Community Instant Access' account with no minimum amount required to open it. You can also make instant, penalty-free withdrawals under £1,000. For any withdrawals over £1,000 you must give one weekday's notice.
 

Monmouthshire Building Society offers an instant access, fee-free charity savings account, with a minimum deposit of £1 and no withdrawal criteria. 
 

Virgin Money also offers an instant access charity account, with a minimum deposit of £1. It has a minimum withdrawal amount of £1. 

 

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/12/nationwide-ditches-charity-accounts/

[KeithMacdonald]

@Ray H - did Nationwide tell you why?

 

Martin Lewis says:

Quote

Treasurers Trust accounts were launched in the 1980s but closed to new users over six years ago. To get the account, you needed to initially deposit at least £50. As the account is an instant access savings account, there is no minimum pay-in and interest is, until closure, paid at a rate of 0.1%. Nationwide says two thirds of the accounts are dormant, while two thirds have a balance of £100 or less. 

 

Do you still have a local branch?

 

It seems like it's part of a bigger trend, especially with high street banks, to cut running costs.

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/11/tsb-to-shut-70-branches-across-uk---here-s-the-full-list-of-affe/

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2021/03/santander-closing-hundreds-branches-locations/

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/05/lloyds-bank-28-branch-closures-/

 

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/08/barclays-bank-branch-closures-oct-nov/

 

 

[stephenl]

We opened this account with NatWest to enable us to take card payments for a station group on a Heritage railway.

https://www.natwest.com/business/bank-accounts/community-bank-account.html

[kevinlms]

Nationwide says two thirds of the accounts are dormant, while two thirds have a balance of £100 or less.

 

There's your problem explained away right there. It's costing them large sums of money to keep accounts going and unlikely to change. Does anyone seriously blame banks for shutting down those accounts?

 

Australian banks, after 7 years of no transactions (excepting interest in and out and account fees), have to close accounts and send the money off to governments. You can claim it back afterwards, if you can prove ownership, but IIRC you don't get interest on your 'borrowed' funds! Always find a way to deal with it BEFORE it gets taken...

[adrianmc]

https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/business-accounts/specialist-accounts/treasurers-account.html

 

It does what it says on the tin - no interest but you are able to administer it online and also make bank transfers using two online "signatories".

 

Recommended only as a satisfied customer with local Scout District and Group.

[Ray H]

2 hours ago, adrianmc said:

https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/business-accounts/specialist-accounts/treasurers-account.html

 

It does what it says on the tin - no interest but you are able to administer it online and also make bank transfers using two online "signatories".

 

Recommended only as a satisfied customer with local Scout District and Group.

 

Thanks. That was the one I was looking at initially but I've since discovered that it takes them up to six weeks to set up the account. It may still end up being their account that we go for but I don't know how much aggro it will be to reclaim the money from the Nationwide holding account that they plan to put the closed accounts monies into. I was hoping to get an account set up more or less straight way.

[meil]

10 hours ago, adrianmc said:

https://www.lloydsbank.com/business/business-accounts/specialist-accounts/treasurers-account.html

 

It does what it says on the tin - no interest but you are able to administer it online and also make bank transfers using two online "signatories".

 

Recommended only as a satisfied customer with local Scout District and Group.

I run two club accounts using Lloyds and one with Barclays. All operate on line. The two signatories is an option - you can choose one signatory if you want.

[billywhizz]

Hi. 
We also use Natwest community bank account for our small group and have done for several years now. The App is very easy to use. Can’t recommend it enough. 
Regards. 
Bill. 

[Tim Chambers]

Had the same problem-one of the very few that ticked the right boxes was the Lloyds Treasurers account. Didn't take anywhere near 6 weeks to open and apart from longish waits on the 'phone, no problems.(so far!)

For a change, must declare an interest-retired Lloyds bank manager!

best wishes

Tim.

[Mike Bellamy]

8 hours ago, Tim Chambers said:

Had the same problem-one of the very few that ticked the right boxes was the Lloyds Treasurers account. Didn't take anywhere near 6 weeks to open and apart from longish waits on the 'phone, no problems.(so far!)

For a change, must declare an interest-retired Lloyds bank manager!

 

It took me about two minutes to open a Lloyds account for the local club - but that was in 1987 when I worked there !!  Still Treasurer and so I have had that role for more than half of my life. 

 

I started at Grantham in 1972 straight from school, then worked at a couple of branches in Leicester before moving to Derby in 1980 - in those days you didn't really get much choice where you were sent. Took a redundancy package in 1997 after 25 years service. All of the 7 Derby area branches I worked at have closed although one new branch opened in the city centre and one ex TSB branch remains open.

.

 

[lococoal]

Our Club opened a Barclays Community Account about three years ago, no interest but we have debit cards, making purchases easier.

It took a while to set up as the local branch has to refer back to the main in Leicester, same when we changed Treasurers last year, could fill all forms in at local branch, but it then had to be sent over to Leicester for approval, Not had any problems and the telephone helpline was very good when l used it.

 

[RogerTE]

I am treasurer for a small sports club, and we use TSB Club, Charity and Trust account.

 

Generally everything is done using transfers, both using a PC (web based) and phone app. We have a cheque book and paying-in book, but when we need to pay cash in we do it at the local post office.

[Ray H]

We finally opted for the Lloyds account which, for a while, had me nearly tearing the rest of my hair out.

 

I completed the paperwork stating that we wanted Internet access, no cheque book or paying-in book and no bank card.

 

We got two of each book and no initial Internet access and our postal address wrong.. I had subsequently complete a separate form for the Internet access and was advised that the books are sent out by default to all applicants!

 

I will give their customer services their due, they resolved all the  problems with one (long) phone call and gave us a "donation" for our trouble.

[BlackFivesMatter]

We use bank of Scotland treasurer's account. They are painfully pedantic on paperwork, but the interest bearing account is good for interest. Online and phone app, also being able to photograph capture cheques is very useful. 

Initial mistakes by them when opening resulted in me thanking them at an AGM for doubling the donations with compensation for their errors!