(Updated September 2026)

There’s never been a better time to look at your freelance business banking.

The UK, in particular, is spoilt for choice when it comes to accounts that work the same way we do: efficiently, online, often from our phones, with one hand free for a cuppa.

When I first opened a business bank account, I was forced into a high street bank branch. Taking in all manner of paperwork, I sat down with a manager with a penchant for photocopying.

Not anymore!

These days, you can open a bank account in minutes.

For years, I was paying:
●      Monthly banking fees
●      Transaction fees
●      Overseas payment fees

I know my particular bank had a massive stallion to feed, but still.

A frequent discussion in the Being Freelance Community is which bank freelancers should choose.

But before we take a look at which banks your fellow BFFs (Being Freelance Friends) recommend, there are a couple of points that are useful to know first.

Do sole traders need a business banking account?

No. In the UK, a sole trader can use a personal current account for their banking. However, it’s a very good idea to keep your business and personal finances separate. So a sole trader could open a ‘personal’ bank account for their freelancing business. But these don’t come with the various business tools you might appreciate, like integrations with accounting software. Also - be aware! - some banks prohibit the use of personal accounts for business use - so check the T&Cs.

Do LIMITED COMPANIES need a business banking account?

Yes! Legally, even if your’e a solo freelancer, if you’re trading as a Limited Company you have to be using a Business bank account.

For the sake of this post, we are focussing on business bank accounts.
We can’t list all the various features of each bank, so if one takes your fancy, do check out their sites.

IS A BANKING APP ALSO AN ACCOUNTANCY APP?

Funny you should ask. Over the past couple of years there’s been an increasing trend for business banking apps to have at least some accountancy functionality. It started with uploading receipts. But now you can even send invoices, branded to your company and much more besides. That is far from being a traditional bank function.

Lots of them are adding in ‘Making Tax Digital’ integrations to HMRC which is great to see.

But ask yourself - does it have all the functionality of accounting software that I need? Can my accountant access it? Personally, I’d still recommend using proper accounting software - and as you’ll see below, two banks give you free full access to one of the best pieces of software out there.

Interesting trend though. Maybe in a couple of years from now, you really will only need one app for your business fund and financial admin! If you are a happy freelancer using a bank app for your accounting, I would love to hear from you for this post!

What bank accountS ARE GOOD for UK freelancers?

In no particular order, let’s take a look at the most popular business bank accounts recommended by freelancers in the Being Freelance community. (Updated August 2026)

Starling

Starling was one of the original ‘challenger banks’ that got all the old high street ones in a flap.

●      No monthly or transaction fees
●      24/7 customer support
●      Integrates with accounting software
●      Inbuilt accountancy tools
●      Manage your money into pots
●      Making Tax Digital integrated

Starling offer ‘Business’ for Ltd businesses and ‘Sole Trader’ for, well, sole traders.

Though it integrates with your accounting software (for free) - Starling actually has its own inbuilt accounting tools.

Some of these are available for free including invoicing and Making Tax Digital submissions - impressive. Others come in their ‘Accounting Plus’ plan (£7 a month until April 2027, then it’ll be £14 a month). Including VAT submissions if you’re VAT registered.

Starling also offers multi-currency accounts in Euros (sole traders & Ltd companies) and US Dollars (Ltd companies only) for an extra fee - brilliant if you work a lot in those currencies. It means you can convert the currency into UK £ when the exchange rate is best.

You should also make the most of Starling’s ‘Spaces’.

These are sub-pots within your account that make it easy to set money aside for things like tax, pension, annual payments or overheads, so you know how much money you really have to play with.

Starling no longer offer a Business Savings account which is a shame.

In terms of an ethical stance, Starling doesn’t invest your money with fossil fuel, arms, or tobacco industries.

The only real snags come if you’re a freelancer who needs to deposit a lot of cash (which isn’t many of us, but it could happen), as they charge a 0.7% fee with a minimum £3 charge.

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF STARLING

Starling is very popular with the Being Freelance community. Here’s what the Starling Superfans have to say:

Becci McEvoy: “I use Starling and love it. It does everything I need and is super simple to set up and use. I love using the pots for different things.”

Dan Bailey: “Using Starling has made my life so much easier. The app's simplicity and the quality of customer service have been excellent.”

Stephen Adams: “Starling are great, the only issue is their app isn’t as good for categorising payments as well as something like FreeAgent.”

Andy Miller: “I gave the Starling accountancy tools a spin. It matches the right level for someone to self drive their own accountancy without the cost of something like Xero. Excited to see what becomes of these tools as it definitely fills the niche of good money management in small businesses.”

A massive thumbs up from Team Starling, then.

Tide

Since 2015, Tide has swept up over 2 million business customers.

●      Integrates with accounting software
●      Inbuilt accounting tools
●      Upload receipts that automatically match with transactions
●      FSCS protected (even though Tide isn’t technically a bank)
●      Making Tax Digital integrated
●      They can register your business with Companies House

To start a Limited company in the UK, you register your business with Companies House. This costs £100. Yet, Tide will do it for you for just £14.99! That’s a pretty cool service.

Whilst Tide will say it’s banking is ‘free’, in truth the free plan is restricted in functionality so do check out what you need (they have a very clear table). For example the free Tide plan is limited to just 5 bank transfers a month. So if you like to pay yourself weekly, be warned! Likewise, if you have subcontractors. Not useful. The Free plan has third party accounting software integration - but not for Xero. That costs extra.

Their ‘Smart’ plan is £12.49 a month and gets 30 bank transfers, a business phone number and Xero connection. (There are even higher paid plans). It also has ‘perks’ from other companies you might find useful.

All plans include international bank transfers, but you get better FX rates on higher paid plans.

Like Starling, there’s lots of accounting software built into the platform including free Making Tax Digital tools. BUT the usability varies depending on what you pay. Weirdly, even if you’re paying £12.49 a month, you can still only send 3 invoices. THREE? So if you have multiple clients (and I hope you do) it’s kind of pointless to invoice via Tide.

Tide do offer Business Savings though. The % rate climbs the more your plan costs. But all get an inflated introductory saving rate for the first few months, so worth looking at. Make your savings work for you!

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF TIDE

Here’s what freelancers who go with the Tide think:

Chris Evans: “Tide was simple to set up, and their app is simple too. I like things to be kept simple on that side of things. It links up with my FreeAgent easily and it just works. No fuss, no mess.”

Monzo

Monzo business accounts are popular with freelancers.

●      Integrates with accounting software (paid plans)
●      Invoicing
●      Multi-user access
●      Tax pots with auto saving
●      Making Tax Digital integrated
●      Receive and make payments in over 40 currencies

Monzo’s entry-level ‘Lite’ account is fee-free, with unlimited bank transfers (take note Tide!), it includes Maxing Tax Digital software but it doesn’t integrate with any accounting software (boo! Major minus).

To get that (important) functionality you need Monzo’s ‘Pro’ account. It’s £9/month, and gives you lots of extra clever features, such as:

Monzo Pro’s ‘Tax Pot’ function allows you to choose a % every time you’re paid to be set aside for tax. It's very similar to Starling’s free Saving Space, but it’s cool that it’s specifically a % for tax and happens automatically. If you have a lot of payments coming in each month it could be worth the £9 fee by itself.

And their virtual cards are brilliant for paying for things online. You can create a virtual card, that acts just like a normal debit card, for each of your ‘pots’ and they can be time limited. Genius.

Pro also gets you invoicing functionality if you’re after that.

Is Monzo Pro worth paying for? It’s a good question - so much so that we’ve created that separate article mulling it over.

Lots of their Pro features are great but many others offer accounting software integration for free, so it doesn’t feel like something you should be paying for if that’s all you’re interested in.

All plans have access to Instant Access Savings Pots and international payments. You can pay in cash with a £1 fee (monthly limits apply).

Monzo avoids investing in fossil fuels.

Make money with Monzo referrals!
You can earn £50 when you refer a new business and they’ll get £50 for joining Monzo too!
We can put that to the test - if you’re interested in joining Monzo, here’s the Being Freelance Monzo referal link. 👀
You’ll apparently get £50 🙌

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF MONZO

Monzo is growing in popularity with the Being Freelance community. Here’s what the Monzo Missionaries have to say:

Linda Harrison: “I signed up for Monzo after a freelance friend recommended it. She loves it, and so do I. The free version is enough for me for now, and I like that you can set up pots for tax, savings (er - what are those?), pension, etc. And as a little bonus, we both got £50 when I signed up.”

Andy Hirst: “Monzo all the way! The app is great, which is probably one of the most important things to me, and the service has been spot on.”

Andy Reedman: “I moved from Starling to Monzo business cause Monzo has this cool ‘if money in is sales, set aside [input own %] into this savings pot for the tax person’ feature. Set and forget.”

Lot of love for Monzo even though they’re paying for it!

Even more business bank accounts for freelancers

Mettle

Mettle is an online business account operated by NatWest - it’s like NatWest trying to be cool, and to be fair, they’ve pulled it off:

●      No monthly fees
●      FreeAgent is free! (NatWest owns FreeAgent)
●      Integrates with accounting software
●      International payments
●      Earn interest on savings

Oh yes, this is the big pull for freelancers. You get FREE FreeAgent!
That could cost you £190 a year (or £330 as a Limited company!), but now it’s free!

Despite them wanting you to have FreeAgent, Mettle still integrates with other accounting software. They play nice.

Even though it comes with free FreeAgent, you can also create and send invoices within the app. You receive an alert when they’re paid, and payments are automatically matched to the outstanding invoice.

Now, this is different: because Mettle and FreeAgent are so closely integrated, the built in Mettle tools speak to FreeAgent differently to other banks. If you upload a receipt to Mettle and categorise a payment, that data (including the receipt) will copy over to FreeAgent. This is a step beyond what the likes of Starling and Monzo are able to do. Brilliant.

Mettle also has its own variation on ‘spaces’ and ‘pots’. They call it a Money Pot — the same idea, allowing you to easily set aside money to save for things like taxes or new equipment. And just like Monzo, you can automatically have a % set aside. But with Mettle, there’s no charge. Can’t stress enough, what a great feature this is - and it’s free!

You can also allocate one ‘pot’ to be a savings pot, earning interest. It’s not huge interest, but if you were going to have money sitting around anyway, may as well make it work for you.

In previous years you couldn’t receive international payments, but… now you CAN! So one of the minor kinks in the Mettle has been straightened out.

All major features are 100% free.

We used to praise the pure simplicity of Mettle not having a paid plan in this article.. but guess what? Mettle have now introduced ‘Mettle+’.

It’s £4 extra a month and lets you send quotes from the app, convert quotes to invoices, and create bespoke messaging templates. And.. that’s it. Like, WHY? Why on earth you would pay that when you have FreeAgent for free? Baffling. If you have £12 that you’d really like to get rid of each quarter, send me some cake in the post.

Make money with Mettle referrals!
You can earn £50 when you refer a new business and they’ll get £50 for joining Mettle too!
How’s it work? Well here’s my code: 9KNL3
Once you’ve opened an account, you have 30 days to make a card payment and enter that code in their app.
You’ll apparently get £50 🙌

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF METTLE

Despite its international limitations, it’s still a great choice for freelancers. Here’s what the Mettle Heads have to say:

Andi Elliott: “Mettle is fantastic. The app and customer service are really great. I’ve got pots that get automatic percentages of any invoice paid (I’ve set up tax, pension and R&D). Plus, you can nominate one pot to receive interest from (so my tax pot now generates interest for me!)

Jenny Lewis: “I like Mettle for the free access to FreeAgent — and I love the pots that do maths for me!”

Bekah Chapman: “I opened a Mettle account to get FreeAgent accounting for free. Mettle has no monthly charges, which is great, and it syncs with FreeAgent, so all my business ‘ins and outs’ populate automatically.”

Emma Shergold: “As a keen bookkeeper I’m a fan of FreeAgent for sole traders/micro businesses. I don’t use the accounting interface within the Mettle app, but my clients have attached receipts to transactions in their app which had made reconciling easier.”

Leyla Alexander: “I have a Starling account and then Mettle for free FreeAgent. I can save the £144 I used to pay a year for Quickbooks!”

Chase

Chase me.
Chase me?!

●      No monthly fees
●      Cashback when you spend (first year)
●      Good savings
●      FSCS-protected

Chase doesn’t offer a dedicated business account in the UK, but its no-frills current account offers 2% cash back on everyday purchases on your card for a year, so we’ve forgiven them.

This is for sole traders only as it’s basically a personal account. Once you’ve got your main account, you can open extra accounts for free in seconds. This is handy for separate money for tax or upcoming expenses.

Their account is free with no monthly fees, and you can even use it abroad without paying a penny.

Compared to most options on our list, your account doesn’t go as far and it won’t integrate with accounting software, but for that first year alone, it could (literally) pay to bank with them.

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF CHASE

It’s not as popular as other banks on our list, but it still gets a thumbs up from freelancers:

Matt Meir: “Chase is pretty decent. They’re app-based, so your card details are given in the app as soon as you sign up and get accepted, and you don’t need to wait to make digital purchases.”

Revolut

Revolut is definitely targeting freelancers, but can be a bit confusing because they offer so many variations on their accounts.

●      Great for those with international clients
●      Quick and easy to set up
●      Range of lifestyle perks
●      Savings
●      Accounting software integrations
●      Different options for sole traders & Ltd businesses

There are two options here for UK freelancers.

Revolut Pro

Revolut Pro is only for sole traders. It starts free but has a variety of versions with increasing fees from £3.99 to an eye popping £55 a month. Best up those client rates.

Revolut Pro seems great for those freelancing with overseas clients. And even better for digital nomads - those working freelance whilst travelling. The extra fees go towards personalised cards and ‘perks’. It can all feel a bit gimmicky, BUT, take a look - if those perks suit your lifestyle then you could well be quids in.

Revolut Pro also offers cashback on spending and has savings accounts available.

They also have the ‘pots’ and ‘spaces’ that have become common place with banks and a very useful - Revolut call them ‘pockets’.

Revolut Business

If you’re a limited business who works with international clients, check out the Revolut business account. Their global payments, multi-currency accounts , and excellent exchange rates are a huge plus.

In fact with the fixed exchange rates and free international payments you might save enough to balance out the monthly fee. And it’s quite a fee; from £10 a month, £30 and even £90 a month (though that’s aimed at bigger businesses) - take a look at the options.

As you’d hope, Revolut can be integrated with Xero, QuickBooks and FreeAgent to keep things simple and straightforward for you.

They have the ‘pockets’/’pots’ and virtual cards.

IS REVOLUT A REAL BANK?

People might tell you “Revolut isn’t a ‘real’ bank!”, but as of March 2026 it officially gained its UK banking license, so it absolutely is.

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINK OF REVOLUT

BFF Eman Ismail is an Email Strategist does a lot of work with people in other countries and has been won over “Revolut is amaaaazing. I love it. Highly recommend. It’s worth paying for being able to accept different currencies without the extra fees!”

BFF Emma Truscott is a Travel Writer and lives her life on the road house sitting, so Revolut’s personal account works well for her: “I’m far too tight to ever pay full price for a WeWork day pass, but I found out that if you open a Revolut bank account and upgrade to their Metal plan for £14.99pm, it includes one free WeWork day pass a month. It also helps my business with subscriptions to NordVPN, Headspace, Uber One, ChatGPT Go, some classes on MasterClass and travel insurance to name just a few of the perks. I usually use Wise to accept payments in other currencies. And my actual business account is with Starling. Is it normal to have so many bank accounts?!”

ALLICA BANK

If you have a well established business then Allica have been offering business banking for your likes since 2023.

●      Cashback
●      An actual human relationship manager
●      Business Savings
●      No fees
●      3rd party accounting integration

This feels less gimmicky and more banky. Like old-school business banking but better?

No plans to discuss here, it’s pretty simple. You get an actual linked savings account with market leading interest rate. So your spare cash and tax savings can be put to work.

And a dedicated ‘relationship manager’. Someone with an actual name and number to support your business. Yep. A human.

Allica Bank is for established limited businesses (min 12 months) with decent money coming, a minimum balance of £50,000 maintained - or have a loan product from them (which includes overdraft).

Their website contains lots of images of orange bowler hats, and yet nowhere does it say you get given one for joining which is a shame.

But if you have a very healthy bank balance and are looking for support in growing your business and to get that support from actual humans then they’re worth a look.

Monese

Monese offer a free plan that has some pretty decent features, including:

●      Multi-currency accounts
●      International money transfer in 15 currencies
●      Budget insights

You can upgrade to the Classic account for £5.95/month, which allows limitless cash deposits and withdrawals. And you can make payments in foreign currencies without paying any fees.

It’s not technically a bank, but does all the things you want. And whilst it doesn’t have FSCS protection their is still safeguarding in place for your funds.

They also offer £10 when you get another business to join (nowhere near as much as Monzo, but still nice).

Maybe it’s not been that effective though as I’m yet to find a BFF who uses Monese - please let me know if you do; I’d love to hear why you love it.

Anna Money

Anna Money - yep Anna. Not sure who it’s named after?
Anna Wintour? Anna Friel? Annanother-Bank-To-Think-About?:
●      Inbuilt accounting
●      Integrates with 3rd party accounting software
●      Making Tax Digital Integration
●      Register Ltd company
●      A cat on your card

With the free account, you could pay for money coming IN to your account. First time we’ve encountered this!

You get £1000 incoming fee free, but then you’ll pay a 0.95% fee on money coming IN. So if you invoiced £3000 a month, you’d pay £19 😳 Let’s hope you’re not just getting a grand a month or it could be Annas Horribilis.

Which would of course make upgrading to the ‘Grow’ account at £12.90 + VAT/month make more sense (Still, that’s £15.48 including VAT!). But even then it looks like you get 15 free transfers a month, then pay 27p per transfer after that. Probably enough for most freelancers, but if you have a lot of incoming payments in your business that’d soon add up.

They even seem to make you pay extra for ‘pots’ that are free to use elsewhere. Whilst at the same time offering cashback on certain purchases.

The list of potential extra fees for everything is a bit off putting (Check out the ANNA plans). As a company of one, you want things as simple as possible.

If someone at Anna (Kendrick?) thinks we’ve misunderstood their fees, please do get in touch and we’ll happily update.

IS ANNA MONEY AN AI ACCOUNTANT?

Anna Money is another of the apps that are trying to bring banking and bookkeeping together. They have ‘ANNA +Taxes’, that is free for the first 30 days and then… I’m struggling to see how much it costs. Which is odd.

It seems to be an AI ‘Auto Accountant’ (which you can also link to other bank accounts not just their own) preparing your books automatically. If you have a human accountant, they can also have access.

The main question seems to be… how much do you want to have a cat on your card?

Like Monese, I haven’t found a BFF who uses Anna Money yet, but it’s clearly aiming to serve freelancers, so please let me know if you bank with them. I’d love to hear the pros and cons.

Like Tide, Anna will save you a lot of money registering a Limited business with Companies House, doing it for £19.

UK high street banks for freelancers?

Many people bank on the high street purely out of habit.

Most traditional banks charge freelancers monthly fees for business banking (£6.50 to £10) for holding an account, plus some have transaction fees and yet further fees still for overseas transactions. It’s worth figuring out how much that can add up. It can also take weeks to get your account up and running, which can be frustrating when you’re used to doing things quickly online and you’ve got client work to be cracking on with.

And if you think ‘well, at least it’s on the high street so I can pop in and talk to someone about my business’… find out if that’s actually true. My high street bank still made me phone up in order to reach the ‘business team’. Frustrating.

Two UK high street banks deserve a mention though for being freelancer friendly.

SANTANDER FOR FREELANCERS

Santander seem to have realised their bigger branches might as well be put to good use and have opened some up with coworking spaces. Open to all, Santander customers get money off their food & drink. So if there’s one near you, might be worth considering.

If you’re a female freelancer you should also look up the Santander Women Business Leader mentoring programme. We’ve had a couple of BFFs take part in this and have gained so much. If you’re part of our Being Freelance community you should ask them about it!

NATWEST FOR FREELANCERS

First up, you get free FreeAgent - just as you do with Mettle, but you do pay banking fees, so why not going with Mettle?

The main reason they’re getting mentioned here is for their investment in supporting businesses like ours with the ‘NatWest Accelerator’. It’s based around an app for your phone, full of support and events and… gives you free coworking at 12 hubs across the UK 👏

And here’s the thing, you don’t have to bank with NatWest to join NatWest Accelerator, so check it out!

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF THE HIGH STREET BANKS

Others, including Andrea Boughton, rate NatWest highly primarily because it offers free use of FreeAgent, which saves you a chunk of money on accounting software.

Angela Lyons points out that that Santander “have introduced the free co Work Cafe space in London. Open to all but Santander customers get 30% off on coffee and food!”.

Some have just used their personal accounts, like Matt Drzymala: “When I went freelance, I didn’t know about Challenger Banks, so I added an extra section to my account and named it after my business. I need to look at a proper business account because I don’t get any perks doing it like this—oops!”

However, most BFFs have grown tired of paying high monthly fees, feel short of support, want decent apps and have switched to digital-focused challenger accounts instead.

WHAT ARE THE MOST ETHICAL BANKS FOR FREELANCERS?

There’s an ‘ethical’ boom happening across the board; we increasingly choose products and services that are ethically produced and don’t harm the environment or society.

So it’s not unreasonable that many freelancers want a bank that doesn’t sacrifice its principles to generate profits. Sadly, ethical banks are still thin on the ground, with a study by the highly regarded Business Expert only recommending two:

Triodos

When it comes to super-ethical banking, Triodos is growing in popularity. They finance things like renewable energy, sustainable farming, education, charities, and social housing, and they shun ploughing money into fossil fuels, deforestation, etc.

●      FSCS protected
●      No business current accounts
●      Knowledge that your money is helping the planet

But what about the banking?

It only does personal current accounts, so sole traders (check the T&Cs!) could use this for a £3 a month fee, but it won’t have the accounting integrations of business options.

It does offer Business banking though, in the form of loans and savings. But the business savings account expects a minimum of £50,000 deposit. Which is such a shame - lots of people want their business money to do good things.

The downsides are many in terms of the offering and the banking app is less sophisticated than other banks on our list.

WHAT THE BEING FREELANCE COMMUNITY THINKS OF TRIODOS

Even though Triodos isn’t geared up for business accounts, it has its fans:

Elen Robert: “I do my banking with Triodos. It won’t work for all businesses, and they could do a lot more to make things easier for us, but it works for me, and I know my money won’t be going towards fuelling the climate crisis.”

the Co-operative bank

The ethical ‘big’ name is Co-op Bank.

Co-op has policies on climate change, human rights, and animal welfare, and it supports many ethical campaigns and initiatives.

So, they like to do the right thing. Hoorah!
Are they the right bank for your freelance business?

●      No monthly fees for small businesses
●      Integrates with accounting software
●      Overdraft and Savings available
●      Ethically focussed

The Co-Operative bank have now launched a ‘Small Business Bank Account’ that is fee free.

At time of writing, Co-Op are offering a £200 bonus for new business customers! We have never seen an offer like this in years of compiling this article.

There’s also another ‘Business Account Plus’ that is £10 a month.

If you bank with Co-op, you can also open a business savings account. Their rate of interest is pretty good if you’re happy to lock your money away for a few months.

Maybe not as sophisticated as the ‘fin-tech’ offerings listed at the start of this article, but undeniably they’re big on ethics and that coupled with their new free and and a £200 signing on bonus means they’re definitely worth considering!

SO, WHAT’S THE BEST BANK FOR FREELANCERS?

Well, for the past few years Starling and Monzo have both come out strong - Starling is totally fee free, but Monzo has some great features you can pay for.

But as you can see, there are a lot of benefits with various banks. And now in 2026 it really feels like Mettle is truly shining.

The ‘free FreeAgent’ accounting software that comes with Mettle is getting a lot of love in freelance circles. It has auto-filling pots for free, when you’d pay for that with Monzo. And now it finally has international payments, it could well get Starling in a flap.

It’s great to see so many include Making Tax Digital integrations, and additional accountancy and admin functionality - but again - if you can get FreeAgent for free with Mettle (and NatWest), why wouldn’t you get one of the best bits of fully functioning software at zero cost?!

Meanwhile, for those doing a lot of overseas work, Revolut has a clear specialism in international transactions that freelancers can benefit from. Likewise if you travel a lot, Revolut’s perks can make the fees a bargain.

But if ethical banking trumps everything else, then the Co-Operative is still the most obvious option.

The best thing to do is research and pick the one that suits your business needs best.

Things to think about when choosing your FREELANCE business bank

●      Brush up on how many transactions you’re likely to make in/out each month
●      Know if you’ll be making/receiving lots of overseas transactions
●      Check the perks
●      Check it will work with you accounting software
●      Research that it fits with everything you need it to do

And remember, if you’re unhappy, it’s easier to move banks than you think.
You don’t need to worry about client payments going astray, the UK banks have to make sure everything is forwarded on.
So, just make the switch!

Now, here’s to watching that bank balance go in the right direction as your freelance business thrives.

Huge thanks to those BFFs in the Being Freelance Community who gave their thoughts. You should come and join us! It’s a friendly & fun, but as you can tell, an excellent place to ask advice as you grow your freelancing business.

Laptop showing the Being Freelance course in action including a video of Steve teaching

There’s more advice on managing your freelance finances as part of the ‘How to get started being freelance’ course. It’s online training to help new freelancers get started the right way.

This post was by Steve Folland along with additional writing and research over the years from Ian Winterton, Becky Coote, and Matt Drzymala.
All information given is taken from the bank websites, correct as of August 2026.

What is FSCS protection?

Something you’ll spot when choosing a bank in the UK. Some accounts are FSCS protected (Financial Services Compensation Scheme). That means if that bank fails, you’re covered up to £120,000.

If you have a big amount building up (here’s hoping!), it’s worth keeping in mind.

What's the best business bank account for UK freelancers?