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ANNA Money review
ANNA's business account miaows every time you spend and promises to set you free from admin. Should you get one?
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What's in this review?
What is ANNA Money?
ANNA is an online business current account and digital assistant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It’s known for the judgmental cat noises the card makes every time you use it, reminding you to be careful with your spending. So yes, the slogan “the debit card that miaows” is quite literal.Feline sounds aside, ANNA stands for “Absolutely No-Nonsense Admin.” ANNA isn’t a bank, but it offers a business debit card and an app that helps you manage your banking and invoices, doing a good chunk of the admin work for you.
How does ANNA work?
After signing up for ANNA through their quick online sign up process, you will receive your digital account. The features you’ll have access to include:
- Business account and debit card: ANNA accounts include a Mastercard debit card along with your business account. The business account does pretty much all you can expect from a traditional current account, including direct debits (but not overdrafts).
- App: ANNA’s app includes the usual services that come with a digital banking app, that has some handy features such as personalised spending reports.
- Invoice service: ANNA can create invoices for you and even chase due payments (politely!). It also automatically matches payments and invoices, helping you keep your accounts in order.
- Additional debit cards: These have individual spending controls. You can give them to other employees and manage your expenses more easily.
- 24/7 assistance: It combines an AI-based chatbot and in-app support offered by a UK-based customer service team. They aim at getting back to you within 10 minutes (and will refund your monthly subscription if they don’t).
- Cashback: ANNA offers 1% cashback on a range of business expenses.
- Connect all your accounts: The ANNA app can also be connected to other business or personal accounts, so that you can keep an eye on all your transactions and do your budgeting all in one place.
ANNA is also planning a whole lot of handy new features, such as the ability to connect your business account with your accounting software, to do international money transfers and to do your tax calculation and HMRC filing automatically.
How much does ANNA cost?
ANNA has four pricing tiers that customers can choose from:
- Under £500 monthly income: This ‘basic’ version of ANNA comes free of charge and includes 2 debit cards, as well as the apps core admin features such as invoicing, tax reminders, and auto-matching payments to invoices.
- Up to £2,000 monthly income. For £4.90 a month, you get 4 free local transfers in the UK, a £300 limit on cash withdrawals, 3 debit cards, and most of ANNA’s admin features.
- £2,000 to £100,000 monthly income. This plan costs £9.90 a month and includes all of ANNA’s app features. It includes up to 5 debit cards, 35 free bank transfers, and up to £2,000 a month of free ATM withdrawals.
- Over £100,000 monthly income. ANNA’s top tier costs £24.90 a month and comes with unlimited users, additional cards, and bank transfers. All of ANNA’s admin features are included and the limit on free ATM withdrawals is £10,000 a month.
Card payments are always free in the UK, but a foreign transaction fee will be applied if you use the card abroad.
How do I apply for an ANNA account?
ANNA promises that you can set up an account in 10 minutes and that the card will be on its way the same day. For a business account, it does seem pretty fast and stress-free to sign up to, and obviously you can do it online.
Eligible businesses include limited companies (you need to be the director to sign up) and non-limited businesses that are structured as a partnership or sole trader. You must be living in the UK.
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- Proof of identity: a driving licence or passport.
- Proof of address: a utility bill or a bank statement, not older than three months).
- Details of the company: name, address, and date of birth for shareholders who own 25% or more of your company.
Is ANNA right for my business?
ANNA is suitable for sole traders and SMEs that do the vast majority of their transactions in the UK. Since it charges foreign transaction fees and doesn’t offer international bank transfers, it isn’t a good solution if you need to travel often or trade overseas.
The other thing to consider is that ANNA’s most innovative features are the support you get for invoices and expenses. If you have an efficient alternative in place, you probably don’t need ANNA.
Is ANNA safe?
ANNA is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so the company that issues the card, Wirecard Card Solutions, has an electronic money licence. It is not a bank, so it doesn’t have a banking licence nor any regulator’s deposit protection in place. This also means that client money has to be kept separate from company money and can never be used to pay the company’s debts.
The Mastercard debit card is protected by a PIN and you can block the card in the app if it gets lost or stolen.
Pros and cons of ANNA
Pros
- The app offers a free version with main admin features, so you can try out ANNA for your business.
- Quick and easy set up, especially for a business account.
- Easy to use app with various useful features.
- Invoice and expense services integrated in the app.
- 24/7 in-app support that aims to respond within 10 minutes.
- You can connect other providers’ accounts to the ANNA app through Open Banking.
Cons
- Foreign currency fees for transactions in another currency apply.
- You still need a traditional bank account for most of your business’ financial needs.
- No credit or overdrafts available.
The verdict
While there are other business accounts available, ANNA’s strongest selling point is that ANNA it really integrates banking with expense management and invoicing (and even accounting, to a degree). Few business account providers offer the same services and account types at ANNA’s price, which makes it very competitive.
All in all, ANNA's looks like a good choice for a tech-savvy business owner who’s looking to do all their admin and banking from the same app. However, keep in mind that there are better options if you do much of your business abroad.
Oh and of course, ANNA only works for you if you’re fine with the miaowing thing. Not much of a cat person? You may have to find an alternative. Sorry about that. Our business banking main page can help though.
ANNA Business account
- Never make an invoice again
- Say goodbye to invoice chasing
- Say hello to brilliant 24/7 customer service
- Sign up today and try ANNA free for six months
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Updated March 29th, 2020
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Ask an Expert
How do you deposit money to Anna?
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for getting in touch with Finder. I hope all is well with you. :)
Upon checking, you can’t actually deposit money to ANNA, but rather, ANNA is more of an app that helps you handle your business transactions. For this reason, you would still need a traditional bank account when using ANNA.
I hope this helps. Should you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to reach us out again.
Have a wonderful day!
Cheers,
Joshua