You may have noticed (you did, right?) that our business account pages, tables and reviews come with scores. They’re there to help consumers figure out how good a company and its products are, at a single glance. But they wouldn’t be fair, and we wouldn’t be transparent, if we didn’t tell you how we came up with them.
We publish 2 types of score:
- Finder’s expert score. Our experts look at the features of a product (in this case, a business account), how much it costs and what it offers to users, then rate it.
- User reviews. We ask you to tell us about your experience as a customer of the brands we cover. You can submit a comment directly through the relevant review, and each year we gather more user reviews through a customer survey. We show the results of this survey in an annual league table, and use it to determine our annual customer satisfaction awards, too.
Finder’s expert scores
You’ll find our expert scores on our banking pages. We rate bank accounts using a system of 1 to 5 blue stars.
★★★★★ – Excellent
★★★★★ – Good
★★★★★ – Average
★★★★★ – Subpar
★★★★★ – Poor
How it works
We assess products across a number of key areas:
- Fees. We consider whether there is a monthly fee for the account and also whether the account charges for things like cash deposits, ATM withdrawals, paying a direct debit or having your bank card delivered.
- Customer service. We score this based on user feedback, industry reports, customer reviews and forum discussions.
- Accounting software integrations. We score this based on which accountancy software packages the account integrates with.
- Payment features. Can you deposit cash and cheques into your account, as well as make and receive international payments? These features are not as universal as you might think. We also examine whether there are other payment features available, such as a cashback programme or option to round-up spare change from your purchases.
- Extra features. Here, we look at additional tools that may come with an account, such as additional employees cards, expenses management the ability to create and manage invoices.
We average all these scores to come up with an overall Finder score.
Your reviews and our customer survey
You can see review stars at the top of our review pages, if we’ve received more than 10. These are from consumers just like you who use our site and want to review the products and providers they use. We include responses we’ve received in our annual customer satisfaction surveys. We also show the results of each survey in a league table in guides and in our awards pages.
In December 2023, we ran a customer satisfaction survey on business bank accounts. 400 people answered and told us how happy they are with their current account provider. We’ve turned their answers into a star rating of between 1 and 5 and we show this in our annual league table of bank account providers.
★★★★★ – Excellent
★★★★★ – Good
★★★★★ – Average
★★★★★ – Subpar
★★★★★ – Poor
Customer satisfaction score methodology
The survey asked respondents how satisfied they are with their current account on a scale from 1 to 5, and also whether they would recommend it to a friend or not.
We turned the answers into an overall star rating that takes into account:
- How many people would recommend the account vs how many people wouldn’t. If you say you’d recommend your bank to a friend when sitting at the pub in front of a pint, it must mean it’s really good (the bank, not the pint). This forms 50% of our customer satisfaction rating.
- How many people rated a provider five out of five. Wow, five out of five? This counts for 25% of our customer satisfaction rating.
- The average score each current account provider got. This tells us if a bank offers quite a solid service even though it doesn’t have loads of top ratings… or if it’s just not that great. This parameter forms the last 25% of our overall customer satisfaction score.
More guides on Finder
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Opening a business bank account with an IVA
We explore your options for opening a business bank account with an IVA.
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Best online business bank accounts you can open online
Find out more about the pros and cons of online business bank accounts.
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Best international business bank accounts
Find out how to pick the right international business bank account for your company.
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Best bank accounts for freelancers
We explore how to find the right bank account if you’re a freelancer.
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Best instant business bank accounts
Most banks let you apply for a business account entirely online — you might even have your account open in a matter of minutes.
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Best business bank account switching offers in the UK
By switching your business bank account, you may be able to reduce your monthly fees or take advantage of different features like smart bookkeeping tools.
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Best prepaid business cards in the UK for 2024
Learn more about how prepaid business cards can be used to spend money with any retailer that accepts debit or credit cards.
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Benefits of a business account
While it may look like more work, opening a separate business account is actually likely to make your work life easier and more organised. Here are the pros and cons.
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Mettle business bank account review
Mettle is a spin-off venture from parent bank NatWest – find out more about what this business banking app has to offer small businesses.
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Revolut Business account review
Considering a Revolut Business account? We take a closer look at the features and price plans available with these digital-only accounts.