Published at 14:10, Friday, 15 June 2012

Many people go to great lengths to research the best business banking provider for their business but then fail to bank in the most cost effective way.

There are many ways to keep your bank charges to a minimum, some of which are explained below:

1. Know your terms and conditions.

By understanding your business banking terms and conditions you can then manage your transactions to keep costs to a minimum and help make your business more profitable. If you know the transaction limits and charges, eg the maximum free cash pay-ins on the account, you can maximise the free elements and manage your banking to reap the most benefits.

2. Regular checks

Checking your account daily and fully reviewing statements is something we all know we should do. However, with the complications of everyday life it often gets overlooked. Regular checks could avoid you getting unexpected charges for unintentionally going overdrawn as well as having to pay debit interest on your overdrawn balance.

3. Automate as much as you can. This is likely to reduce the charges you incur for paying in or withdrawing cash at the branch.

Use your business debit card to pay for expenses – this reduces the requirement for petty cash and the charges for withdrawing cash from a branch

Pay regular bills by direct debit

Encourage customers to pay invoices direct into your bank account. You could add your bank details to your invoices to make this easy for customers to pay you directly. As well as receiving payments quicker it can reduce the likelihood of receiving cheques which may bounce and therefore harm your cash flow.

Use internet banking to pay staff, bills and transfer money between accounts electronically. Electronic faster payments must be credited in the recipient’s account by the end of the next business working day so they are much quicker than writing and posting a cheque.

By incorporating some of these techniques into your daily banking routine you could see the savings mount up over time. Think automated and save.

The Cumberland Building Society offers a range of business banking services including business internet banking.

Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk