Hi there,
A friend and I are opening an online business and need to set up a shared business bank account where any revenue would be received.
We’ve had a quick look and there’s a lot of options so we wanted to check if there was a favourite amongst the famous Ozbargainers.
Thank you in advance for any advice
I use Transferwise as all my suppliers are overseas and require payment in USD. I can transfer between AUD and USD anytime I want.
I'm using the NAB Business Everyday account.
Some benefits, including access to their "Village" which almost never has spacing (and now that there's COVID, it's closed) but it's zero monthly fees so it's workable.
For online trading, I would recommend two bank accounts.
I would have one where you give out details online for customer payments.
And every day, you sweep out all incoming money to another account. Keep the details of this one secret.
That way, you are protecting your income from scams and reversals and Nigerian princes.
Yes, I've actually got an arrangement like this myself, but I only use it occasionally. If I was doing it on a big scale, I would make sure that the account for online transactions could be set up for automatic daily (or immediate) transfers to the safe account, and that it could not be overdrawn (if somehow a reversal was made).
Sounds very logical! May I ask which bank accounts you’re using?
I like the idea of TransferWise above as it’s good for international
If you are using a payment gateway such as Stripe, PayPal etc, you are not giving out or making known to your customers your bank account details and would be free to change as needed with those payment service providers, to direct your settlement funds to a bank account of yours (your business).
A consideration for which bank account to use may also be if you needed bank feeds from that bank account into your chosen accounting software. Most ‘business-grade’ bank accounts would do.
ING