Business banking exaclt the most stimulating topic, but getting it right can save huge amounts of haste. Experiences between high street banks and internet banks are not only different, but customer experiences are also wide ranging, so my experience here is subjective. It is also worth adding that it is very much up to date with the ones I quote. Every business is different. Everyone has different products, services, skills, time to dedicate, and everyone has different comfort levels with technology too. A good business, in my humble opinion can only truly be uncovered when something goes wrong. When things go right, it's simply business as usual. The lucky thing for readers to benefit from, is that I'm fussy when it comes to making the right decision on something I don't want to be chopping and changing with. This, gave me great exposure to the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of each of the three I am quoting below. Needless to say, this is a reflection of my experience, either of my own business, or of a business I have helped support, and my not be a reflection of the service provided to everyone. I'm also the sort of person that likes to deal with real people for any questions, as opposed to technology, chatbots and automated responses. I'm the one who prefers to queue at a supermarket for longer, to say hello to the cashier, than to do the scanning at an automated till. Not everyone is like that, an I'd like to think I've covered this too. Some businesses need to consider access to money withdrawals, deposits, different currencies, card payment handling, statements, as well as who can access the accounts. I have tried to touch on each of these to provide my view. How do Banks Make Money? Banks make money in two main ways. The first is that they using your money that you deposit, to invest wisely elsewhere to give themselves a good return. They can use it to loan to other customers, or they use it to invest in everything from real estate, stocks, shares, bonds, or any other investment vehicle they choose (within the confines of regulatory restrictions). The second way they make money is by selling services, often as the middle man, charging fees to cover their costs, such as charges for overdrafts, interest on loans, currency exchange fees, reclaiming on defaulted debts, or credit card handling charges. Overall, they make a profit from using your money to make more money. By being on the pulse of the best investments, they can make large quantities if invested wisely, which is then used to cover the overheads. Before we compare, we must realise that the key word in banks is 'Risk'. Every decision a bank makes is carefully weighed up as invest-worthy by analysing risk. Bigger banks may be able to carry more risk, and some banks are even considered too big to fail, able to absorb huge costs if a risk does not end favourably. Large institutional retail banks (like HSBC, Barclays, etc.) also know as the "High street banks", have the biggest physical presence, but also have the bigger overheads where it comes to real estate, and staffing, by comparison to an 'internet' bank, such as Revolut or Starling. Small banks may be more nimble, be designed to be more efficient, an may even be more innovative than the high-street banks that get away with charging for the same or similar service, and their justification is often that of perceived risk. Reality, however is that regulations make it quite hard for a bank to fold unless as a result of an over-powered rogue trader or internal fraud, both of which being increasingly more unlikely. Smaller banks may have lower overheads, but also their smaller presence means they cannot ride the 'risk' wave in the same way as a larger bank. This is why banking licences help offering some protection against a bank that over-exposes itself to risk. Revolut grew surprisingly big without a banking licence, although in the last year or so, has managed to secure one, meaning that HSBC, Revolut, and Starling, all have a licence, and therefore offer varying degrees of consumer protection. So that's a point to both the high-street and internet banks, for providing proof that they won't simply be here today and gone tomorrow. But what has this got to do with choosing a bank? The only reason worthy of the above explanation is for you each to ask yourselves what your view is on risk. Are you comfortable ony with a branch you can walk into, or can what you need be done over the internet?