Best UK Bank Accounts For Sole Traders

Is Tide a good business bank account?

Tide offers a digital business bank account designed primarily for freelancers, contractors and small businesses. The account can be opened in minutes through the Tide app and includes tools to help manage payments, expenses and accounting in one place. One of the main attractions is that the basic business account has no monthly fee, making it one of the most accessible business banking options for UK startups and sole traders.

Is Tide’s business bank account free?

Tide’s Free plan costs is free, but users pay small transaction fees depending on how they use the account. For example, the free account includes five free bank transfers per month, after which transfers cost 20p each, while ATM withdrawals cost £1 per withdrawal. Cash deposits at the Post Office cost 0.99% (minimum £2.50).

Businesses that need more features can upgrade to paid plans.

• The Smart plan costs £12.49 per month
• The Pro plan £24.99 per month
• The Max plan £69.99 per month

Tide’s paid accounts offer more free transfers, additional accounts, enhanced team access come with lower transaction fees, particularly for international payments and foreign currency transactions.

What is Tide good for?

Tide focuses on simplifying financial admin for small businesses. The platform includes built-in accounting and tax tools, including free Making Tax Digital (MTD) filing for HMRC. Transactions are automatically categorised, helping businesses track spending and prepare accounts more easily.

Businesses can also send invoices, create payment links, accept in-person payments using a card reader, and issue expense cards for team members. Tide integrates with accounting software such as Xero and QuickBooks, making it easier to share financial data with accountants.

Another useful feature is the Tide Instant Saver account, which can pay up to 4% AER (variable) for the first four months, before reverting to lower rates depending on the plan you hold.

However, businesses that handle large numbers of transactions may find the pay-as-you-go fees on the free plan add up, meaning upgrading could be worthwhile. Overall, Tide is a strong choice for startups looking for simple, modern business banking.

Is Tide a bank and is your money safe?

Tide itself is not a bank, but its business current accounts are provided through ClearBank, a fully licensed UK bank. This means eligible deposits are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £120,000 per business, giving similar protection to traditional banks.

However this amount is spread across all other accounts that may be held at ClearBank.

Is Wise a Good Money Transfer App?

Yes, Wise is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to send money abroad. Highly recommended. Wise also won Best Money Transfer App in the 2025 Good Money Guide Awards.

But in a nutshell… Should you use Wise? Yes. Is it cheap? Yes. Is it easy to use? Yes. Is it safe? Yes.

Since Wise was founded back in 2011, I’ve followed its progress. There are many firms that shout loudly about wanting to disrupt an industry. But most of the time, it’s marketing hyperbole.

However, in Wise’s case, it has disrupted how we send money around the world – by making it cheap and making it easy.

The only reason not to use Wise is if you already bank with Starling, as the fees are pretty similar and you probably don’t want another app on your phone if you don’t need it.

Truly Disruptive

A few years ago, before Wise was founded, I wanted to send €30 to a friend in Munich. It was an absolute nightmare. I was banking with NatWest, which wanted £20 as a minimum fee for sending the money to a European bank account. Next I tried PayPal – still expensive. So I withdrew €30 in cash from a Euro cash machine in London, put it in an envelope and sent it through the post.

The only other option was the inconvenience of visiting a Western Union shop.

Thankfully along came TransferWise. It was a boom time for money transfer apps but this one had the best story: it was circumventing “evil” banks by transferring money abroad using P2P networks. If you needed to transfer €30 to Germany, it matched you with someone in Germany who wanted to transfer €30 to England.  No need to do any FX, and therefore less in fees to pay.

It also had fantastic marketing – for example stripping off to the pants in front of the Bank of England to protest “rip-off” banking charges. It was a stroke of genius, really, as British people love seeing naked people, and hate banks.

Of course liquidity gaps need to be filled when there isn’t someone on the other side of your transaction and TransferWise used firms like Currency Cloud (now owned by Visa) to ensure that customers always got the best price.

Richard Branson was also an investor. So there you go.

Over the years, Wise as grown by being easy to use and charging low fees.

How Does Wise Work?

Wise offers international money transfers and a multi-currency account with a pre-paid card. You can send 40+ currencies to 160+ countries, and hold 40+ currencies in a Wise account.

You can pay into your Wise account by debit card, credit card or bank transfer. If you have funds in a multi-currency account, you can use those to fund a transfer when sending money abroad. And you can choose to lock in a rate for up to 48 hours.

Wise says international transfers typically arrive in seconds.

Wise matches up buyers and sellers of currency in different countries, rather than physically transferring money internationally.

Wise Customer Service

We’ve marked Wise down a bit as it doesn’t provide a telephone number. This is fine for small transactions but if you’re sending a large amount of money abroad, you may be better off using a currency broker. Wise does offer a call back service for amounts over £80,000, though.

With a broker, you can phone up an account executive or dedicated dealer, who can provide updates on your transfer or help out immediately with any issues.

But all in all, Wise customer support, is fairly efficient.

Is Wise Safe?

Wise is about as safe as you can get for sending small amounts of money abroad.

Wise is not a bank – it doesn’t have a banking licence in the UK but is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an “e-money business”, which means funds are ring-fenced but not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

Wise is listed on the LSE (LON:WISE) with at market cap of around £9.6 billion, as at January 2026. That is well up from where it was at its IPO, but even though lots of tech firms listed in 2021, it was a pretty bad time to come to market, and most have performed poorly since then because of overall market conditions and over ambitions venture capitalists wanting a return on their investments. So the stock markets also think Wise is pretty good.

Since TransferWise launched, the group has grown to provide money transfers to over 15 million customers sending more than £12 billion a month.

It’s a shame it is planning on ditching the London stock markets for the glamour of high valuations in the US.

Using a listed app is helpful as you can see how it’s faring financially. If the Wise share price starts to go down, this could indicate potential financial problems and be a sign to switch to a different app.

Apps & Platform

Wise makes it incredibly easy to transfer money abroad – the app is really simple to use. If you have a large amount of money to send, you’re better off with a currency broker because they can help with market timing and lock in exchange rates with forward contracts and currency options. Plus if you ask nicely and are transferring enough money, a broker might undercut Wise’s exchange rates and fees. Remember, that in FX, everything is negotiable.

Wise is also venturing into other products, like multi-currency bank accounts and investing.

• Related guide: How to get the best exchange rates when sending a large amount of money abroad

Pricing

Wise is among the cheapest money transfer apps and it displays the fees clearly on the website and app, but it’s not the absolute cheapest. We found Atlantic Money offering GBP-USD transfers at the interbank rate plus £3. But I suspect that isn’t sustainable and it’s only one corridor, while Wise offers 21 currencies. If you want to know more about Atlantic Money, you can read my interview with the founders, Neeraj Baid and Patrick Kavanagh (who helped build Robinhood), and make up your own mind about the service.

Research & Analysis

Wise doesn’t really have any currency forecasts, which is fine because exchange rates are hard to predict. But it would be nice to have at least some commentary on the markets.

We’ve given Wise a mid-ranking for research and analysis as it does provide lots of excellent guides online and has a good insight tab on the app which can help you see where your account money is being spent.

If you want currency forecasts, you can read our regularly updated analysis of whether now’s a good time to buy USD or EUR.

Is Wise a Bank?

No. The company does not hold a UK banking licence and your balance is not protected by the FSCS.

However, like a bank, Wise will pay you interest on your cash balances at arate of 3.32% on GBP, 1.72% on EUR and 3.51% on USD,

Wise is primarily a low-cost international money transfer app that allows you to save money when sending money abroad. However, Wise provides some of the features that banks also provide, such as holding and exchanging multiple currencies, and sending and receiving payments. And you can have a multi-currency account with a pre-paid debit card.

The firm is authorised as an “e-money” provider, which means your money has some protection but not as much as it would have with a bank. Money in bank accounts is protected by the FSCS guarantee, which covers balances up to £120,000 per eligible person, per bank.

Wise lets customers send payments to more than 160 countries and spend internationally with the Wise card. Local bank details are provided for up to 9 currencies including US dollars, pounds sterling and euros.

If you are looking for a bank account in the UK, you can see a list of current bank account switching offers here.