FAQs

Our savings accounts are available to organisations operating in the UK. We accept applications from sole traders, partnerships, limited companies, limited liability partnerships, charities, clubs, societies, associations, parish councils and trusts.

Unfortunately our SME accounts are not suitable for individual Pension Schemes.

Regulated Professionals:

The Professional Practice Account is available to businesses that hold money for their clients and are subject to rules set out in regulations giving those clients adequate protections in respect of the monies held. These are:

• Solicitors registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority or the Law Society of Scotland.
• Accountancy practices registered with ICAEN, ACCA, or CIPFA.
• Property Professionals who are members of the NFoPP Regulation; including NAEA, ARLA, ICBA, NAVA, NALS, RICS and APIP.
• Other Professional Practices registered with the FCA and having permissions to hold client money.

Business Types:

Provided you are within the categories above you can apply for a Professional Practice account (subject to availability) if you are a UK based Sole Trader, Partnership, Limited Company, or Limited Liability Partnership.

Yes, you can open as many accounts as you want, subject to the overall deposit limit for the account and overall entity limits. Please contact us for further details.

We complete electronic identity checks on all individuals opening an account. In the event that we are unable to verify your identity, or personal address, we will ask you to provide us with documents, which prove your identity, by post.

*for trusts only

If you are classed as a micro enterprise (you have fewer than 10 employees and a turnover or annual balance sheet that does not exceed €2 million or the equivalent) or a charity with an annual income of less than £1m, you can cancel your account, within 14 days of opening the account, by writing to us.

The terms and conditions of the account can be found on the product pages or through the Savings Help Centre.

Cheques will begin to earn interest two working days after they are deposited. For example: a cheque received and banked by us on Monday starts earning interest from Wednesday. Payments received electronically earn interest from the day of receipt.

On Notice Accounts we pay interest annually on the 30th April. On request, interest can be paid monthly and this will be paid on the last day of each month.

Interest on Bond Accounts is paid annually, on the anniversary of your account opening.

Interest rates are variable for Notice and Easy Access accounts and you will be notified of any material change.

All of our Savings Accounts have minimum balance requirements. If your balance falls below the minimum for your account, the interest rate will drop to a nominal rate on the balance.

Online Account Access is available for all SME Savings accounts. You will be provided with details on how to register once you have applied.

Unfortunately Online Account Access is not available for our Property Finance/Asset Finance customers.

Where your account allows additional deposits, you can pay funds in with a cheque (made payable to your organisation) or electronic payment from your nominated current account. To pay in you will need to use the sort code and 8-digit account number which we provided in your welcome letter.

Cheques must be made payable to the name of the organisation in which the account is held. We cannot accept Building Society current accounts with roll numbers as nominated business current accounts.

The sort code for electronic payments in to our business savings accounts is 60-95-86.

Your 8-digit account number is sent to you in your welcome letter.

If you have registered for online account access, you can give notice online via the View My Account option. Alternatively, you will need to complete a Notice to Withdraw form.

These forms are contained within your welcome pack which you receive when you open an account. If you need additional forms, they can be downloaded and printed from the Savings Help Centre or you can telephone us on 0344 225 3939 and we will send some to you.

Once completed, the form can be emailed, faxed or posted back to us and we will confirm receipt by email.

Once the notice period has expired, the requested funds will be transferred back to your nominated current account electronically, by faster payment, on the following working day.

Early withdrawals cannot be made as per our terms and conditions of the account.

We will write to you 14 days before your bond matures and detail the options available to you. If you do not receive a letter, please contact us.

For Notice Accounts statements are issued annually, on the anniversary of the account being opened, unless otherwise requested.

For Bonds, statements are issued annually.

There are no charges and we do not charge for transactions on the account. We do make a charge for some additional services, for a list of these charges please see the useful documents in the Savings Help Centre.

If any changes need to be made to the account please complete the Change of Details form on the Savings Help page. Alternatively, call us on 0344 225 3939 or email us at [email protected] and we will advise you.

Our primary banking responsibility is to protect our depositors. We do this by employing a conservative approach to risk management; we always hold levels of capital and liquidity comfortably in excess of all regulatory requirements.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme. Your deposits with Cambridge & Counties Bank are protected up to £85,000, in total, by the FSCS.

Our FCA licence isn’t shared with any other bank so when you make a deposit with us, we give you the full FSCS cover. It is worth remembering that any deposits you hold above the limit of £85,000 are unlikely to be covered.

For more details about the protection of your deposits, with Cambridge & Counties Bank, read our Information Sheet and Exclusions List.

To learn more about FSCS, including eligibility, click here or head to their website www.fscs.org.uk .

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme. Your deposits with Cambridge & Counties Bank are protected up to £85,000, in total, by the FSCS.

To learn more about FSCS, including eligibility click here or head to their website www.fscs.org.uk .

Our FCA licence isn’t shared with any other bank so when you make a deposit with us, if you are eligible, you will have full FSCS cover. It is worth remembering that any deposits you hold above the limit of £85,000 are unlikely to be covered.

A Notice Account is a savings account which requires you to give the period of notice, applicable to your account, before you can make withdrawals.

A Fixed Rate Bond is a savings account which earns a fixed rate of interest for a fixed term. No early withdrawals can be made during the term period, and additional funds cannot be added to the account once opened.

Our savings accounts are operated via your existing main business current account. This means that all transactions into and out of your savings account must come from, and go back into, this nominated current account. Your nominated current account can be with any UK bank or building society. We cannot accept a Building Society current account with roll numbers.

AER stands for Annual Equivalent Rate. If you left one amount of money in your account all year, the AER would be the interest rate you’d get if we:

• Paid you the interest on the original amount within the year
• Added the interest onto the original amount in your account
• We then paid you interest on the new amount (that’s the original amount, plus the interest we added to your account) for the rest of the year

The AER is only relevant if you have an account that pays interest more than once a year. We include the AER on all accounts so that you can compare our products with other banks.

Gross interest is the interest that you earn on the money in your account before tax is taken out. It doesn’t include added-in interest in the way that the AER does.