Tool
What will a business account actually cost you?
Monthly fees are the least interesting number on a tariff sheet. Tell the calculator how your money moves and it works out the real annual figure — fees paid, minus interest earned — across 23 account tiers.
Your business
What this ignores
Service quality, app quality, overdrafts, eligibility and deposit protection. This answers the money question only — and the cheapest account is often not the one you should open.
| Account | Fees / yr | Interest / yr | Your position |
|---|
How the maths works
For every account tier we calculate:
net annual cost = (monthly fee × 12) + transfer charges + cash charges + cheque charges − (balance × savings rate)
Transfer charges only apply above each account's free allowance. Cash charges use whichever model the provider actually uses — a percentage with a minimum per deposit, a flat fee per deposit, or a rate per £100. That distinction matters more than people expect: at your two deposits totalling £1,200, a flat £1 per deposit costs £24 a year while 1.5% costs £216.
Where the interest beats the fees, the table says you earn and the figure is green. Where the fees win, it says you pay. There are no minus signs to decode — the number is always what actually lands in or leaves your account over a year.
Why the winner changes with your balance
Try setting the balance to £50,000 and watch the order move. At low balances, accounts with no monthly fee win because interest is negligible. As the balance grows, the interest rate starts to dominate and paying £9 a month for 3.25% beats paying nothing for 1.30%.
That crossover is the single most useful thing this calculator shows, and it is invisible on every comparison table in the market — including, until now, ours.
Questions about the calculator
Why does the cheapest headline account not always win?
Because a monthly fee is only one line of the tariff. An account with no fee but a 1.5% cash charge costs a shop far more than an account charging £8.50 a month at £1.20 per £100. And an account paying 3.25% on your balance can be cheaper overall than a free one paying nothing, once the interest is netted off.
Why do you exclude introductory free banking?
Because you will hold the account for longer than the offer. Most high-street accounts are free for 12 months, and Virgin Money for 25. Those periods are genuinely valuable, but comparing a free first year against a rival’s permanent pricing tells you nothing useful. The calculator prices the steady state, and you can toggle the intro periods back on to see the first-year picture.
Does the calculator account for interest?
Yes. It multiplies your average balance by each account’s savings rate and subtracts that from the annual fees, so the result is a net figure. A negative number means the account pays you more than it charges. This is why Allica and Monzo Pro rise as balances grow, and why Starling — which pays no interest on business balances — slips down at higher balances despite being free.
What is not included?
Service quality, app quality, eligibility, overdraft access, cheque handling, international payments and deposit protection are all excluded by design — this tool answers the money question only. Several accounts that win on cost lose badly on those criteria, which is why our weighted ranking puts cost at 16% rather than 100%.
How accurate are the figures?
Rows marked as verified use figures taken from the provider’s own website on the date shown. Rows marked unverified use our current working models and must be checked before you rely on them. We would rather show you which is which than present a single confident number built partly on guesses.