Founder, Publisher & Editor
Sam Allcock
Serial founder who has run business banking for his own companies since 2007
Verified contributor United Kingdom
Sam Allcock is the founder and editor of Bank Solutions, and the founder of Domain Farm Ltd, the company that publishes it.
He has been a business owner since 2007. He founded the SEO agency Custard in 2007 and sold it in 2018, founded the press-release distribution service PR Fire in 2008 and sold it in 2024, and today runs Domain Farm Ltd, the entity-and-reputation venture Ascribed and Digital24. Across those companies he has opened, switched and operated business current accounts with high-street and challenger banks, dealt with the account-opening checks that trip up new directors, and managed multi-currency payments as a UK company selling overseas. Where a Bank Solutions guide draws on that first-hand experience, it says so.
He is the author of How to Sell Digital Assets (2025) and writes and speaks on digital PR, entity SEO and domain investment.
What he is not. Sam is not a financial adviser, accountant or FCA-authorised person. Bank Solutions publishes information and comparisons built from the banks’ own published terms; it does not give advice to individuals. Where a topic needs regulated expertise, the site says so and points readers to qualified help.
How to check. His public record is linked above: Companies House officer appointments, Wikidata, LinkedIn and his own site, samallcock.com. Corrections and questions: editor@banksolutions.uk.
Analysis by Sam Allcock
- Business Accounts
Business bank account fees explained: every charge on a UK tariff and what it means
Monthly fees, free periods, Faster Payments, Bacs, CHAPS, cash at the branch or the Post Office, cheques, international payments, card fees and unarranged borrowing - what each line on a UK business account tariff actually is, what the published tariffs charge for it, and a worked year for one small business on two different tariffs.
- Business Accounts
FSCS protection vs e-money safeguarding: what actually covers your business account
Some UK business accounts are deposits protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £120,000. Others are e-money, held under safeguarding rules with no compensation scheme behind them. This guide explains both regimes, what happens if a provider fails, how to check any provider on the FCA Register, and which providers in our comparison are banks and which are e-money institutions.
- Payments & FX
Multi-currency business accounts and FX fees: how UK small businesses pay and get paid abroad
What a multi-currency account is and how it differs from a sterling account with international payments, how exchange-rate mark-ups work against the mid-market rate, why SWIFT costs more than SEPA or ACH, how receiving with local account details works, and what a percentage above the mid-market rate costs in pounds - with the providers' own published figures.
- Guides
Do Sole Traders Need a Business Bank Account?
No law requires a sole trader to hold one - HMRC's own guidance says a personal or business account may be used, subject to the bank. The rules that do apply are the bank's terms, HMRC's record-keeping requirements and, for limited companies, the separate-entity rule in company law. Here is what each says, in its own words.
- Opening & Switching
How to Open a Business Bank Account in the UK
What UK banks ask for when you apply for a business current account, why the law makes them ask, what timings the banks actually publish, and the reasons applications are turned down - taken from the Money Laundering Regulations 2017, Companies House guidance and the banks' own application pages.
- Opening & Switching
How to Switch Business Bank Account with the Current Account Switch Service
Pay.UK's Current Account Switch Service moves a small business's current account in seven working days with a guarantee behind it. Who qualifies, what moves, what does not, what the guarantee actually promises, and how the timeline sits against payroll and VAT dates - from Pay.UK's own pages and HMRC's deadlines.