FAQs

Our Business, Charity & Trust accounts are for businesses and organisations established and operating in the UK, for example:

• Limited Companies
• Charities
• Partnerships
• Sole Traders
• Housing Associations
• Clubs & Societies

*Please note we do not currently offer accounts to Local Authorities.

All of our accounts are designed for your short and long term business savings needs. They are not suitable for use as a business current account or the daily transactions of running a business. If you’d like to check if your business or organisation is eligible, please contact the Savings team.

There are several ways to open a new Business account with Bath Building Society. Pop into a Branch, apply via email, or by post. It isn’t currently possible to open a Business account via Bath Online or the Mobile App.

Here’s what to do next:

• Decide which account you would like to open, from the list shown here.
• Read the key product information in conjunction with our terms and conditions and FSCS information.
• Complete and sign the application form for the account you wish to open. This form can be downloaded at the bottom of the account information page.
• If you are opening a joint account, both applicants will need to complete and sign the application form.
• Take your completed application form into a Branch, or you can email it to savings@bibs.co.uk or post it to our Head Office.
• You can open your account with a cheque payable to yourself or you can send your initial deposit via faster payment once the account has been opened. Please contact our Customer Service team for any further information.
• We’ll send you a Welcome letter once your account has been opened.

Unfortunately you can’t currently open a Business or Professional account online or via the Mobile App. To apply you can download an application form from the product information page for the account you want to open, complete and send it via email to savings@bibs.co.uk or print and post it to us. Alternatively you can pop into one of our Branches in Bath (See How can I open an account, above).

We will carry out electronic searches through credit agencies in line with UK Money Laundering Regulations, to help us identify you and confirm that the information you’ve provided is correct. We also check the details you provide against Companies House or the Charity Commission register.

All financial institutions are required to gather information to verify your identity, prevent fraud and comply with money laundering regulations. Here are some of the more popular forms of ID we accept:

• A photo of the front of your bank card or a bank statement showing your nominated bank.
• Clubs and Societies must include a copy of the minutes confirming their intention to open an account.
• Charitable organisations must include a letter from their governing body, stating their intention to open an account and the names of all the signatories required to operate the account.
• Limited companies must include a copy of their certificate of incorporation.
• Details of persons with significant control such as Directors and Shareholders, with over 25% Shareholding and Trustees, who are not signatories on the account are also required.

You can view a full list of documents here.

All Business, Charity and Trust accounts can be viewed via Bath Online or the Mobile App.

We offer a next day faster payment service. The payment will leave your account on day one and reach the beneficiary no later than close of business the next day.

In a hurry? For a charge of £3 you can take advantage of a same day faster payment service. The payment will leave your account on day one and reach the beneficiary by close of business the same day.

For larger payments, a telegraphic transfer (often know as a CHAPS) payment can be arranged if you provide the necessary information on the morning of the transfer. There is a £9 charge for this facility which will be charged and debited from your Bath Building Society account.

Yes of course. Because we are not a clearing bank, you will need three sets of numbers:

Sort code 62-30-45

Account number 00000000

Reference: Your 8 digit account number (you will find your account number at the top of your passbook).

Account Name: Bath Building Society

Please note when sending funds please use Bath Building Society as the account name, your bank will then recognise and confirm you are sending funds to Bath Building Society. This is in relation to Confirmation of Payee and should only need to be done once.

Please provide us with a copy of a bank statement to nominate an account for electronic transfers. The account must be in the same name as your business account with Bath Building Society.

Yes, it is possible to make a transaction by calling our Customer Service team.

Please note that if your account requires more than one signatory to authorise a payment, we will need to contact the appropriate signatories to complete the payment.

When paying in a cheque to your account, please make it payable to the name on the account.

The frequency and amount you can withdraw from your account will vary depending on the account type. Please refer to your account terms and conditions or contact our Customer Service team.

Funds transferred will appear in your account the next working day, cheques currently take six working days to clear.

You can download our change of signatory form or email savings@bibs.co.uk to ask for a form to be sent to you. You can also change your details by visiting one of our Branches.

You can update your address by downloading a change of customer details form to send to our customer service team at our Head Office address, or pop in to one of our Branches.

If you lose your passbook please contact our Customer Service team immediately and we will register it as lost or stolen. They will send you a lost passbook form and you simply return to us with two forms of identification and then a new passbook will be issued.

You can download a statement from your Bath Online account or via the Mobile App.

Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Service team to get a statement for your account.

Interest is calculated daily and either applied on 31st December annually, or on maturity of a Fixed Term Deposit. Interest will be added to your Bath Building Society account.

We may change our interest rates to respond to changes in the Bank of England base rate or changes in law, to meet relevant regulatory requirements, or to respond to changes to codes of practice or changes in our costs.

In the case of an increase to interest rates, we will inform you by placing notices on the website and in our Branches.

When there is a reduction in interest rates we will communicate this change by putting notices in our Branches and on the website. If your balance is over £100 we will send a personal notification at least 14 days before we make the change.

As of May 2020, some banks and building societies in the UK began offering a service called Confirmation of Payee (CoP), it will help protect you when you’re making payments by checking that the account, sort code and name of the account match.

Bath Building Society account details cannot be verified using CoP as we are not part of the service yet, so when you go to make a payment to us for the first time you will might get  a ‘no match’ or ‘unavailable message’.

If this is the case we request that you first check that you have correctly entered the sort code and account number. After you have confirmed that you’ve entered the correct details, ask your bank or building society to proceed with the transfer.

If you open a new Business Savings account or you have existing account(s) these Business Savings account(s) will be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) providing you meet the eligibility criteria.

There are various ways to close your account. If you have an email authority in place you can email instructions to our Customer Service team to close your account, or you can write to them at our Head Office address.