How We Review Financial Products

Choosing a business bank account, credit card, or accounting software is a critical decision for any founder. To help you make the right choice, we follow a strict methodology when reviewing financial products.

Research sources

We rely exclusively on official primary sources for factual information. We do not use third-party comparison sites or marketing summaries as our source of truth. We pull data directly from:

• Official provider terms and conditions.
• Published fee schedules and tariff guides.
• Regulatory registers (FCA, PRA).

Fee verification

We look beyond the headline "free" or "£0/month" claims. We actively check and document the hidden costs that catch small businesses out, including:

• Cash deposit fees (and minimum charges).
• Foreign exchange (FX) markups and non-sterling transaction fees.
• Transfer fees (CHAPS, SWIFT, SEPA).
• Late payment fees and default interest rates.

Eligibility verification

A great product is useless if you can't get it. We verify exactly who can apply, noting restrictions on:

• Business structure (sole traders vs limited companies).
• Trading history requirements.
• Prohibited or restricted industries.
• Director residency requirements.

Regulatory checks

We clearly state the regulatory status of every banking product we review. We distinguish between:

• Fully licensed banks covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £120,000.
• Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) that use safeguarding accounts rather than FSCS protection.

Promotion checks

For each promotion we check the provider’s own offer page and linked terms for the code, reward, eligibility, required action, deadline and payout wording. We record the source and the date checked beside the promotion. We do not infer missing conditions from a campaign slug, an old article or a third-party summary.

How competitors are considered

We do not review products in isolation. Every review includes a direct comparison with the closest alternatives in the market. We explicitly state "Who it suits" and "Who it may not suit" to help you quickly rule out products that don't fit your trading style.

How affiliate relationships affect our conclusions

They don't. We earn a commission if you apply through some of our links (see our Affiliate Disclosure), but this does not influence our editorial stance. We routinely highlight the flaws, missing features, and high fees of products we partner with. We also recommend and link to products with which we have no commercial relationship.

Ownership, review cadence and expiry

The named author owns checking and recording the primary sources for each review. The product-content editor owns the review calendar and makes sure a material correction is published with a new check date. The editor prioritises rate, eligibility, protection and promotion changes that could affect a business decision.

Referral codes and time-limited promotions are rechecked at least every 30 days and sooner when the provider changes its campaign. Product fees, plan features, eligibility and protection are rechecked at least every 90 days and sooner after a material provider change. The date beside a promotional card is the last provider check; where shown, the review-due date is 30 days later.

After a promotion passes its 30-day review window, we suppress its reward amount and code from promotional cards and replace “current” or “verified” language with a clear recheck notice until the provider terms have been checked again. If the provider page does not expose enough information to substantiate a claim, we mark it unverified and do not present that claim as current. A check date records when we inspected a source; it is not a guarantee of eligibility, approval or payment.