If you own a company that has regular employees, or even contractors that need to spend money on your company’s behalf, it is important to have a company payment card that works for your business.
There are many options for a company when it is shopping for a new company cards UK provider, and there are a few neobanks that have created company card programs.
One of the best parts about using a neobank is the lower cost of services (almost always lower than a traditional bank), but neobanks also generally offer a higher level of technical integration with modern data systems.
Here are a few company card programs from neobanks that may work for your business.
In addition to handy mobile apps, some of the company card programs include rock-bottom rates on international money transfers, which may be very appealing to companies that have an international reach.
Some also have automated accounting features, expense reports and other features which will help relieve some of the burden for your business.
Pleo
Pleo was founded in 2015 and is a Danish FinTech company with offices in the UK. Through its innovative app-based expense software, the company can help keep track of company expenses. The software allows you to streamline your company expenses with a purpose-built platform. Your employee will take a snapshot of the receipt, and the platform will plug in the data.
Your employees can also have a MasterCard debit card, which is available in virtual or physical form. The virtual form is targeted for online purchases, and the physical card is for purchases made in the real-world.
Easy to Track Spending
Pleo allows companies to distribute debit cards to multiple employees but everything can be controlled from a centralized portal. It is easy for a manager to set spending limits on an employee-by-employee basis, and see exactly what is being purchased right when money is being spent.
Employees are also able to assign the purchase to a specific spending category as soon as it goes through, making it a breeze to reconcile the transaction at a later date.
Pleo also works with an integration system that allows you to merge your expenses with well-known accounting software programs like Sage, Microsoft Dynamics, Xero, and Quickbooks.
The platform is suitable for businesses of all sizes that want to streamline company expense processing. For the moment, Pleo is available to businesses that are based in the UK, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark.
How Does Pleo Work?
Here are some of the most important features that Pleo offers its clients:
- Distributing Cards: There is no limit to the number of cards that you can assign to your employees. You will need to consider which of your employees has the ability to make purchases on behalf of your company.
- Topping up Your Pleo Account: Pleo cards operate in a similar nature to debit cards, you will need to ensure that they are funded. Your company will need to wire funds to your dedicated Pleo account and purchases will then be funded by the money you have in your account.
- Spending Limits: The account portal supports specific spending limits on your employee’s Pleo cards. A manager can set individual spending limits on an employee-by-employee basis. Limits can be increased or decreased at any time.
- Using the Card: Pleo cards can be used anywhere that MasterCard is accepted. This permits purchases both online and instore, as well as accessing cash at an ATM. For instance, a member of staff purchases a £75 train ticket to visit a potential client. A notification will pop up on the employee’s mobile phone, which asks for the individual to assign the expense to a predefined spending category as soon as the purchase is made.
- Expense Receipt: After the employee has assigned the transaction to a specific spending category, they will be asked to take a photo of the receipt. With their mobile phone camera, they can do this, and then the receipt subsequently will be uploaded to the Pleo account. This removes the need for the employee to keep the receipt and hand it to the accounts department at a later date.
- Reconciliation: Normally, the accounting department would need to wait for a physical receipt, then manually reconcile the expense within its respective accounting software program. Pleo makes this process much faster. The process is effectively taken care of by the employee who has assigned the purchase of a spending category and taken a snapshot of the receipt. There is no need to manually enter the expense since Pleo allows you to connect your expense reports with well-known accounting software packages.
How Much Does Pleo Cost?
Pleo offers three individual pricing plans:
Essential Plan: £5 per user, per month
The Essential Plan is the lowest cost plan available at Pleo and it costs £5 per user, per month. A user is defined as an employee that will have a card of their own. For instance, if 5 employees require Pleo cards, you’ll pay £25 per month.
Under the Essential Plans, you’ll have access to the vast majority of features offered by Pleo, like accessing to both plastic and virtual MasterCards, instantly capturing the name of the merchant, sizing the transaction, and spending category every time a purchase is made.
With key accounting software and human support, the Essential Plan also offers automated receipts and accounting platform integration.
Pro Plan: £10 per user, per month
Besides having access to all the features available with the Essential Plan, there are additional features, including the ability to install limits and reviews on each of your users, as well as receive notifications when a user goes over a predefined limit.
Additionally, you get real-time insights into what each employee or department is spending, with the capacity to download reports by clicking a button. There are more in the form of customization, like the ability to import VAT codes.
Premium Plan: Customized Pricing Plan
Premium Plan is known as a ‘Very Important Pleo’er’. There is no one-size-fits-all pricing structure with the Premium Plan, so this needs to be negotiated directly with the team at Pleo. It offers everything that comes with both the Essential and Pro plans, plus a dedicated account manager. Pleo will deduct your monthly subscription from your main account balance whichever pricing plan you do go.
Other Fees at Pleo
There are several other costs that you might run into when using your Pleo account. They include Physical Card Order, ATM Withdrawals, Foreign Transactions, Returning Pleo Funds.
Read our full review of Pleo here.
ANNA Money
ANNA Money was launched in 2018 and is a UK-based solution for small business owners.
It provides a seamless business account that makes sending and receiving money simple, also ensuring that invoices are sent and paid on time to UK business owners.
The company now claims to have over 6000 customers in the UK and it is only available to UK residents that are either director of a UK-based limited company, non-limited partnership, or sole trader.
The difference with ANNA Money that is the company is clear about waiting times with customer support service. They advise that most customers will need to wait around 10 minutes before being connected to a live agent.
Once the agent is ready for you, you can jump straight into the conversation (and talk to a living person).
How Does Anna Money Work?
- Current Account: You will be given a UK account number and sort code. ANNA Money makes the process of sending and receiving funds easy via the mobile App. The ANNA Money current account also supports Faster Payments to transfer funds to another UK account instantly. In case you need to transfer funds to a client or supplier based overseas, the transfer will go through the SWIFT network.
- Business Debit Card: ANNA Money only offers a fully-fledged debit card backed by MasterCard as it is not a bank. You can withdraw money from ATMs, as well as purchase goods and services online.
- Invoice Assistance: The platform allows you to easily create invoices from within the App, and if the client is a regular one, the pre-saved template feature makes future invoices even more seamless to issue. An additional useful feature to note is the ANNA Money invoice chasing option, the App can chase unpaid invoices on your behalf!
How Much Does ANNA Money Cost?
ANNA Money offers new customers a three-month free trial to test the platform out fully before committing to a monthly subscription. ANNA Money charges £11 per month per flat.
There are five different account tiers, which range from A through to E.
- Tier A: It is when you first register an account. This permits a maximum card balance of just £1,500. Your inbound and outbound transaction limits will amount to £2,000 and £1,000 per month.
- Tier B: your account is automatically moved to tier B once you activate your business debit card. Your account limits are increased quite significantly.
- Tier E: It is the highest tier available at ANNA Money. This allows a maximum business debit card balance of £700,000 and you can perform inbound and outbound transactions to a volume of £500,000 per month.
If the above limits are still not suitable, you can contact ANNA Money directly to request higher limits. The platform claimed to offer lower prices if your business has a monthly income of £1 million or more.
Read our full Anna Money review here.
Revolut Business
Revolut Business is the business segment of Revolut, and it aims its services at those looking to access traditional business account services. Revolut Business is provided via a mobile app, across both Android and iOS devices.
Revolut Business is probably going to appeal to businesses that have a somewhat international presence. Opening a Revolut Business account allows your company to access both the UK and European banking systems. You can accept payments in multiple currencies, and also make international transfers at great rates.
Revolut is one of the most effective ways to send and receive competing currencies with saving cost. There are currently 28 different currencies that can be exchanged without incurring any account fees.
A Revolut Business account also comes with a host of other features, including the ability to add additional team members to the account, the option of virtual and prepaid debit cards, customer support service that is available all the time, and various business software platforms are available to integrate into the account.
Revolut Business Features
- Multi-Account Access: Revolut Business allows you to specify who you want to give account access to. You can distribute corporate debit cards by adding team members to your business account.
- Local Accounts: Revolut allows you to open a local account across both the UK and EU, which means you can send and receive local payments easily. The platform utilizes the Faster Payments network for a UK-to-UK transfer and EU-to-EU transfers instead of going through the SEPA network. It will need to go through the international SWIFT network for anything outside of the above parameters.
- FX Transactions at the Real Market Rate: Revolut Business allows you to exchange 28 different currencies at the real market rate depending on your specific pricing plan. The number of free FX transfers will be limited, based on what kind of account you have. For example, the free plan offers no free transfers, while the Enterprise account includes an unlimited amount.
- Pre-Paid and Virtual Debits Cards: You also have access to a prepaid debit card when opening a Revolut Business account. This allows you to apply for multiple cards if you require team members to process business transactions. The prepaid debit card operates in the same way as a conventional card, it can be used to buy things online and in-store, as well as to withdraw cash from an ATM. You can create virtual cards via your Revolut Business account in case you need to process transactions that do not require the issuance of an individual debit card.
- Business Software Integration: Revolut Business account holders also have the opportunity to link their accounts up with third-party software providers, such as Slack, Xero, and FreeAgent. Revolut will post your incoming and outgoing transactions every few hours for a Xero link-up.
- Bulk Payments: You can process weekly or monthly payments in bulk by clicking a button. This will save you from having to process individual payments.
How Much Does Revolut Business Cost?
There are four main Revolut Business plans to choose from.
Free Plan: £0 per month
The free plan is free!
Your company is allowed five local transfers per month, then you will pay £0.20 per transfer. Local transfers are UK-to-UK or EU-to-EU, and your five free transfers will be collectively counted across both markets. Transfers are counted on both inflows and outflows, meaning that the free plan will not give you much flexibility in making frequent payments.
You will pay £3 per international transaction, as the free plan comes with no free international transfers. With a free account, your company will also miss out on several features. For example, you will not have access to 24/7 priority support, and you will not be able to process bulk payments.
Grow Plan: £25 per month
The Grow Plan allows you to onboard 10 team members for free, make 100 free local transfers, 10 free international transfers, and utilize up to £10k worth of FX-free transfers each month. The Grow plan also gives you access to priority 24/7 customer support, user permissions, payment approvals, and bulk payments. This plan will quickly pay for itself if you send and receive multiple payments throughout the month.
Scale Plan: £100 per month
Besides getting all of the same features as the Grow plan, the Scale plan gives you a lot more in the form of monthly transaction allocation. Your FX-free allocation threshold also increases from £10k to £50k and your company can add 30 team members, as opposed to the 10 offered within the Grow plan.
Enterprise Plan: £1,000 per month
All account limits are removed with this one, which means all your local and international transactions are free, and you can utilize fee-free FX rates on each transfer. There are no additional monthly charges to import as many team members as you need.
Read our Revolut Business review here.
Soldo
Soldo is a financial services company that was launched in 2015. The company allows you to manage and control your expenses, as well as the expenses of your employees through one singular platform.
Just like Pleo, Soldo offers pre-paid debit cards that can be distributed to your employees. The platform also allows you to deposit and transfer funds via your Soldo account by clicking a button.
It is important to note that Soldo is not a bank. It is a third party that provides services to manage company spending in a faster and more efficient way. Soldo is available to companies based in the UK, and the European Economic Area (EEA).
The company is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an electronic money institution. The platform is useful for companies of all sizes from small businesses (1-99 employees) to enterprises (100+ employees).
How Does Soldo Work?
The Soldo platform will allow you to log in each of the pre-paid debit cards onto the system and then the Soldo platform will update in real-time every time one of your employees uses the card.
By downloading the Soldo app and take a picture with their smartphone, the receipt image is attached to your main platform hub. This is useful for your annual audit due to its a seamless process.
Here are some of the features that Soldo offers:
- Reconciliation: Soldo is useful for keeping track of who is spending what and instead of them needing to keep hold of physical receipts and hand-delivering them to your accounting department.
- Pre-Paid Debit Cards: It is no limit on ordering pre-paid debit cards, which are issued by MasterCard® and used via chip and pin, or contactless payment. Virtual Soldo cards are also available, which are issued online.
- Depositing and Transferring Funds: This includes the ability to deposit funds into your Soldo account and then make transfers. To deposit funds, you perform a bank transfer. Once the funds arrive, you can start allocating cash to your expense cards. Cardholders can withdraw cash from an ATM.
- Soldo App: The app is free to download across both iOS and Android devices, it not only allows you to track and monitor spending in real-time but also allows you to amend your expense accounts on the move. For example, you can increase the card limit for a particular employee by clicking a button while being on the road. Your employees can digitally enclose a receipt of their purchase and keep tabs on the spending limits as well.
- Reports and Analysis: With Soldo, you can download statements which show you how much has been spent during a particular time frame, and then break the information down to give you useful insights. You can also generate transaction reports then categorize them by implementing filters.
- Export Data: This is useful in case you need to export data into your current accounting system. Most major accounting platforms like QuickBooks and Sage as well as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, and Netsuite are included
How Much Does Soldo Cost?
Soldo offers two pricing plans. Whatever package you choose, you will always be charged a £5 issuance fee per physical pre-paid card and £1 per virtual card.
Soldo Pro: £3 Per Card Per Month +VAT
Instead of paying a fixed amount per month, The Soldo Pro package charges you on a per-card basis, which may allow you to reduce your monthly spending. Besides getting all of the features available in the free package, your company will have access to more advanced CSV data. This is crucial in case you are looking to export your expense data to a third party accounting system like Sage or QuickBooks.
Soldo Pro gives you full integration, which means you will be able to get pre-paid debit cards in EUR and USD as well as GBP. Soldo Pro automatically categorizes transactions, so you also have much more flexibility in tracking expense data.
Soldo Premium: £7 Per Month, Per Card +VAT
Soldo Premium is the most advanced package offered by Soldo. It will cost you £7 per month, per active card. The only difference between the Soldo Pro and Soldo Premium options is that you get a higher level of reporting capabilities, and execute custom configurations of company roles.
Soldo will potentially offer you a better price in case you order more than 30 plastic pre-paid debit cards with an enterprise plan.
Other Fees at Soldo
The company charges a £1 ATM withdrawal fee if you’re based in the UK, and £2 if overseas. A fixed currency exchange fee of 1% is applied if the card is used in a different currency from the one associated with your card. It will cost £6 to use SEPA (European transfers) and £16 to use SWIFT (Non-EU international transfers).
Read our Soldo review here.
Conclusion
There are loads of options for your company when it comes to a company card. Any of the platforms above will fit the needs of a company in the UK, and may be significantly cheaper than dealing with an established bank.
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