Tide vs Cashplus: Comparison for UK Businesses

If you’re looking for a new business account, you have more options than you think. You can now choose from a range of digital solutions, rather than just bank accounts at traditional banks.

Digital-only services are rocketing in popularity, with around 49% of UK SMEs preferring to bank wholly online.¹ This demand has led to the emergence of a number of new challenger banks and digital solutions.

Two popular options for UK businesses at the moment are Tide and Cashplus. But what do they have to offer, and how do they compare? Read on for a full head-to-head review of Cashplus vs. Tide, comparing everything from fees and features to security.

We’ll also show you an alternative - Wise Business, which lets you effortlessly manage your business finances across 40+ currencies, including GBP, USD and EUR.

💡 Learn more about Wise Business

Tide vs Cashplus - comparison overview

Let’s start out with a point-by-point comparison of both Tide and Cashplus based on their key features:

Cashplus business account

Cashplus Bank (which is soon to change its name to Zempler Bank) offers a business bank account on one of two plans - Go and Extra. The Go plan has no monthly fee, while Extra is £9 a month but offers more fee-free services and perks.

While it varies by plan, the main features and services on offer include:²

• Contactless business Mastercard, personalised with a business name.
• Business expense cards.
• Faster payments through online banking and the Cashplus mobile banking app.
• Centralised account management, where you can track spend, add cards, manage expenses and more all from one online dashboard.
• Business Creditbuilder tool to improve credit score (Extra plan only).
• Cashplus API to integrate your account with accounting and other business tools.
• Post Office branch services, including depositing cash.
• Invoicing.
• Bulk payments.
• Overdraft (on application).
• Business cash advance up to £15,000.
• Pots for ringfencing funds.
• UK-based customer support.
• FSCS protection.

One of the only drawbacks with the account is that you can’t send international payments - you can only receive them and only in Euros.³ This could be a deal-breaker for some businesses.

Cashplus business account fees

Here’s how much it costs to use a Cashplus business account, with fees based on the Go plan (£0 a month).

The fees for many of the above are waived or reduced for Extra plan holders. So it could be worth doing the sums to see if this plan is more cost-effective for you.

Cashplus business account limits

Cashplus business accounts do have some limits. Let’s take a look:⁵

• Account balance - max. £500,000
• ATM withdrawal - max. £500 a day
• Payments and transfers - max. £2,500 for Go plan, £100,000 for Extra plan
• Post Office cash deposits - max. £5,000 a day

You can also ask Cashplus for your limits to be increased.

Is Cashplus account safe?

Cashplus business accounts are safe to use. The bank is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, and offers protection up to £85,000 per account under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

It also uses sophisticated security measures to protect its customers. This includes Transport Layer Security (TLS) and 256-bit secure encryption to protect data, along with regular testing by independent security experts.

Tide business bank account

Now we turn to the Tide business bank account. The digital provider offers a business current account available on one of four plans - Free, Plus, Pro and Cashback. Each comes with an increased monthly fee (except for the Free plan) but offers more perks, reduced fees and increased limits.

While it varies depending on the plan, features of Tide business accounts include:

• Tide business card.
• Expenses cards for team members.
• Create, send and manage invoices.
• Linked Instant Saver account - paying 4.33% AER variable.⁶
• Integrate with accounting software.
• Fully app-based banking.
• Tide Card Reader for in-person payments (optional).
• International payments in EUR via SEPA.
• 24/7 support in the app.
• FSCS protection.

Tide business account fees

Like Cashplus, Tide does charge some fees for its business banking services. Take a look below for an example of charges with the Free plan (which has no monthly fee):

With paid plans like the Cashback account, fees for things like payments and transfers are waived - and you get 3 free expenses cards included.⁷ So it could be worth weighing up whether the monthly fee works out as better value for your company.

Wise Business account - alternative for Cashplus and Tide

If you need to pay or get paid in foreign currencies, you could be better off with a simpler and more straightforward option - the Wise Business account.

Whether it’s paying contractors and suppliers overseas, or accepting global customer payments digitally and through PSPs like Stripe, Wise has low cost solutions to help.

Wise Business accounts can hold and exchange 40+ currencies, send payments to 140+ countries and come with local account details to get paid in 8+ currencies like a local.

Use your Wise account to get paid in a selection of major foreign currencies by customers and clients, through marketplaces - and via PSPs. Whenever you need to send, spend or exchange foreign currencies, you’ll benefit from the mid-market exchange rate, with low, transparent fees.

Wise Business account fees

So that you can compare with other providers, here are the main fees you need to know about with the Wise Business account:

Open Wise Business account

When you open a Wise Business account, you’ll benefit from all of these useful features:

• Hold and exchange 40+ currencies in one powerful online account
• Send payments to 140+ countries for low fees and mid-market exchange rates
• Get local account details to get paid in 8+ currencies like a local.
• No ongoing fees, minimum balance requirements or foreign transaction fees
• Debit and expense cards for you and your team, which you can use in 150+ countries
• Multi-user access for team members, with ways to control and manage permissions
• Pay up to 1,000 people at once with the Wise batch payments feature
• Integrate with your favourite cloud accounting solutions, and use the Wise API for automation and streamlining workflow
• Use the Wise Interest feature to make your money work harder when you’re not using it.

It’s quick and easy to open a Wise Business account, with a fully digital application, verification and on-boarding process. Check out the requirements here.

Get started with Wise Business 🚀

And that’s it - our comprehensive Tide vs. Cashplus business account review, comparing the two on all the things that matter. This includes features, fees and much more. After reading this, you should have all the info you need to choose the right digital banking solution for your business.

Sources used:

Sources last checked on date: 20-Jun-2024