Benefits of a Business Bank Account
Discover the benefits of setting up a separated business bank account to manage your business finances separated from your personal ones.
Expense cards allow businesses to give their employees easy ways to spend on behalf of the company, up to pre-agreed limits, and without wasting time on admin. Tide Expense Cards¹ can be issued to up to 50 employees, to offer easy expense management tools, account reconciliation and tracking.
If you’re considering getting business expense cards for your team, read on for all you need to know about Tide cards - and an alternative for comparison, the Wise Business Expense Card.
📝 Table of contents: |
---|
Tide is a UK based digital finance platform with a focus on sole traders, freelancers and small business services. It’s been around since 2015, and it’s popular with its users, getting a 4.3 out of 5 star from over 12,000 reviews on Trustpilot.²
The Tide platform offers a range of solutions for companies and freelancers, but this article will cover specifically the Tide Expense Card, which is a type of card exclusively used for business expenses, and that allows its users to manage business purchases easily.
In general, offering team members an expense card can make their lives easier as they can automatically bill business purchases back to the company rather than going through an admin heavy claim process.
By giving employees business expense cards you’re giving them the tools to do their jobs, removing admin for both the employee and the accounting team, and retaining the ability to set, review and manage expense costs on a micro and macro level.
If you have a Tide account already you can order Tide Expense Cards easily in the app³. All you need to do is to add the team member’s details, and which Tide account you want their card to be linked to.
As long as the team member passes Tide’s security checks, the card will be sent out to you. There’s a fee to get and maintain Tide Expense Cards - but depending on which Tide account plan you’re on, you may find that one or more expense cards are offered free.
Tide isn’t the only provider out there offering innovative accounts and services for businesses. If you have customers, suppliers or staff overseas, you cut the costs of currency conversion with the Wise Business Account and the Wise Business Expense Card.
Wise Business multi-currency account allows you to hold and exchange 50+ currencies, with the real mid-market rate, and low transaction fees for the services you need. You can also get local bank account details for 10 major currencies. Pair this agile business account with the Wise Business Expense Card, and you and your entire team could save time and money. More on this a little later.
Let’s move on to a review of the key features of Tide Expense Cards:
If you have a Tide account, as manager you’ll be able to order, view and manage your team expense cards from the Tide app. Options include:
The exact costs for getting Tide Expense Cards will vary based on the type of Tide Account you have⁴. As well as standard business accounts, you can get Tide Plus, Cashback and Premium accounts, which come with additional monthly fees. However, these accounts also unlock extra perks - including free or discounted expense cards for your team:
Expense cards - service fees | Standard businesses | Tide Plus businesses | Tide Cashback and Premium businesses |
---|---|---|---|
Issue Expense card | £5 + VAT | 1st issued expense card is free, £5 + VAT for each card after that | First 3 issued expense cards are free, £5 + VAT for each card after that |
Monthly fee for expense card | £5 + VAT | 1st issued expense card is free, £5 + VAT monthly for each card after that | First 3 issued expense cards are free, £5 + VAT monthly for each card after that |
Card purchase | Free | Free | Free |
ATM withdrawal in any currency | £1 per withdrawal (ATM provider may also charge a fee) | £1 per withdrawal (ATM provider may also charge a fee) | £1 per withdrawal (ATM provider may also charge a fee) |
Tide Expense Cards can offer convenient ways to manage employee expenses - but they’re not the only option. Alternative business account providers may be a good bet, particularly if your business transacts internationally often.
In this case, a Wise Business Account could help you cut the costs of currency conversion - and the Wise Business Expense Card can then help you and your employees save time when making purchases on behalf of the company - at home or abroad.
UK businesses and entrepreneurs could find that the Wise Business Expense Card gives them all the tools needed to make employee expenses effortless. And with Wise Account you may also cut the costs of transactions in a foreign currency.
Open your Wise account for a one time fee of £45, and then order expense cards for just 3 GBP each. There are no ongoing fees or subscription charges - just low, transparent transaction costs for the services you and your team actually need.
Service/fee | Tide Expense Cards | Wise Business expense cards |
---|---|---|
Opening account fee | Free | £45 one time charge |
Issue card fee | £5 + VAT for standard account holders | £3 one time charge for each card |
Monthly user fee | £5 + VAT for standard account holders | No monthly fee |
Spend with the card | Mastercard's exchange rate will apply⁵ | Free |
ATM withdrawals | £1 | 2 withdrawals, to value of £200/month fee free Then £0.5+ 1.75% |
With the Wise Business Expense Card you can manage employee daily expenses simply and focus your attention instead, on business performance and growth.
Check out the Wise Business Account to help your business go global. Pay suppliers and staff overseas with the mid-market exchange rate, and get paid by customers like a local. Hold and exchange 40+ currencies in your account, so you’ll always have the currency you need to make payments, when you need it.
Business expense cards - from Tide or an alternative provider like Wise - allow your employees to do their jobs more easily, reduce the admin burden, and could even help you save costs. Check out the Tide Expense Card UK against a few alternatives, including Wise Business Accounts, to see which will suit you and your team best.
Sources used for this article:
Sources checked on 06-09-2022.
*Please see terms of use and product availability for your region or visit Wise fees and pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information.
This publication is provided for general information purposes and does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from Wise Payments Limited or its subsidiaries and its affiliates, and it is not intended as a substitute for obtaining advice from a financial advisor or any other professional.
We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether expressed or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.
Discover the benefits of setting up a separated business bank account to manage your business finances separated from your personal ones.
Discover the direct debit collection rules in place for UK business to collect payments at ease!
Providing customers with instant, transparent global payments has become crucial for delivering an exceptional customer experience and maintaining a...
Discover if expenses should be paid through payroll, with pros, cons and directions from HRMC.
Discover the best practices when setting up per diem expenses, how to set up rate, proceed with payment and more.
We’re excited to announce that Morgan Stanley, a leading global financial services firm, has teamed up with Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments...