Monzo Business alternatives for UK companies in 2026

A Monzo Business account costs nothing on Lite and £9 a month on Pro, opens in the app in an afternoon and handles sterling well. Most companies that search for an alternative have hit one of three walls: they take cash and £1 a deposit adds up, a director has moved abroad, or clients started paying in dollars and euros. Each wall points to a different account.

Prices below were read on each provider's own page on 8 November 2026.

What Monzo Business gives you

Pro customers who opened before 26 November 2024 still pay £5. Cash deposits at PayPoint or the Post Office cost £1 each on every plan. The account is in pounds only: euros and other currencies you receive are converted to sterling with a 1% fee, capped at £1,000 per payment.

Monzo accepts UK sole traders and directors of UK limited companies by shares. The company has to be active at Companies House, earn mostly from selling goods or services, and be tax resident in the UK and nowhere else. LLPs, partnerships, charities and CICs cannot apply.

The alternatives, side by side

If you are leaving because of cash

Monzo's £1 per deposit is cheap for a few deposits a month and expensive for a shop banking takings daily. Starling's 0.7% with a £3 minimum costs more on most deposits. Barclays charges 60p per cash deposit at the Post Office, Barclays Collect or a self-service machine, after a free first year. HSBC is changing its cash pricing on 14 December 2026, when counter cash transactions become free and branch cash rises to 2% of value, so read the new list before choosing it for cash.

If a director lives outside the UK

This is the wall the app banks share. Monzo wants a UK-based director, Starling wants UK residence for every person with significant control and every director with access, and NatWest's Mettle asks for UK-resident owners. Barclays is looser: at least one person on the application must be a UK resident. A company with no UK-resident officer usually has to look beyond UK banks altogether. Our guide to UK business accounts for non-residents covers who accepts them.

If you are leaving because clients pay in dollars or euros

Swapping Monzo for Starling or Tide changes the app, not the problem. Each is built around a sterling account. A US client still pays by international wire, the money still lands as pounds, and someone still takes a conversion fee on the way. On Monzo that fee is 1% of the payment. On a $20,000 invoice that is about $200 a time before any fee the sender's bank charges.

What fixes it is account details in the client's currency. A US client pays USD details by ACH or domestic wire. An Irish client pays a euro IBAN by SEPA. You choose when to convert, at a rate you can see, or you keep the dollars to pay US suppliers and software bills. Our UK USD business account guide shows the numbers on a real month.

Paying into the United Kingdom: the local rail

Bacs still carries most payroll and Direct Debits, on a three-day cycle.

Source: Pay.UK: Faster Payment System. Checked when this guide was last updated; the scheme's own page has the current figures.

Where Rivet fits

Rivet is for that last case. It opens accounts for registered companies, including UK limited companies with owners and directors abroad. Starter is free and gives USD account details in your company's name. Growth adds EUR and GBP details and payouts on local rails to 120+ countries, with FX from 0.50% shown before you confirm. USDC and USDT are on every plan.

Rivet does not take cash, does not lend, and is not a bank: regulated partner institutions hold client funds under safeguarding rules, and the FSCS does not cover them. Plenty of UK companies keep Monzo or a high street account for sterling and HMRC and add Rivet for foreign currency. See Accounts and how to switch business bank account if you are moving everything.