This is a decision checklist, not a star rating. A bank and an EMI can solve different problems; a single score would hide those differences.
The four decision gates
Start with your company
Check incorporation, trading address, director and beneficial-owner residency, sector and business stage. An online application is useful only if the provider accepts the applicant. An unresolved condition stays unresolved; it is not a positive score.
Identify the legal provider
Read the account agreement to distinguish a bank deposit from e-money, and a platform from its partner bank. Match the legal entity and permissions in the FCA Register. We cite published terms; this is not a regulatory certification.
Test your essential tasks
List salary payments, supplier transfers, direct debits, cash deposits and accounting access. Ask for confirmation of any essential feature missing from the product page. We do not treat a blank field as an available feature.
Model a normal month
Combine subscription, setup, chargeable transactions, FX and extras for your volumes. Introductory offers belong in a separate first-year calculation. Compare only quotes covering the same services and assumptions.
How to use the four gates
Use “confirmed in published material”, “conditional” and “not verified” as separate states. These describe the evidence we can cite, not service quality. An unavailable tariff is never recorded as zero. Search and filters change the visible shortlist, not provider eligibility.
Scope and limitations
This review covers a selected set of providers, not the whole market. It uses public documentation checked on the stated date. No mystery shopping, live account opening, security audit, customer-satisfaction survey or measured transfer test was performed. Terms can change after the check.
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