Support and FAQs

Yes! You can access your account from a desktop at web.tide.co by using the QR code scanner found within your Tide app.

Tide runs on iOS 10 and above, and on Android 5.0.0 and above.

Unfortunately, Tide is not compatible with Windows phones.

Not yet, currently accounts can be accessed only by the named account holder.

However, you can order up to 35 Team Cards per account, and grant your colleagues or accountant Read Access.

Full multi-user access is on the roadmap.

Yes! Our API allows software developers to build applications which interact with Tide.

You can control what applications can access to your data from the Tide app by pressing More -> Login and security -> Data permissions.

If you're a software developer looking to integrate your application with Tide, full documentation for the API is available here. Currently, the API may be used to access information regarding accounts and transactions.

Our Open Banking API sandbox is available via our Open Banking Developer Portal

Our API sandbox is available through our Open Banking Developer Portal.
We'll keep members updated as key developments are made over the coming months.

What does this mean for Tide members?

Members will be able to link third party financial tools directly to their Tide app by using Open Banking services. You’ll be able to make payments and see your account balance using linked third party apps, and grant access to time saving accounting tools!

Who can integrate with the Open Banking APIs?

Our Production API can be accessed by any authorised TPP who has enrolled on the OBIE Directory and has production Open Banking or eIDAS certificates.

Our API Sandbox contains a full simulation of our APIs, without connecting to any real customer accounts. Any developer can access the Sandbox using their own self signed certificates.

Currently we support the following browsers:

• Chrome - evergreen
• Microsoft Edge - evergreen
• Safari - evergreen
• Firefox - evergreen
• Internet Explorer 11

We don't currently accept cheque deposits.

We understand that cheques aren't going to go away any time soon though. That's why we're looking at smart ways to process cheques, like an image clearing system which allows cheques to be deposited straight through your phone.

One of the most common issuers of cheques is HM Revenues and Customs. If you've received a cheque from HMRC, you can return it and request a direct bank transfer instead.

All GBP payments sent from your Tide account are Faster Payments.
These can be processed as standard one time transfers, scheduled payments, standing orders, and direct debits.

If you have an International Currency Account, payments are made by SWIFT and SEPA

Tide accounts come packed with smart and time-saving tools, letting you focus less on admin and more on your business.

• Full UK sort code and account number
• Business Mastercard, with free purchases at home and abroad
• Automatic categorisation of your transactions, for easy accounting
• Instant invoice payment and creation
• Up to £150,000 of credit, straight through the app

That's just the beginning! You can see more on our features page, and keep up to date with what's coming next on our roadmap

Not yet. Payments can only be made to and received from UK accounts, unless you've opened a Tide International Currency Account which we’re currently rolling out to members with limited companies.

In the meantime, you can use third-party services to send and receive international payments.

If you have a limited company and would like to register your interest in accessing the ICA feature, just let us know in the app.

No. There’s no guarantee your transfer will be directed to us if you’re using an online IBAN generator, it’s very risky and we wouldn’t recommend using this method under any circumstances.

If you’d like to apply to open an International Currency Account, just let us know in the app.

Yes, Tide accounts are subject to balance and transactions limits.

You can see a full breakdown of your account limits in the app – tap More > Account.

If you’d like to increase your account balance limits, just let us know in the app.

Yes! Tide supports outbound direct debits.

If you’re asked to provide the name and address of your banking provider, you
can use the below address:
Prepay Technologies LTD
Station Square
1 Gloucester Street
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN1 1GW

Please note that Direct Debits can take up to 5 days to become active once requested.

The Direct Debit process starts 8.00am Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.

Whilst we don’t offer overdrafts, we’ve partnered with Iwoca to bring you business loans – allowing you to apply for up to £150,000 of credit straight through the app, which can be used as an alternative to a traditional overdraft.

You can apply straight through the app, on your home screen. For more information on getting credit, see here.

We've partnered with the Post Office and PayPoint, so you can deposit cash at
over 40,000 locations in the UK!

Here's how to make a deposit:

1. Find your nearest Post Office or PayPoint location
2. Let them know you'd like to add money onto your Tide card
3. Hand over your Tide card and any cash you'd like to deposit
4. They'll then swipe your card and hand you a receipt

Processing Times

If you use the Post Office, deposits made before 6pm will be added to your account the next working day. Deposits made after 6pm will take an additional working day. PayPoint deposits will be added in around 10 minutes.

Fees and Limits

There is a £1 fee for a deposit at a Post Office, and a 3% fee on the total deposit
value at PayPoint. We'll deduct the fee from the cash deposit automatically.

You can deposit between £10–500 each day. Other currencies aren't supported at the moment.

Yes! You can download a statement on the 4th of the following month.

Just tap More > Transactions > Statements, then select the months that you’d like to download a statement for.

You can export transaction data to CSV files directly from the app - we offer a few different formats to best suit your accounting needs.

The export button is located in the top right corner of your accounts page, directly under the card icon.

We don’t charge monthly or annual fees for our current account.

You only pay for what you use:

There’s no fee for using your card in other currencies, and we'll always pass on Mastercard’s very competitive wholesale rate to all our members!

If you’re withdrawing cash abroad, we'd recommend you opt to be charged in the local currency, our wholesale Mastercard rate is generally far better than ATM exchange rates, and they'll often charge an additional conversion fee which we don't charge.

Our standard ATM cash withdrawal £1 fee still applies.

On-boarding timeframes vary depending on the types of applications we receive, but more than half of our new members this year opened their account in less than 10 minutes.

To be exact, 53% opened their accounts in under 10 minutes, 70% in under 60 minutes, and 81% within 48 hours. Even if your business is a bit more complex and we can't complete your application right away, if you meet our eligibility requirements it’ll still be far quicker than most high street banks!

Saving our members time is at the core of what we do, so we’re always working to optimise and improve wait times. You can read about why we sometimes need a little more information on our blog.

Yes! All charities must be registered with both the Charity Commission and with Companies House UK to be eligible for a Tide account.

Unfortunately we're unable to on-board CIOs and CICs at this stage

No! To open a current account, we perform electronic checks (run by third-party services) to verify your identity and comply with UK anti-money laundering regulations. While these checks will not impact your credit score, they will appear on your credit report.

Yes! Applicants who are not based in the UK may apply for a Registered Business account, as long as they are directors of a company registered with UK Companies House. In some cases, we may have to complete additional checks in order to process your application.

Don’t forget – you’ll need to switch your App or Google Play store to the UK to download Tide.

Unfortunately not – but you can use Tide alongside your existing bank account until you have fully switched over.

Registered businesses can create up to 4 current accounts per company straight through the app, each of which will have its own unique account number.

You can use these accounts for a specific expense such as marketing costs, or to save for your tax obligations.

We have integrations with Xero, FreeAgent, ReckonOne, Kashflow and Sage, with other integrations to follow in the future – including Quickbooks!

Find details on how to connect on our Accounting integrations page.

You can check your PIN code at any time from the app home screen – just tap the card icon and ‘Show PIN’.

If you’d like to change your PIN, you can do so easily at most ATMs.

Yes! You can apply as many limited business accounts as you need, each application is subject to our standard approval criteria.

Multi business access is available on iOS, so you'll be able to toggle between companies on the same one device - you can find instructions on setting this up on our blog.

Multi-business for Android is coming soon! You can follow progress on our roadmap, in the meantime you can open multiple business accounts by using a separate device for each company.

Multi-business access is currently capped at five businesses per device - if you have more than five businesses, you can set up multi-business on an additional device.

Yes! Our Members have successfully used their Tide accounts with all of these services.

Most of our members receive their cards within 2-4 working days. If it hasn’t arrived within 5 working days, please get in touch through the app.

Your card will automatically be shipped to your trading address.

If you’d prefer your card to be sent to a different address, you can edit your trading address by tapping More > Profile in the app.

We're not a bank. The Tide current account is provided by our partner with Prepay Solutions (PPS), which is an electronic money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (FRN 900010) for the issuing of electronic money. PPS holds an amount equivalent to the money in Tide current accounts in a safeguarding account with Barclays Bank PLC which gives customers protection against PPS’ insolvency.

Outbound payments are processed as Faster Payments, which are submitted every half hour.

Some banks can take 2+ hours to process Faster Payments, so depending on the receiving institution’s processing time, Faster Payments can take up to 4 hours to be processed.

Tide-to-Tide transfers are instant!

If you have a question about a payment that has taken over 4 hours to arrive, send the Member Support team a message, they'd be happy to help.

Yes! We are actively partnering with organisations that help business owners – if this sounds like you, please visit our Partners page.

Unfortunately not. If you’d like to switch between a sole trader and registered company account type, you will need to close your existing account and open a new one.

We process inbound and outbound Faster Payments files every half hour.

Some banks can take up to two hours to process Faster Payments. Therefore, depending on the originating/receiving institution’s processing time, Faster Payments can take up to 2h30 min to be processed.

If you’re expecting a BACS transfer, this will take up to 3 days to reach your account.

CHAPS payments received into our system before 3pm will be processed on the same working day between 4:10pm and 7:10pm. Any payments made/received after this time will be processed on the next working day from 4:10pm.

If your funds have not appeared within these timeframes, please let us know in the app.

Sorry to hear it!

You can regain access your Tide account from another mobile device by going through account recovery.

• Re-download the Tide app
• Tap Sign in, and enter the email address linked to your Tide account
• Enter a mobile number that you can receive text messages to

If you need to speak to the team, you can get in touch by emailing hello@tide.co

Your account could have been blocked for a number of reasons, most commonly because we’ve seen unusual activity on your account and need to run a few checks. We do this to keep Tide and our members safe, and the checks are normally completed very quickly.

Take a look at our blogpost to learn more about why we might need to block or pause an account.

Yes! Just send us a message in the app, or email hello@tide.co with your contact number and a few details about what the call request is regarding. Our Member Support team are happy to give you a call.

Tide Preview is our beta testing programme, where members can register to be the first to test our new features before they’re released publicly.

We’re always looking for new members to join our Tide Preview community! If you’d like to join, just send us a message in the app.

You can update your trading name in the app by tapping More > Profile. If your Company name has changed with UK Companies House, please let us know in the app to have it updated.

Short answer, yes! Tide banking services are provided by PrePay Solutions, who are regulated by the FCA via an e-money license.

Your funds are kept in a protected Safeguarding account, meaning that they can never be loaned out to other customers and, as such, are not exposed to risk.

In the unlikely event of Tide’s insolvency, the service would continue to run as normal under management of PrePay Solutions, funds will be available to draw down at all times.

Sorry to hear it! You can freeze, cancel and reorder a card directly from the app – just tap the card icon on your homescreen.

If you don’t have access to the app, please call +44 (0) 3331210266 to have your card cancelled.

We accept most national driving licenses, ID documents and passports, however some older versions of ID documents may not be accepted.

If you’re having difficulty scanning your ID, please ensure that you are taking a clear photo on a flat surface, in a well-lit environment. You’ll also need to grant Tide access to your camera (usually you’ll receive an in-app prompt, otherwise you can update your settings).

Still having trouble?

• Ensure the image is in focus. We’ll only be able to validate your ID documents if we capture an image that’s in focus. By default, your camera will try to focus on the document, which may take a few seconds. Alternatively, tap the preview screen to force the camera to re-focus (currently Android-only).
• Avoid low-light conditions. In the absence of good lighting, motion blur can prevent the capture of a sharp image. Ensure the ID is well-lit location when capturing the image for best effect.
• Avoid glare. Overhead lights and direct sunlight can illuminate the holograms that appear on some ID documents, obscuring identity details. Avoid bright light sources directly overhead.
• Frame the photo. We need to capture a photo of the entire ID document in order to complete validation checks, not just the text containing identity information. Make sure the camera is capturing the entire ID so the edges align with the dark grey border in the image preview. Avoid taking photos of the ID from an angle.

We’re sorry that you're unhappy with your experience using Tide.
So we can fully understand what’s gone wrong and to get the best possible resolution for you, please write to us with a brief description of what’s happened.

You can find instructions on how to contact us, and more information about the complaints process by visiting Tide complaints.

We need to get a better understanding of your business, this is for regulatory purposes and so we can build a projected financial profile, so we can better protect you from any fraud in the future. 

Of course your information is your own, but the more detail you’re happy to provide, the quicker we’ll be able to verify your application. 

Here’s what’s very useful to us:

Necessary

• What you’ll do
• The age of your business
• Current and/or projected turnover

Also helpful

• How much of our turnover will be from online sales
• How much will be in cash
• Where you do business
• What you’ve done
• What you’re doing

If we’ve asked you for Dates Of Birth (DOBs) or addresses for yourself and/or your major shareholders*, we weren’t able to complete digital checks with the information we have. 

DOBs often fail because we pull information from Companies House who don’t store the day a director or shareholder was born on, and this isn’t amended during sign-up. 

Addresses generally fail because the address we’ve received isn’t a residential address, or because the resident hasn’t lived at that address for more than three months. 

Here’s what we suggest: 

1. Make sure that the information on Companies House is up to date. You may need to submit a Confirmation Statement (with updates) to ensure this.
2. Send us the DOBs - confirm these with your shareholders if you need to.
3. Send us any addresses we’ve requested - make sure that the address is a UK residential one that has been lived in for more than three months.

If we’re still unable to digitally verify a given address we’ll need to see proof of address.

If we’re still unable to digitally verify a DOB, we’ll need to see a photo of valid ID.

If you or your shareholder have not been at any address for more than 3 months i.e. a foreign national new to the country, we’ll need to see a valid Biometric Residence Permit (for the UK) and proof of a foreign address. 

*We see a 'major shareholders' as any shareholder currently holding more than 24% shares in the company.

There are a few reasons why your ID and selfie might have failed. Your ID might be expired, it might be invalid, or the picture we captured just wasn’t clear enough. Your selfie might have been too blurry or, and this is rare, we’re not sure that the person on the ID is the person in your selfie.

Here are some tips:

• Lay your ID on flat surface
• Ideally, make sure that surface is a contrasting background to your ID - sometimes our authenticators struggle to distinguish the edges of an ID against a white or light background
• Take the picture in a well-lit room but make sure there is no glare.
• Make sure all the details of the ID are totally clear.
• Make sure your selfie is totally clear.
• If you’re worried your camera isn’t good enough, ask a friend to take the picture(s) and forward them through. 

Here’s what we can accept:

• Passport
• Driving License
• Biometric Residence Permit

Sometimes we might ask you for a second piece of ID, to supplement the first. This is for regulatory purposes, and we try to avoid this wherever possible. 

We’ve spotted that the shareholding of your company has changed recently and that this isn’t accurately reflected in its Filing History on Companies House. 

A lot of our applicants let us know that they’ve already submitted the necessary documents such as significant control updates or confirmation statements without updates.

However, we need to see a ‘Confirmation Statement (with updates)’, this is the document which explicitly details current shareholding.

Submitting a Confirmation Statement is a very quick and easy process and most of our applicants usually get back to us with 24 hours to say this has been completed. 

Once this is done, we can verify the correct shareholders.

We weren’t able to automatically verify your details during on-boarding. If you’re sure we should be able to verify your full name against your address, then feel free to reiterate your address for us - there may have been a small error the first time round.

If not, then here’s what we can accept:

Strong 

• Driving Licence 
• Council or other local authority tax bill (from the current tax year)
• Self-assessment or correspondence from HMRC or other tax authority (unless using this as proof of business)
• Court-issued documents 
• State pension book or similar
• Local authority rent card
• Land registry records
• Evidence from a government-registered address
• Official documentation or correspondence from the Home Office or other immigration authority
• Gas or Electric bill (dated from the last 3 months)
• Water Bill (dated from the last 3 months)
• Internet or satellite television provider bill
• High Street Bank Statement (dated within the last 3 months)
• Letter of account opening (dated within the last 3 months)
• Mortgage Statement issued by reputable lender

Weak - we’ll need to see two separate proofs

• Deed of home purchase 
• Lease or other rental agreement 
• Pay stubs or documents such as P60s from an employer 
• Bills or correspondence from a chartered accountant, registered solicitor or licensed medical practitioner 
• Digital bank statements (dated within the last 3 months) 

You can send through photographs of the full document or PDFs if appropriate. Unfortunately, we cannot accept scans or photocopies, screenshots.

In some cases, we may need to ask for additional evidence that your business is established. 

Here’s what we’re looking for:

• Independent website - Your business’s website
• Online marketplace - Amazon, Ebay, or a dedicated marketplace
• Social media profiles - Your business’s social media pages*
• LinkedIn - Your professional profile, to confirm your expertise in the stated nature of your business.
• Yell.com or equivalent

If you don’t have any of the above, feel free to send what you do have. We’ll definitely consider it but will probably also ask for something below.

Alternatives:

• HMRC Registration with name and UTR, if you’re a sole trader
• Proof of physical presence eg. signed Rental Agreement or Land Ownership (specific to Trading/Company Name)
• Proof of advertising
• Proof of membership or association with relevant professional organisation
• Certification of qualification
• Invoice with the corresponding bank statement
• Provider quotes
• Quotes for clients
• Business related receipt and corresponding bank statement
• Signed contract of employment 
• Signed service/supplier/distributor agreement 
• Proof of training eg. CSCS cards

If you’re supplying alternative proofs, we may ask to see more than one. 

If you’re sending a photo of anything make sure to send a clear photo of the whole document.

*Your social media page(s) must indicate a clear history of business activity and client-base. We may ask for further proof if the page is relatively new.

Tide Plus is £11.99 a month including VAT, billed at the 4th of each month for that calendar month.

Your first month will be billed pro-rata, so if you sign up on the 16th we’ll only charge you for the 16th until the end of that month. Then on the 4th of the following month you’ll join the monthly billing cycle.

VAT is value added tax, which we’re required to add on top of Plus fees. If you’re VAT registered you’ll be able to reclaim this back at the end of the accounting period. Plus VAT is the standard 20%.

With Tide Plus, you get 20 free transfers a month. This includes all inbound and outbound Faster Payments, CHAPS, BACs and Direct Debits. Please note this does not include international payments if you have an International Currency Account.

Same as always, send us a message in the app and you’ll automatically be bumped to the top of the queue.

To call us, you’ll see an option to phone us in your Support section of the app, Tide Plus phone support is available 9am - 6pm UK time. For your security, our phone support team will take a few minutes to verify your identity - just like high street banks.

We have a financial arrangement with Irwin Mitchell LLP who provide a legal helpline to our members. Trained personnel from Irwin Mitchell will help with any questions you may have. We pay Irwin Mitchell LLP for their services, they’re independent from Tide and provide impartial and confidential advice.

They’re available 24/7 365 days a year.