this is a bit long so apologies!
Our dog classes have a bank account, we started when it was Giro - clubs & groups, they were taken over by Alliance and Leicester, the account carried on but was classed as buisiness. A&L have now been taken over by Santander.
I had a letter from them yesterday and rang them up...........as a buisiness account you are expected to deposit AT LEAST £1000 PER MONTH into the account.
I explained that total income was about £60 - £80 per month, (we charge just enough to cover hall rent and insurance with about £200 'emergency reserve' as back-up)
I was told 'well you can carry on as you are but we will charge £5 per month fees.
That works out to about a months income for us
have since found out this will apply to our village magazines account and the village hall account.
May be worth checking if your club, ringcraft etc is affected. The relevent bit was hidden in the small print in a booklet that came with the letter ( isn't it always)
Chris

Move your account to a building society, they will not charge although these days there is very little interest either. They should accept you as a club or charity and offer you something like a treasures account, well that is what Nationwide do. Irritating because you have to get them to write a cheque when you need one but otherwise there and no problems.

WOW how awful.  Our Club is with NatWest, hope that all banks don't go the same way!

I did consider that but main banks, building societies etc are all in the middle of Bury and I very rarely go in, maybe once in 3-4 months sometimes longer (you may gather i don't like shopping :-D ) Bury is 12 miles other towns are further. the big advantage with giro then A&L was post office, in village, accesability and not having to traipse from car park to bank lugging half a ton of coins to pay in.
I will be investigating the other bank/building societies now tho, and check on nationwide
Chris.

Have a look at the coopertive they do all their stuff by post.

i dont understand it because I purposely moved to A&LCommercial banking about 3 years ago because their rates were so good, and it was very clear to me at the time that there was a minimum monthly deposit......so theres nothing new about it.

Can you not start doing it all online with a bank or building society? How often do you need to make a journey to the PO for this account? Depending on who the people are you could also set up a paypal account and then transfer the money into a bank that way or give the bank details to the clients?

to Sam
It probably was when you joined but when I opened the original Giro account for dogs about 18 years ago, as a club account there was no minimum and it was not changed when A&L took over.
to suejaw.
Its just me being grumpy again, people pay cash each week and I can pop into PO every few weeks and bank £40-£50 in change, (£1, 50p, 20p and even 5p or coppers), I use on-line for other stuff like the insurance and bulk buying treats etc but I got so used to PO that its just going to be a bit of a nuisance now.
Chris

I have a business account with Abbey (now Santander) and that's what it said when I opened it, but it still worked out cheaper than other banks who charge you every time you pay in cash or cheques. However I do very little with my self-employed business as I still have my 'day job' and hardly ever pay anything into it - I have never been charged any fees at all! I was quite prepared to pay £5 per month, but nothing at all is even better. 

Typical Santander, they do a fee free small business account which should be right for you unless they have now decided that you are too small!  Go to their website and read the details on business banking, most especially the 'Terms and Conditions' and 'Key Features'. As far as I can see, they have maximum transaction limits but no minimums.  Write to the bank asking them to point out where in their 'terms and conditions' and key features do they stipulate the minimum transaction requirements. Also point out that this breaches the promise on their business banking website of 'free day-to-day banking forever'.  Also ask them to confirm their complaints procedure in writing should you need to take it further. Should you need to do so, it would only be fair to advise them that you would be passing details of your complaint to both Which?, your local trading standards department and the national press.  They may be covered in their paperwork so be prepared to lose gracefully. Don't let Santander bully you, I keep hearing of bad customer service from them by different people  so get your teeth into them

Good Luck