Something shifted in the UK company formation market when Companies House raised its digital incorporation fee to £100 in February 2026.
Within weeks, advertisements appeared from Tide and ANNA Money offering to absorb the fee entirely. “Don’t pay the £100 Companies House fee.” The campaigns were targeted, well-funded, and designed to pull founders away from specialist formation agents and into the banking ecosystem of whichever platform was running the ad.
It worked for some founders. It will continue to work for others.
But there is a question underneath the headline that is worth asking before you decide who registers your company: do you want your incorporation handled by a bank – an institution whose interest in your company begins and ends with winning your current account – or by a independent company formation agent who has been guiding new businesses through registration, compliance, and early growth for years?
The answer matters more than the £100.
Why Banks Entered the Formation Market
Tide and ANNA Money are not independent company formation specialists. They are digital banking platforms – venture-capital-backed businesses built to acquire and retain business banking customers at scale.
Company formation is a customer acquisition strategy. When a founder registers a company through Tide or ANNA, they typically open a business bank account at the same time. That banking relationship – not the formation fee – is where the business model begins.
This explains why the formation price can be so aggressive. Tide charges £14.99 all-in. ANNA starts from £19. These prices are not sustainable on their own. They are subsidised by the anticipated value of the banking customer being acquired. Formation is the front door. Banking is the product.
There is nothing dishonest about this model – it is how both platforms describe themselves. But it is worth understanding before you choose them to register your company.
The Problem With Letting Your Bank Choose Your Bank
When you form a company through Tide, you get a Tide account. When you form through ANNA, you get an ANNA account. This sounds obvious. But the implications are larger than they first appear.
Your business bank account is one of the most consequential early choices you make. Different banks suit different businesses at different stages. A founder who needs invoicing tools and expense cards in month one may need multi-currency capabilities in month twelve. A business that starts with a single director may add shareholders. A company that begins as a simple LTD may evolve into something requiring a different structure.
When you form your company through an independent specialist formaton agent, you choose your bank separately – based on what actually suits your business. When you form through a bank, that decision is made for you before your business has had a chance to tell you what it needs.
Mint works with more than ten banking partners – Tide, ANNA Money, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Monzo, Cashplus, Zempler, Countingup, and others. We fast-track applications with all of them. We have no banking product of our own and no financial incentive to push any one of them. We give every founder the full picture and let them choose.
Neither Tide nor ANNA can offer this. The choice was made when you clicked their ad.
Banks Understand Banking. Formation Specialists Understand Businesses.
There is a deeper issue beyond bank choice. Tide and ANNA are good at what they are built for: payment processing, business accounts, expense management, cashback features. These are genuine products with genuine value for the right customers. But they are not built around what new businesses actually need during and after incorporation.
They do not have specialists who will review your application before it reaches Companies House and catch the errors that cause rejections. They do not have people who pick up the phone to HMRC when a VAT query sits unresolved. They do not have accountants who will sit with a new founder and explain directors allowances, use of home as office, and allowable expenses before the first tax year closes. They do not have teams who have spent years learning how new businesses fail, what compliance mistakes cost money, and how to guide a founder through the incorporation journey rather than just process their paperwork.
Formation specialists do. Because formation – and the business journey that follows it – is the entire business, not a feature.
Mint has formed over 40,000 companies. Each one of those was a new business at the beginning of something. The questions they asked during registration – about share structures, SIC codes, director responsibilities, registered office requirements, identity verification – are the same questions the next 40,000 will ask. That accumulated knowledge does not exist in a banking app. It exists in the people who have been answering those questions, on the phone, for years.
VC-Backed and Built to Grow: What Happens When the Strategy Changes?
Tide has raised over $600 million in external funding. ANNA has received significant venture backing. Both are growth-stage businesses optimising for user acquisition and banking revenue. This is not a criticism. But it is a context that founders should understand.
Venture-backed platforms operate on a different timeline than specialist businesses. Their priorities are shaped by investors, growth targets, and the next funding round. When a strategy is not working – or when a better strategy appears – it changes. Services that are free or subsidised today may not be tomorrow. Features that attract customers at scale may be deprioritised once the acquisition phase ends.
Formation specialists operate on a different model. Mint has been forming companies since 2017. The business is built on repeat custom, referrals, and long-term client relationships – not on acquiring banking customers at volume. The incentive is to serve the founder well across the entire company lifecycle, because that is where the business model works.
When a VC-backed banking platform pivots, the founder who registered through them is a banking customer. When a formation specialist serves a client well, they are a lifetime client.
Structural Limitations That Matter
Beyond the strategic question, there are practical limitations to bank-based formation that apply to a significant proportion of UK founders right now:
Tide only supports companies with a single director and a single shareholder. If you have a co-founder, Tide cannot form your company – at any price. Both Tide and ANNA support UK residents only. If you are an overseas founder looking to register a UK limited company – a common and entirely straightforward situation that Mint handles regularly – neither platform can help you.
Both support LTD companies only. No LLPs. No companies limited by guarantee. No charities. No bespoke articles of association.
Neither offers the range of ongoing Companies House services that growing businesses need: director changes, share transfers, confirmation statements, registered office changes. The formation may be fast and cheap. The support infrastructure that follows is not there.
What Honest Pricing Actually Looks Like
Mint’s formation fee starts at £4.99. The £100 Companies House fee is charged on top, separately and clearly. You pay both. There is no subsidy, no banking product attached, no monthly subscription unlocking the headline price. What you see is what you pay.
Included with every Mint formation at no extra condition:
- A named Application Assistant who guides you through the entire process – from application to certificate to any question that arises afterward. This was previously charged at £19. It is now free for every customer.
- WhatsApp support throughout your formation journey. No other UK formation agent or banking entrant currently offers this.
- A real person who will call Companies House and HMRC on your behalf when queries arise. Not a chatbot. Not a ticket system. A qualified specialist who knows how to navigate both organisations.
- A free accountant consultation covering directors allowances, use of home as office, allowable expenses, and any early-stage tax question – delivered by a qualified human accountant.
- Enrolment into Signal Biz Hub – a business support network with training, tips, and community networking for new founders.
- Your choice of bank.
The Question to Ask Before You Register
When a bank offers to form your company cheaply, the question is not whether the offer is genuine. In most cases, it is genuine. The question is what you are getting in exchange for the price – and whether that trade makes sense for your business. Are you comfortable having your bank chosen for you at the moment of incorporation, before your business has started?
Are you forming as a solo UK resident, with no co-founders and no plans to expand the shareholding – or does any part of your setup fall outside the narrow parameters that bank-based formation supports? Do you want the company registered and then left to navigate the rest alone, or do you want a specialist in your corner for the first month, the first tax year, and the first time something goes wrong?
Formation is a ten-minute process. Business is not.
Mint Formations pricing is honest, its service is built around the full journey, and its interest in your business does not depend on which bank account you open. Mint Formations is genuinely independent to guide you through the process and provide options. If that sounds like the right fit, [compare our formation packages →].
Mint Formations is an authorised Companies House formation agent (ACSP). All information about Tide and ANNA Money is based on publicly available information from their websites and is accurate at the time of writing.
