Who this plan is for
Pro fits limited companies where more than one or two people are spending on the account — a small operations team, several tradespeople with expense cards, or a business processing a meaningfully higher number of transfers than Smart's allowance comfortably covers. It's a mid-tier plan built around volume and team control rather than a single director's transactions.
What you get versus Smart and versus Max
Over Smart, Pro raises the monthly transfer allowance, increases the number of included team cards, and typically improves cash deposit allowances and FX terms. The account features themselves — invoicing, accounting sync, Instant Saver — don't change; what changes is how much of your activity fits inside the included allowance before per-item fees start.
Max sits above Pro with the largest allowances and the best FX terms Tide offers. If your business sends money abroad often or has outgrown Pro's team card allocation, Max is the next thing to price — but for most UK-only businesses with a handful of cardholders, Pro is usually the ceiling that's actually needed.
Where costs still show up on Pro
- Transfers beyond the (larger, but still finite) monthly allowance revert to per-item fees.
- Cash deposits are cheaper on allowance terms than on Free but still chargeable per deposit beyond that allowance.
- Cheque deposits remain charged per item regardless of plan.
- Extra team cards beyond Pro's inclusion still carry a per-card cost.
- International payments carry an FX margin — better than lower tiers, but worth checking against a specialist provider if it's a large part of your spend.
Realistic monthly cost scenarios
The method: take your transfer count and subtract Pro's included allowance, multiply any remainder by the per-transfer fee, then add cash deposits beyond Pro's cash allowance at the per-deposit rate, plus any extra cards beyond the included number. Add that to Pro's monthly membership fee and compare the total with what the same activity would cost on Smart plus its overage fees.
A business with, say, three cardholders and a transfer count comfortably inside Pro's allowance will usually find the membership fee cheaper than the equivalent overage charges would have been on Smart. A business with only one cardholder and moderate transfers may be paying for headroom it doesn't use — worth checking against Smart's numbers before renewing.
When to move to Max, and when to drop to Smart
Move to Max when Pro's transfer allowance is regularly exceeded, when international payments become frequent enough that FX terms materially affect your margin, or when you need more team cards than Pro includes. Drop back to Smart if headcount shrinks, cardholders fall to one or two, and your transfer count settles back inside Smart's smaller allowance — recheck with a real month of data rather than assuming.
Limitations on Pro
Pro raises allowances but doesn't remove per-item charges outright — it's still a bundle, not an unlimited plan. Support is prioritised over Free and Smart, but the underlying account, protection arrangements and non-bank status are the same as every other tier.
How REFER200 fits with Pro
Pro is not a requirement for the up to £200 REFER200 cashback. If you're weighing Pro for its own transfer and team-card economics, do that calculation on its own merits — the offer works from any plan unless the current terms state a specific requirement, so check the terms page rather than assuming a paid plan is necessary.