Start by counting, not guessing
Every Tide plan is the same product with different allowances bolted on. The decision isn't about features — invoicing, receipt capture and Instant Saver are on every tier — it's about how much of your monthly activity fits inside a plan's included allowance before per-item fees start. Guessed volumes are usually wrong, so if you can, run one real month on Free first and use it as your baseline.
The five numbers that decide it
- Outbound transfers per month — the single biggest driver of plan cost.
- Cash deposits per month, counted by number of deposits, not the amount.
- Cheque deposits per month.
- Number of people who need their own card and spending controls.
- Frequency and value of international payments, where FX terms can dominate the decision.
A rough shape of who fits where
Free tends to suit a sole trader or new company sending a handful of payments a month with no cash handling and one cardholder. Smart tends to suit a business whose transfer count has grown past occasional into regular, still with one or two cardholders. Pro tends to suit a small team — several cardholders, a higher and steadier transfer count, occasional cash handling. Max tends to suit an established business with high transfer volumes, several cardholders and regular international payments where FX terms materially affect the bill.
These are starting points, not rules. A cash-heavy sole trader can outgrow Free faster than a low-cash small team outgrows Smart — the deposit count matters as much as the transfer count.
The arithmetic method, applied once
For any two plans you're weighing, take your counted monthly transfers, cash deposits, cheque deposits and cardholders. For the cheaper plan, subtract its included allowances and multiply what's left by the current per-item fees; add its monthly membership fee (zero for Free). Do the same for the plan above it. Whichever total is lower, for your actual numbers, is the right plan — regardless of which one looks more generous on a features page.
Repeat this check every few months, particularly after a change in headcount, a new international supplier, or a shift from invoicing to cash-based trade. Plan fit changes when your business does.
Signs you're on the wrong plan
- You're paying transfer overage fees most months rather than occasionally.
- You're buying extra cards individually instead of using an included allowance.
- Your membership fee is comfortably higher than what pay-as-you-go on the plan below would cost.
- International payments are a growing share of spend but you're still on Free or Smart's default FX terms.
Where the REFER200 offer fits into the choice
Don't let the up to £200 REFER200 cashback influence which plan you pick. The offer generally attaches to the account and the qualifying actions — a set amount of card spend, and optionally an Instant Saver deposit held for the required period — rather than to any specific plan tier, unless the current campaign terms say otherwise. Check the terms page for the live wording, choose your plan on transfer and cash economics alone, then pursue the offer on top of whichever plan that leaves you with.
What to do next
If you're not sure yet, open on Free, use it for a full month, and read your own statement rather than an estimate. Then work through the arithmetic above against Smart. Move up only when the numbers, not the marketing, say it's cheaper — and revisit the decision whenever your business changes shape.