Free FreeAgent with NatWest & Mettle — eBay Sellers

You can get FreeAgent for free if you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, or Mettle. Here's what you actually get, what you don't, and why it matters for eBay sellers.

Who qualifies and what you get

FreeAgent is free for current account holders at:

• NatWest — all current account holders, including Business Banking
• Royal Bank of Scotland — all current account holders, including Business Banking
• Mettle — free automatically as a Mettle customer (Mettle is NatWest's fintech brand)

The free tier is the full FreeAgent product, not a stripped-down version. You get:

• Unlimited invoices and estimates
• Bank feeds (automated transaction import)
• VAT returns (MTD-compatible)
• Payroll (up to 5 employees)
• Self-assessment tax return filing
• Project management and time tracking
• Full API access (relevant for eBay-FreeAgent sync)

There are no hidden limits. It's the same FreeAgent that costs £11/month if you pay directly.

What the free tier doesn't fix

FreeAgent is powerful accounting software. But it has no native eBay integration. The free tier removes the subscription cost but doesn't solve the data problem:

• FreeAgent doesn't import eBay sales automatically
• It doesn't understand payout structures — the net lump sum that bundles sales, fees, postage, and refunds
• Manual CSV uploads work for low-volume sellers but break down at scale

The free tier gives you a great accounting platform. You still need a way to get eBay data into it.

What eBay data FreeAgent needs

To get eBay working properly in FreeAgent, you need transaction-level data. FreeAgent expects:

Document type	Purpose
Invoice	Record each eBay sale — gross amount (item price + postage paid by buyer)
Bill	Record each fee (final value fee, promoted listing fee), postage cost and other expenses
Credit note	Record refunds — linked to the original invoice
Bank transfer	Record payouts as transfers between accounts, both sides reconciled

If you have 100 eBay sales a month, you need 100 invoices, dozens of bills, and several credit notes. Doing this manually is a full-time job.

The common workarounds

eBay sellers who use FreeAgent (free or paid) end up with one of these approaches:

1. Manual entry every month — download the eBay transaction CSV and enter each sale as an invoice. Accurate but time-consuming. Most abandon it after a few months.

2. Payout-only recording — record the payout as income and move on. Fast but loses all transaction detail and causes HMRC problems.

3. Accountant-managed — send CSV files to an accountant who handles the entry. Accurate but expensive.

4. TransactionMerge — connects to eBay and FreeAgent via API and syncs everything automatically every night.

Why the free tier is still a good setup for eBay sellers

FreeAgent's free tier removes a meaningful cost. Combined with automated TransactionMerge sync, it's a complete accounting setup:

• FreeAgent manages your bookkeeping, tax returns, and VAT
• TransactionMerge feeds eBay data in every night
• You check in once a month to review and approve

Join the beta — it's free →