Reply to: Question about business bank account

[mudskipper]

Santander opened mine instantly over the phone. Don't know if they have an issue with credit history though.

[Scruff]

OP has admitted to sketchy credit history. HSBC won't be keen.

Suggestion to OP.

Go to www.noddle.co.uk and register. You will be immediately able to view your Credit Score on an "out of 5" basis in, return to get a single monthly email from them. You can also view your full credit profile and who has done searches, and when?

Very useful to all on this forum.

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

Go into an HSBC Branch with your Limited Company Registration Certificate, your Contract, your Passport plus a personal Bill (proof of address) as well as your NI Number and any other Company documentation showings its registered address and you could walk out an hour later with a Business Banking Account number.

OP has admitted to sketchy credit history. HSBC won't be keen.

[Scruff]

Go into an HSBC Branch with your Limited Company Registration Certificate, your Contract, your Passport plus a personal Bill (proof of address) as well as your NI Number and any other Company documentation showings its registered address and you could walk out an hour later with a Business Banking Account number.

[d000hg]

I suppose if you were intent on doing this, the trick would be to name your company very similar to you own name. IE, John Smith and John Smith Ltd. And then just "forget" to put the "Ltd" on the form. Not that I'd suggest this. Nope. Uh-uh.

Well my business bank account apparently is in the name of "d000hg Lt" anyway

[SueEllen]

Go to a different bank and open an account in branch.

Ask before putting in an application how long they take to open an account.

Some can give you your account number very quickly with online banking information following within a week.

I did this after being told by another contractor how difficult some banks were as she had waited nearly 2 months for Natwest to open an account. In the end she ended up with 2 business bank accounts as then Santander could open a business account within 2 weeks.

Yes it does mean you will have to take time out from your contract but it's better than no money.

[TheFaQQer]

Get the agency to pay you by cheque and then take it to Cash Converters or similar and get the money?

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

I suppose if you were intent on doing this, the trick would be to name your company very similar to you own name. IE, John Smith and John Smith Ltd. And then just "forget" to put the "Ltd" on the form. Not that I'd suggest this. Nope. Uh-uh.

[d000hg]

You can open a personal account in any name you wish, I think. So to avoid lying about the name on the account, could you open an additional personal account "Your Company" (not Your Company Ltd) and give the account details for it? You should be able to do that over the phone with your bank, I imagine.

[PurpleGorilla]

I got a natwest account - yeah it took bloody ages to open it.

[jmo21]

you could then transfer whatever is left of the money back (it should be most of it - don't spend it all)

Sounds like he will be spending it all pretty quickly and relying on continuing to invoice to make it up.

OP - I hope you are aware that contracts can fall through at any moment. As others have said, with your financial situation it is quite a gamble to start contracting. Of course, you might have had no option or any other job in the first place, but I hope you didn't quit a stable permie job

I'm not sure if this is possible at all, and not ideal, but have you explored an option to go through Umbrella for this contract? Lower take home pay, but obviously you are not prepared to run an ltd.

He is way down the line and too late I think to consider changing. The contract, and all the work he has done has been under his ltd. He needs the money now.

[TheFaQQer]

I agree. As long as any money received directly into a personal account is recorded as a director's loan and the usual rules around director loans are considered, I don't see why this would be an issue for one-off circumstances. Its not the same thing as running your business from a personal account on a continual basis.

Well, the question isn't "should I do it?", it's "will the agency know if I do it?" which is a completely different matter.

If you are mixing business and personal funds in the same account, then you need to ensure that it's accounted for correctly, though.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

True, however I thought mitigating circumstances surrounding starting up a company were covered by HMRC using a little common sense, as long as it's clear you're not doing it for personal gain but purely because you didn't have everything properly in place on day 1.

I agree. As long as any money received directly into a personal account is recorded as a director's loan and the usual rules around director loans are considered, I don't see why this would be an issue for one-off circumstances. Its not the same thing as running your business from a personal account on a continual basis.

[d000hg]

There have been questions recently about using a personal bank account for business money, and that was for a dedicated account, not sharing the account between business and personal use. The general consensus (IIRC) was that it really shouldn't be done for a number of reasons.

True, however I thought mitigating circumstances surrounding starting up a company were covered by HMRC using a little common sense, as long as it's clear you're not doing it for personal gain but purely because you didn't have everything properly in place on day 1.

[sal]

I'm not sure if this is possible at all, and not ideal, but have you explored an option to go through Umbrella for this contract? Lower take home pay, but obviously you are not prepared to run an ltd.