Current Account for Business - Advice Please

patwa_2

Hello. Apologies if this is in the wrong place.

I am currently trying to set up things to trade under my business name. for the moment, I just want to be able to build up a presence, nothing all that big, trading on eBay, but having people able to pay me in the name of the business. i probably don't need nor want all of the hyped features of a business account at this stage.

I contact first direct about this but they don't deal with business banking at all and weren't able to help - they advised me to go to HSBC.

I basically wanted my normal bank account to accept payments made to both my own name and my business name. Like a joint account but only with one person and a business, which in my case is a sole trader.

I'm a student at the moment, business turnover is likely to be relatively low until I can build up capital to expand and increase sales.

Does anyone know of someone who could do this. I have an account with HSBC, just their RightTrack account, a student account with Natwest and my First Direct account. But I somehow doubt opening a new account simply for the name would go down too well.

Does anyone know if what I want is possible? I'd rather not have to open a new account at this time, even though later down the line I know keeping my business and personal sales separate would be beneficial.

Thanks.

H.

regularsaver1

Usually current accounts with banks state they they are for personal use only and not business

To get the business name think you will need to open business account

patwa_2

Thanks. Can anyone recommend one? Basically I just want to be able to make payments to it in my business' name, for cheques and also for Paypal transfers - they cannot have a business account and make payments to a personal bank account with a different name, and paypal doesn't accept joint named personal/business accounts.

H.

regularsaver1

It may be worth posting on the ebay board to see what others have done

Moonbeam

HBOS offer business banking - I think if you use your own name and then trading as you can pay both in i.e. Moonbeam trading as moneysavingexpert....

That should get round your problem of cheques and direct transfers...

Have a look at https://www.bankofscotland.co.uk

regularsaver1

I know that branches only deal with switchers - but for new starts the website is a good idea

Moonbeam

regularsaver1 wrote:

I know that branches only deal with switchers - but for new starts the website is a good idea

Branches in Scotland deal with anyone associated with business banking - switchers and new starts.... it just depends where you're based - I think it's because the business banking side originally came from Bank of Scotland rather than Halifax.

I know there is also a central phone line you can call to apply - details will be on the website.

regularsaver1

the Halifax branches have busines banking co-ordinators, and then a business banking manager for the area - they deal with switchers

new to business there are packs from branches or telephone

Its strange though isn't it - same firm but do things differently. Had the same thing today (not BB) with Northern ireland procedures slightly different

Moonbeam

regularsaver1 wrote:

the Halifax branches have busines banking co-ordinators, and then a business banking manager for the area - they deal with switchers

new to business there are packs from branches or telephone

Its strange though isn't it - same firm but do things differently. Had the same thing today (not BB) with Northern ireland procedures slightly different

I know - I constantly get surprised by the differences. but I guess that happens a lot in big organisations and because the daily information we get is filtered to show just what we need to know in our area we don't find out about the differences until you get a query.

the reason I know about BB is because I'm the champion for my branch - small branch so we don't have a permanent BB manager - but they are present in the bigger branches.

willdashwood

I seem to be making my way through all the free business current accounts one by one. My main one is still with Abbey though I'm not over impressed with either the efficiency (took months to open the account) or the online banking which is very basic and when I first signed up things didn't work, yet it said they did. For example, I cancelled a Direct Debit and I had on screen confirmation it was cancelled but next month it still went out. I rang up and they said "Oh yes, that bit doesn't work properly". I was a quite annoyed at the flippant attitude towards something quite important so opened a bank with BOS.

That seemed to go fine and they even offered me a £500 overdraft which would come in handy. What they neglected to mention was that there was a £100 annual fee for the privilege, despite the fact I stressed how I was only opening it on the grounds that I wanted a fee-free business bank account. They cancelled the overdraft and refunded my fee but things weren't off to a good start. The online banking was actually quite good but the main reason I wanted an account with them was because I was told transfers to and from Halifax were supposed to be instantaneous. They weren't and in any case we were thinking of closing our Halifax account anyway (now with A&L) so partly out of principle and partly because I didn't need it any more I closed the account.

I'm tempted to try HSBC's offerings but to be honest at this stage I'm not sure I can be bothered with the hassle. I would be interested in a comparison of all the free (or near enough free) business bank accounts on MSE, especially as many people are now going self employed. I simply wanted an account where I can pay cheques in made out to the business name and not a lot more than that!