UK Ltd company opening a bank account in Ireland?

lovinituk

Does anyone know if it is possible for a UK based Ltd company to open a bank account in Southern Ireland?

The issue we have is that we receive payments in Euros via Paypal. Their exchange rate is pretty bad at the best of times so I'd like to transfer the Euros out to a Euro bank account.

Having spoken to my Paypal account manager, he said that opening a Euro account with a UK bank is no good as Paypal will convert the Euros to Sterling when we transfer it out and then the bank will have to convert it back to Euros when they receive it! He said the only way round it would be to have a Euro bank account in a Euro country.

Any advice welcome.

agrinnall

Are you currently trading in Ireland? I would have expected that to open a business account for a limited company you would need to be able to show Articles of Association relating to that jurisdiction, as you would in the UK, so you might have to create a subsidary company in Ireland to achieve that. If you're not trading there but are trading in other Eurozone countries it might be better to open an account in one of them.

Alternatively, investigate whether you can open a Euro business account in the UK - perhaps better to ask your bank rather than Paypal.

lovinituk

We don't operate out of any other countries apart from the UK. We export goods to customers worldwide but I see what you mean about probably having to have a physical presence in a Euro Zone country.

I know we can open a Euro account with our UK bank but that's not the issue. The issue is that Paypal will not send Euros to a Euro account with a UK bank. They convert your Euros to Sterling first and then send Sterling to your Euro account!! Its very bizarre and also a very expensive exercise.

agrinnall

I see what you mean about PayPal. Would it be possible to open a PayPal account based in a Eurozone country and a UK based Euro account, so that everything is done in Euros, or won't they allow that?

lovinituk

agrinnall wrote: »

I see what you mean about PayPal. Would it be possible to open a PayPal account based in a Eurozone country and a UK based Euro account, so that everything is done in Euros, or won't they allow that?

I need a Eurozone bank account to be able to open a Eurozone Paypal account unfortunately.