Starling Business Account Won't Accept Payments In USD - Help!

neocrimsonnight

Hey guys, so the title says it all really. I went with Starling as they have no banking fees as well as no fees when paying out in a foreign currency (which is something I do regularly). The issue is, I've just found out that they can't accept payments in USD (which is totally bonkers), and some of the companies I get paid by (eg Valve) can only issue payments in USD. I've contacted support both ends and there's literally nothing either of them can do so I'm not really sure where to go from here. I don't want to lose the other benefits of Starling, so do you think I should set up a 2nd account purely to receive payments and then transfer there to my Starling account? If so, which bank would you recommend for this? Or is there an alternate solution that would work better?
Cheers!

eDicky

neocrimsonnight wrote: »

so do you think I should set up a 2nd account purely to receive payments and then transfer there to my Starling account?

Yes, set up a TransferWise Borderless account to receive the USD payments, convert to GBP at the interbank rate with a small percentage fee before sending to Starling. Another option would be Fineco Bank UK, or Revolut if there's no absolute need for a personal account in your name.

It's not really so 'bonkers' for Starling not to accept inward foreign currency (which they make clear in published info), if they prefer to do nothing that would incur fees (or their own expense if not imposing them).

londoninvestor

neocrimsonnight wrote: »

Hey guys, so the title says it all really. I went with Starling as they have no banking fees as well as no fees when paying out in a foreign currency (which is something I do regularly). The issue is, I've just found out that they can't accept payments in USD (which is totally bonkers), and some of the companies I get paid by (eg Valve) can only issue payments in USD. I've contacted support both ends and there's literally nothing either of them can do so I'm not really sure where to go from here. I don't want to lose the other benefits of Starling, so do you think I should set up a 2nd account purely to receive payments and then transfer there to my Starling account? If so, which bank would you recommend for this? Or is there an alternate solution that would work better?
Cheers!

The Transferwise Business account can receive USD payments, and can do so by ACH (the US domestic equivalent of Faster Payments, so no expensive fees for internatinal wire transfers).

You can then use Transferwise to convert to GBP and send it to Starling or indeed wherever you like.

https://transferwise.com/gb/business/

Please obviously do your own research to make sure the T&C and account features are suitable for your business.

londoninvestor

eDicky wrote: »

Yes, set up a TransferWise Borderless account

They're now nudging freelancers towards their business product, whereas IIRC they previously marketed Borderless as suitable for receiving freelance income.
https://transferwise.com/gb/business/freelancer

sal_III

Are you sole trader or limited? If latter, check with your accountant if Transferwise is "kosher" as it's not exactly "proper" bank account at least the personal isn't.

System

sal_III wrote: »

Are you sole trader or limited? If latter, check with your accountant if Transferwise is "kosher" as it's not exactly "proper" bank account at least the personal isn't.

I've checked with my accountant and he says it's 'Halal'.
Is it the skool holidays yet?!

As a side note, does the OP work for free - as he/she seems to expect Starling to run a business account with no fees whatsoever...

neocrimsonnight

Hey guys, thanks for your replies!

I know very little about accounting/finance (as I'm sure is evident), but I was just surprised that a bank that pushes no fees for foreign payments as one of their key features can't accept foreign payments - I didn't even think to look into it because of this -which I understand is on me.

It's a limited company but currently the amounts incoming are very low, but I'm hoping that'll change this year - it's a start-up.

Ah interesting, I have used TransferWise in the past - so do you think their business account in tandem with my Starling account is the way to go? Or do you think I should shift everything over there?