Can a sole trader have a bank account in a "business name" ?

Jumblebumble

Sandtree said:

Under rules about fraud and moneylaundering etc banks have to be careful what they allow to go on but it is ultimately at their discretion what they allow you to pay into your account.  With a rather unusual surname I have received cheques with all sorts of spellings over the years and back in the days when cheques were reasonablly common I'd just batch them up, stick the odd spelling one near the back and hand them over and they never got questioned or rejected. So if you have a trading style of Vilegreen Windows and receive a cheque for Vilegreen Windows Ltd the bank may or may not allow its deposit.

That said, if its a cheque that was intended for the limited company but you as a former director try to bank it in your own account then that would be fraud and theft even if the bank allowed it. If it is truly for you and just a mistake on the part of the issuer then thats a separate matter.

I used to receive lots of cheques with my surname spelled wrong
Each time a bank objected I would ask them to put the cheque into the internal post and let my bank manager make the final decision as to whether to accept it or not
The bank clerks never did this but always accepted the cheque at that point.
Naturally I would never have dreamed of altering the name and initialing it as this would be very naughty !