sole trader bank account query?

manhattan · 18 March 2005 at 10:26PM

hi,
i am starting a small business in the very near future(sole trader).

and have a quick question.

can i open a sole trader business account now in my company name?even though i have not yet started trading?

just want to get everything right before i start.

thanks in advance.

m

camstop · 18 March 2005 at 11:41PM

Yup they'll probably bite your hand off

manhattan · 19 March 2005 at 12:08AM

thanks campstop,
im looking at the abbey national free business banking account.

camstop · 19 March 2005 at 12:14AM

That is the best one as far as i know.

Or the only other one worth looking at is the Alliance and leicister

camstop · 19 March 2005 at 12:17AM

I'm with the Royal bank of Scotland for the last 8 years and i was looking to change coz they are robbin b@st@#ds and those two looked the best even though i aint done anything about it yet.. :rolls eyes:

bridiej · 19 March 2005 at 10:03AM

I'm with Bank of Scotland (different to RBS) and it's free banking other than for cheques which are 40p each.

Can't fault the service although this is internet banking so you have to post cheques off to pay them in. Works fine for me though!

manhattan · 19 March 2005 at 3:16PM

most of my payments that i will collect would be either cheques or cash.

also how do i go about collecting payments via customers credit cards?

is it possible using the abbey national account?

m.

camstop · 20 March 2005 at 12:04AM

manhattan wrote:

also how do i go about collecting payments via customers credit cards?

is it possible using the abbey national account?

m.

You need to get a consumers credit licence which costs around £150 for a sole trader or double for a partnership the last time i looked which was a few years ago.

Have a quick look here..>>>

http://www.oft.gov.uk/Business/Legal+Powers/Consumer+Credit+Act

Nelski · 20 March 2005 at 12:30AM

I have been with A+L for 3 years now and they are great. Business internet banking is a bit pants though.

aeuerby · 20 March 2005 at 12:47PM

camstop wrote:

You need to get a consumers credit licence which costs around £150 for a sole trader or double for a partnership the last time i looked which was a few years ago.

Have a quick look here..>>>

http://www.oft.gov.uk/Business/Legal+Powers/Consumer+Credit+Act

I've just looked at the link you posted and it doesn't say need a consumers credit licence to accept credit cards.

To accept credit cards you need to look at someone like worldpay who provide both a merchant account and the means to accept credit cards. These are quite expensive though for a brand new company.

Alternatively you could get a merchant account from your bank and then use someone like Protx to process the transaction. I think thought that Abbey require you to have banked with them for 2 years before they will consider you for a merchant account. Some of the other banks will set one up straight away eg Barclays, Natwest HSBC but you will need an account with them. Also fairly expensive.

lastly there are Paypal and nochex, cheaper than the banks etc but not everyone likes them!

Hope that helps, if you have any more questions ask on here or PM me and I'll try and help. We set up our new (sole trader) business last year so have probably been through all that you are going through!!

Angela.

manhattan · 20 March 2005 at 6:52PM

thanks angela!

the payments that i would collect from my customers would be at their home or a company address.

so im not sure how it would be possible to collect credit card payments from them at the time of completing the job?

sole trader bank account query?

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