New business venture - which business bank account?

[Ray Singh]

I am starting a new business venture shortly, importing from India and initially selling via Ebay/Amazon and via pop up shop. Eventually I hope the business will expand to a dedicated website driven by selected posts on instagram and twitter.

I need a business bank account. It seems that banks don't want to help create an account as my limited company has two shareholders (50/50), me and my lovely wife. The account must be compatible with WorldPay as I hope to use their online services to collect payments from my dedicated website as well as the possibility of hiring and using a car machine from them. Occasionally I will need to deposit cash takings into the account.

Can anyone recommend me a bank account?

So far I have spoken to friends:

Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC - useless. An unknown is Metro bank - anyone with any views?

Any/all help appreciated.

[StevieBee]

This question pops up often and I think the consensus is that it is a case of picking the least st rather than looking for the best.

We use HSBC and I have no issue with them but we don't really need to test them. We pay money in, pay money out, have a commercial credit card and thats it. We opened a dollar and Euro account recently which was painless and efficient.

[andy_s]

Handelsbanken?

[JZZ30]

https://aibgb.co.uk

No complaints from me and they can cover some specialised stuff.

[anonymous-user]

andy_s said:

Handelsbanken?

I don't think they'll work with a brand new business unless they can see it's very well financed straight out of the box.

[Phunk]

Tide - setup in 5 minutes

[Ray Singh]

Thank you all - I love this community!

Some really good suggestions there. I also recieved a couple of PMs on this subject - so thanks all.

I had thought of Handlesbanken - but they do not appear to like the risk of new businesses. I had ranked them highly in my list, just under Coutts bank! But alas, my meagre income is not worth them considering.

I am in the process of setting up an account with Tide. My one and only issue would be that I may occasionally be selling some of my stock at pop up stalls. Whilst I am considering an account with Worldpay (to help collect internet payments via my dedicated website as well as the possibility of hiring a handheld card machine) i may still get some old school buyers (due to the nature of my products) who like to pay in cash.

As Tide have no high street branches - how do businesses handle this? Can i pocket the cash and write my business a cheque or transfer from my own family bank account to my Tide account? I am worried that for Audit and tax reasons this could look like fraud.

Any help appreciated.

[Ray Singh]

@Phunk - thanks for the suggestion of Tide - they are compatible with WorldPay and registration was a doddle with a smartphone and a couple of documents. Multiple sharholders in the company didnt seem to phase them either.....

[Phunk]

No problem, I looked into the best way to get cash into the account. There doesn’t seem to be any issues with transferring from your personal account.

[Ray Singh]

Tide - First hurdle hit!!

The account doesnt yet support IBAN or BIC payments. This is on hte to do list for 2018.

For an Amazon seller account, you need to be able to make and accept these payments.