Joint Bank Account for Self Employed Friends

[trickynicky]

We are trying out a new venture, my friend and I, and we are both separately self employed as we work independently for other employers. However, we need a bank account but we are not planning on becoming a registered company - we may make nothing at all but if we do, then we'll think about it at a later date if that makes sense. Anyway, the question I have is what are the options re. a bank account? We don't have regular income going into it obviously and we are not a proper "business" as such right now.... any thoughts welcome! Thank you very much.

What is it you need to use the account for? Can't really suggest anything without knowing that! Will it have regular money going in/out? Do you need cards, cheques etc?

The account will be used for clients paying for services via our website. However, we will not need to have cards/etc and we can't guarantee how much will be going in as it's a new business. Most clients will pay via cheque or bank transfer into that account. Does that make sense?

You are going to have 2 options really that I can think of. Open a business bank account - many banks offer the first year or 2 fee free so this would give you time to establish the business, and this would be the option I'd go for in your situation.

Alternatively if you both have similar credit worthiness you could open a basic bank account together, or instant access savings account, in your own names rather than the business name. This wouldn't have the option for an overdraft etc, and would be fee free as long as you keep the account. You can set it up as both to sign for withdrawals if you wanted to. The down side to this would be that if one of you got into financial difficulties it would impact on the other's credit rating.

Thank you very much Rockchick.

This sounds like a partnership, not 2 separate self employed businesses.