Been refused business bank account fr credit reasons - what to do?

[araincoat]

Dh and I are starting or own business, but we have been unable to get a business bank account because of poor credit history. What can we do? We are not even wanting any credit, just a basic account.

bump

Who have you tried with.Think Lloyds do one with no credit.

We have tried TSb (in Scotland so same as Lloyds) and Bank of Scotland. Even not needing credit facilities we are getting turned down

thanks btw lilyloo

Anyone else? Off to bed now, but will be back in morning!

Have you tried just opening a building society account in your own name and then using it for the business? If you can get people who pay the business to pay cheques to your name then that's fine. So if the business was Smiths Butchers but those who pay by cheque pay "Mr John Smith" and you tell people paying to pay to that that might work and you'd still be keeping the business money separate.

thanks Xenia. Would a personal building society account be better than a personal bank account? (clueless about the differences!)

I'm not sure. If I get paid for say writing something I can pay that into my current account. I put it through my tax etc and books as income but it doesn't legally have to be put into some special separate account and then I don't have to pay bank charges on that payment in and payments out as I do on my business account so I've never really understood why unless people actually have to they pay into chargeable business accounts. Now you might need them because of needing a business over draft and it's much easier to keep track of business income and expenses to have some kind of separate account and I expect the bank might ask if it's for business purposes but if it's just a few cheques in your own name and you declare the income for tax purposes then a new account in your own names would presumably do. The problem would come if you were going to be called XYZ Services and your own name is Joan Smith so people will write you cheques payable to XYZ Services and an account in the name of Joan Smith is no good at all. They don't let you pass cheques on like they did 20 years ago by just signing them over - sticklers for making sure the cheque and account name are identical.

Why should they have any confidence in you??

Have you let them down in the past ??

I run our business through my current account and it works out very well

No LGJ, just bad credit history in general

thanks xenia and queen of bleach - it will mainly be a cash business (being able to accept debit cards would be handy, but not essential)

If I was running it through the accounts how would it work when doing tax etc, don't they need to see the account statements etc?

Actually, while I'm here...Anyone know any good places to get information about running your own business? Keep it simple

I think technically you just have to account for the income and it's up to you where you pay it but I might be wrong. So as long as each time you get paid you put it through the books and have a record that's enough although it's much better if you have a separate account for it and for some businesses essential ike if you were a travel agent taking deposits etc.

Ok, thanks. How does this sound: I already have a current account with Bank of Scotland, I do my banking online, so I could open a Web Savings acount with them and pay money in/out through the current account, and transfer it in and out of the savings account to keep it seperate?

Yes, I think that's fine. If you have an accountant it might be best to ask them however rather than rely on people here. You would need people to pay cheques payable to your account, your name, personal name that's the only problem I can see but if they pay in cash or by bank transfer then use what you suggest. I expect the bank's personal account rules say only use the account for personal accounts so I'm not sure of their position. If I have had the occasional cheque for writing or when there was filming at the house it was never an issue because I suppose the bank can't really tell whether a cheque received is from my great aunt or a business thing.

I also religously keep books for my accountant and we don't accept cards