Bank A/C recommendation for sole trader?

FewFew

Hi,

I've read a few bits in here about a preference for opting for an additional personal account rather than a business account.

Just wondering how this would work for a sole trader trading under a registered company name?

If I want to invoice using the company name, wouldn't that require a bank a/c registered to that business name, and therefore a business a/c?

Also, any recommendations on a business bank a/c in terms of cost and online banking facilities? At this stage most of the action will be paying income into my personal account as I don't really have any overheads at the moment.

srsly78

Don't use a business account if possible - they all charge a fortune and the service is actually worse than what you get from a personal account...

Just open a second personal account and use this for your activities as a sole trader - all legit. Don't tell the bank it's for your trading activities or they might insist on a business account (gougers).

FewFew

srsly78 wrote: »

Don't use a business account if possible - they all charge a fortune and the service is actually worse than what you get from a personal account...

Just open a second personal account and use this for your activities as a sole trader - all legit. Don't tell the bank it's for your trading activities or they might insist on a business account (gougers).

That's what I've read about these parts, but, how does that work in terms of using a trading name?

I went to one bank who pretty much told me it'd be exactly the same as a personal account... but the guy didn't seem to have a clue, in fact he had to go into another cubicle to find out how to open a business a/c. I took some info and left it til another day.

Maybe recommending a bank a/c is a way too broad question, but does anybody know a bank that will do a business account with an atm/laser? All my expenses are online, so something like that would be very handy.

... of course if I can just use a personal account while operating under a trading name, then the above doesn't really matter

srsly78

You don't need to have the bank account under the trading name, it's just an alias for yourself anyway.

Any normal personal current account will provide laser/atm.

Peterdalkey

Ulster Bank provide debit/ATM cards on business accounts. I suspect if you use a trading name style on the account name, then the bank will most likely designate it as a business account.

stepbar

You will only be able to use a trading name if you open a business account. Whilst there is nothing stopping you from using a personal account as a sole trader, as you grow it will eventually become impractical as it can be assumed that the volume of transactions you do will increase and you'll need to pay staff etc. No one wants to be spending half the day writing cheques when a lot of transactions can be bundled together into an EFT file.

For a one man band a personal account (whilst not recommended) would probably suffice.

srsly78

Yep totally agree. You can always open a proper business account in the future when there is a need for it.

Just be warned the banks have lots of offers for businesses like "first 2 years fee free" - which is great. Until the 2 years are up and then they clobber you.

Solair

We found that with AIB.

Their business accounts are geared towards much larger businesses and their online business banking, while really powerful, is complete over-kill for most small business / sole traders who just need something more like their personal internet banking product.

The banks really need to come up with a small-business / sole trader account. There are loads of people working freelance, in small home offices etc that need these kinds of facilities without necessarily the ability to put through complex payments and all that stuff that is relevant to much larger organizations.

srsly78

I closed my boi business account and switched to using an UB personal one :pac:

FewFew

Thanks for the replies, always helps to hear this stuff.

I've been advised to go for a trading account, which will allow me to use my trading name but isn't a full blown business account. Sounds like exactly what I want.

EFT payments etc. aren't really an issue at the moment as it's just me. I reckon if I'm big enough to need a fully fledged business a/c then I should be able to afford the associated fees.

srsly78

Advised by who? The bank? They are only interested in making money out of you. People won't even see the name of the account, they will only see the account number / sortcode / IBAN.

Compare the fees for the "trading account" to those of a normal account.

FewFew

srsly78 wrote: »

Advised by who? The bank? They are only interested in making money out of you. People won't even see the name of the account, they will only see the account number / sortcode / IBAN.

Compare the fees for the "trading account" to those of a normal account.

Nah, advised by a fellow boardsie who's been there done that in a similar field

Yeah, the "just a number" vibe works until they have to make out a cheque, and though I'd love if the world was cheque-less, I already have some clients for once-off work who want to pay by cheque.