Why is it so easy to form a company in the U.K., only to be faced with the roadblock of opening a bank account for your business? The good news is you have options. The truth is it’s HARD WORK.
1) Don’t use a UK bank
First of all, you don’t legally need a U.K. business bank account to run your business. You could do it from your personal UK (or non-UK) bank account. This is messy and overall not a great business practice because it exposes you personally to liabilities which a Limited Company would normally protect you from.
You can use a non-UK business bank in your home country. This will be challenging because most business done in the U.K. relies on direct debits which require a U.K. sort code. If you choose this option you will need to do most of your business through PayPal or manual cheques.
You will need your business Formations documents apostilled, which means the documents are legalised by the UK government and you must bring this to your local bank. Specifically the Certificate of Incorporation and Shares Certificate will need to be apostilled and presented to you local bank. Please contact us about our apostilled document service. We offer this service at a competitive rate of £79.99 per document. Certified and stamped by a U.K. government official.
2) Use a UK Bank
This is challenging for non-residents because few banks in the U.K. will offer business banking accounts to non-residents. Those that do will need to see you in person two or three times before the application is approved.
If you have a director in the U.K. who can act as the liaison with the bank, ZDK Formations would like to offer to help you through this process. If you do not have a director in the U.K. please skip to 3.
By brokering an introduction to a UK bank which is friendly towards non-residents and guiding you through all the steps in person, we can guarantee you a local UK business banking account with a low intital deposit threshold set up within two weeks. We offer this business banking setup consulting for £999. We guarantee success or your money back. We have never failed.
3) Use an offshore bank with a U.K. branch
This option does not require a physical visit to the bank and is ideal for companies without any sort of physical presence in the U.K. We can broker a deal with an offshore bank to set up your business banking account within 7 business days for a flat rate of £1,299.