Register a company WHAT IS THE PRICE?

[TSUK]

Hello All

I have been looking around on the net for the cost of registering a company.

I have found websites that offer to register your company from £2.99 - £4.99. Surely can this be right?

When looking on Company house website it gives you an option to register via post taking 8 - 10 days costing £40

or registering on the internet for £18.

How can the price vary from £2.99 to £40 and i have seen higher on other websites. The companies all get registered with company house so why do they charge £18 for an online service and some companies can do it for £2.99?

 

[IANL]

Hi

To register a company a fee needs to be be paid to companies house and you need to submit documents and their form. You pay the fee and do all the paperwork yoursself.

Or you can use a company formation aganet and they will do it all and register a company. This will cost from about 30.00 and they will supply you with the paperwork.

I use Hanover for my registration needs you can get various levels of service and paperwork for different prices. http://www.hanovercompanyservices.com/prices.asp

I think the 2.99 you refer to might be domain name registration. (not the same thing at all)

Unless someone is subsidising it for another reason it will cost a lot more tan 2.99

Hope that helps

 

[TSUK]

Hi

To register a company a fee needs to be be paid to companies house and you need to submit documents and their form. You pay the fee and do all the paperwork yoursself.

Or you can use a company formation aganet and they will do it all and register a company. This will cost from about 30.00 and they will supply you with the paperwork.

I use Hanover for my registration needs you can get various levels of service and paperwork for different prices. http://www.hanovercompanyservices.com/prices.asp

I think the 2.99 you refer to might be domain name registration. (not the same thing at all)

Unless someone is subsidising it for another reason it will cost a lot more tan 2.99

Hope that helps

I am aware of the requirements of registering with company house but was wondering how come companies can offer the service of registering you with company house on your behalf and it actually works out cheaper than doing it directly with company house it self.

I was not in fact relating to domain registration i was refering to the registration of a company with company via agent. If you seach for EAC business services they offer the service for £2.99

 

[MrMichael]

As IANL says, you'll always have to pay the Companies House fee, so it makes no sense that EAC would charge £2.99 and would personally make me suspicious of the level of control I would actually have over the company.

In reality, you can pay as much as you like for company incorporation services. What you want is one that fits your budget and that can get the job done effectively and efficiently.

You have a recommendation and I suggest you go with that.

 

[Anna Chandley]

Although it states 2.99 on the EAC website I believe that this is 2.99 plus £15 companies house fee. If you go into their company services page here all the prices seem to be £15 higher than those quoted on the first page.

Anna

 

[mhall]

Some companies charge less as they include a bank account and they are getting a kick back from the Bank (usually Barclays who will pay a third party up to £50 for a new account)

 

[Billmccallum]

I am aware of the requirements of registering with company house but was wondering how come companies can offer the service of registering you with company house on your behalf and it actually works out cheaper than doing it directly with company house it self.

I was not in fact relating to domain registration i was refering to the registration of a company with company via agent. If you seach for EAC business services they offer the service for £2.99

Although the home page says £2.99 this page http://www.eacbs.com/shop/index.php/cPath/39 says the package is £17.99.

 

[JamesCartwright]

Think as has been previously stated, the price that Companies House will charge to register a company is £14. This is for all the necessary certificates and documents electronically. The £40 price you have found is to be sent these documents in paper. The link below should give you a break-down of the actual prices charged by Companies House to incorporate a company (so this would be charged to the incorporating agent or website you use):

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/toolsToHelp/ourPrices.shtml

Although it may be helpful to have paper copies, you really only require them electronically. The price varies between incorporation services because many will often bundle certain other documents and servcies together; 'packages' so to speak. This is often seen in different tiers, for example standard and premium.

Wisteria Formations offer quite an effective service that allows you to "cherry-pick" the services you want to pay for, so to speak. For example, you may want a paper copy of the incorporation certificate - but not the Memorandum and Articles. These can all be added on-top of the basic formation package, which they charged £24.99 for.

http://www.wisteriaformations.co.uk/

Hope this helps, and good luck with your registration

 

[JamesCartwright]

Just come across the following:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wisteriaformations#p/u/9/w2Vd66EkmnA



Sums up quite nicely, and shortly, what I was babbling on about earlier!

 

[mcgovern]

I am aware of the requirements of registering with company house but was wondering how come companies can offer the service of registering you with company house on your behalf and it actually works out cheaper than doing it directly with company house it self.

I was not in fact relating to domain registration i was refering to the registration of a company with company via agent. If you seach for EAC business services they offer the service for £2.99

when you get to the end of a long application the statutory fee for companies hs is added on bringing the total to !7.98

 

[totallytech]

Sorry to drag up a "Very" old thread but I needed to share my recent experiences regarding a company registration...

I used a company called EAC Business Services.

I checked the website and found they offered an "Economy" package for £14.95 plus VAT.

I selected this and made full payment using my debit card - This was around 8am. It stated on the website that it takes around 3 hours to receive the paperwork. At around 12.15 I realised I hadn't yet had any info from EACBS so I dropped them a nice quick email just asking if everything was ok and when I should expect the details (due to the 3 hour promise).

Around 20 minutes later I received an email back telling me that I hadn't purchased the correct items and to call them. I did so and I was advised that to get access to the "massively" discounted rate of £14.95 plus vat I needed to spend around £10 on other items from the website - the girl laughed and happily told me that its not clear on the website. I said that I'd checked with companies house and I could actually do it direct with them for £15.00 no vat all in, so I said considering my 3 hours had lapsed and that whoever checked the orders when they arrived knew my order wouldn't be completed at 9am but decided to do nothing at all and just expect an angry customer before they even notified me of a problem that I would be looking for a full refund. She said that would be absolutely fine, but I would need to email the "refunds" department. She promised me that my refund would be processed that day provided my email arrived ok.

I emailed immediately (12.30) and proceeded to access the CH website, configure, and pay for my new ltd company. At 13.30 I hadn't had any acknowledgement of my email. So I dropped them another email just asking for an update.... Nothing.

At 16:30 I called and spoke to the same girl who checked on the system and my email(S) had arrived and that yes, the refund would 100% be dealt with and processed before the end of the day.

2 days later I'd still not had an email and my order was still showing on the website as pending. I emailed again, this time much firmer but still polite and reminded them that the promise was a same day refund etc etc.... Shock Horror, no reply....

4 days after that I emailed again asking someone to ring me directly and explain why I hadnt been given the promised refund.... I heard nothing, so I called in at around 11, to be told I need to speak to the director, Nick as he has refused to authorise my refund and he is out until 1pm. I needed to call back. I stated it was very unfair and he should call me, the girl agreed and told me she would arrange for him to ring me as soon as he arrived.

Meanwhile I contacted my bank and asked them for advice, as the company had now had my £15 for over a week, had no way to fulfil the order as on the advice of the girl I registered the company elsewhere and so they had fraudulent taken my money and kept it (which I believe to be called theft)... The bank agreed and froze the transaction immediately. They issued fraudulent activity paperwork for me to complete and sign.

I still heard nothing so at 4pm I called to be told Nick was on an important business call and had been for 30 minutes so there was no knowing when he would be free. I asked again for them to ask him to call me, and told them that I'd notified the bank of fraud and they were beginning to investigate. She promised me he would call before he went home.

This was around 3 days ago now and thats one heck of a phone call, as he still hasn't called.

I emailed them to notify that I was planning on contacting the police regarding the matter and that I would be contacting various forums just with my account of their procedures etc. Still no reply and a quick google of the company name led me here.

If just one new company reads this post and decides not to use EAC Business Services then I'm pleased to have saved you from possibly the same plight as myself.

I wouldn't say they actively set out to defraud me and steal from me, but around 10 days of desperately trying to get them to even acknowledge me as a "customer" has lead to nothing but frustration and dispair and in reality I would now say that the company has committed fraud with regards to my case.

Multiple contacts and requests ignored, no refusal to give a refund and just simply pretending I havent asked. Not impressive. All I can hope is that when Natwest get my refund from them and they get the little fine for a chargeback that he looks and thinks, hmmm if we handled that right, we'd have had a customer and an income from that company. We didn't and now its cost us money to do no business at all with him....

 

[arcon5]

Sorry but your actions all sound very melodramatic and the police would not be interested.

Send them a letter giving them 14 days to refund you. Legally they have 30 days, unless their terms state otherise.

 

[totallytech]

Thats your opinion, but the bank disagrees. I was told the refund would be issued that day, they are unable to supply a service for the price advertised and under their own guidance I was told to purchase elsewhere as they would refund. This I did so the bank are very interested. The police probably not so as its B2B services etc, but I'm not sure what you would class it as when someone advertises something, fails to deliver then refuses to even acknowledge or communicate with you but keeps your money?

In then gets slightly more interesting when you learn that the director Nicholas Makinde has been listed as a director/secretary of multiple other EAC 'something' limited companies over the last 15 years or so and the original one of EAC (BUSINESS SERVICES) GROUP LIMITED is in liquidation and that they have now switched to EAC GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED.

His current listed involvements are:

Active - EAC PAYROLL ASSIST LIMITED
Active - SWIFT FORMATIONS LIMITED
Active - EAC ACCOUNTANCY ASSIST LIMITED
Active - EAC GROUP HOLDINGS LIMITED
In Liquidation - EAC (BUSINESS SERVICES) GROUP LIMITED
Dissolved - EAC (BUSINESS SERVICES) (SWITZERLAND) LIMITED

In addition:

Dissolved - XPRESS I.T.COM LIMITED
Dissolved - OPEN DOOR GROUPE LIMITED
Dissolved - VALENTIN LEISURE (UK) LIMITED
Dissolved - COMAK LIMITED
Dissolved - A. T. & T. (DIRECTORIES) LIMITED
Dissolved - CAMELOT INVESTMENTS UK LIMITED

 

[businessfunding]

Get your refund.

Move on...

 

[Billmccallum]

it looks like you are putting a lot of time and effort to get back less than £18!!!!!!

Yes, it's not nice when you get scammed.
Yes, it's not fair or professional

BUT, is it really worth so much effort? Do you really need the cash urgently?

I value my time at £20 an hour, so would waste no more than 10 minutes asking the bank to get a refund and then move on.

 

[IANL]

it looks like you are putting a lot of time and effort to get back less than £18!!!!!!

Yes, it's not nice when you get scammed.
Yes, it's not fair or professional

BUT, is it really worth so much effort? Do you really need the cash urgently?

I value my time at £20 an hour, so would waste no more than 10 minutes asking the bank to get a refund and then move on.

This is not a personal attack!! just an observation

I think everyone values their time differently.

On the basis of cost / benefit I would think that only a handful of fraud cases would ever see any action by the police of other authorities.

You obviously put time into this forum without the expectation of getting anything in return.

I agree there does come a time when it's just simply not worth it and you have to take a pragmatic view - but I have pursued matters out of principle, only to stop it happening to other people.

 

[totallytech]

The reason I pursued this, the same reason I posted the information on this forum - and several others is very simple.

I believe that theft and fraud is wrong, even 1p.... Its simple, I gave the company ample time and opportunity to do the right thing and not commit fraud but they chose to ignore that and be happy to break the law and keep the money that isn't theirs.

I'm pleased that the responses I've had so far on this forum, with the exception of IANL, is that I'm wasting my time and almost that I'm in the wrong for pursuing the fraudster.

I thought this forum was about assisting uk businesses. If I'd have found a forum naming Nicholas Makinde and EAC Businesses Services as having poor business practices I'd never had touched the company. A post like this would have assisted me in my choice of registering an LTD company - in essence the point of this forum.

I'm sorry if I've posted incorrectly or wasted your very very organised and precious time BillMcCallum, but I was purely trying to make sure that if someone was looking at registering a LTD company that they understood the risk, and at least my experiences of EACBS.com. I'm quite sure they have had lots of happy customers and arent "fly-by-night" fraudsters but clearly they have acted differently for those customers than they have for me.

 

[Billmccallum]

I'm sorry if I've posted incorrectly or wasted your very very organised and precious time BillMcCallum, but I was purely trying to make sure that if someone was looking at registering a LTD company that they understood the risk, and at least my experiences of EACBS.com.

You have not wasted my time, the point of the forum is to both inform and advise, if you choose to see it any other way that's your choice.

My advice was simply get the bank to refund and move on, you had already done the naming and shaming so it was pointless for me to say anything else.

If have given my time freely to forum members, on these threads, by email, phone and in person, visiting them at their place of work....free of charge, something that many consultants would baulk at, but in the terms of your original post, my issue was not wasting my time, but yours.

If the sum of money involved had been more than £14.95+VAT, I would have defended your actions all the way, but I am also a realist.