UK business bank account for non-resident company

[martha-jc]

Hello all,

I'm new here and am hoping somebody can help me. I have searched for answers on previous threads and found nothing - so please be kind enough to point me in the right direction in case this is a common enquiry!

I work for an e-commerce / online retailer in France. We want to start trading in the UK next year.

We can accept credit and debit card and PayPal payments via our French accounts, but we want to offer our customers the option to pay by regular GBP bank transfer. For this, we need a UK GBP business bank account.

As we will not initially be incorporating as a Ltd with Companies House, this is impossible with most high street banks. Does anybody know of any other routes for us to potentially get a GBP account? I can't believe how difficult it is in the UK, as in other EU countries (with and without Euro) we found it very easy indeed. (Not intended as a criticism, just an observation )

Any comments much appreciated.

Best wishes from across the channel,

Martha

 

[StevensOnln1]

Who do you bank with in France and do they have any UK presence? Doesn't necessarily have to be high street branches if you just want to be able to accept bank transfers.

 

[martha-jc]

Thanks for your quick response.

Sadly, they say it's impossible - I received a prompt reply saying they are not active in the UK and cannot help.

 

[martha-jc]

In case anybody in a similar position finds this post, I can recommend HSBC, where we now have an account. The process was smooth and quick. As far as I can tell/the success I've had, the only other option in a case like this would have been a sterling account with an Irish bank (they are not subject to the same anti-money-laundering requirements).

 

[mistyco]

Hi Martha,

Were you able to open the account remotely without going to the bank? Which link or email did you used to apply.

If you could provide some help, that would be great.

thanks!