Help please! Looking for online business bank account for new UK company with director living in Barbados

Finances
1

Hi everyone, first post so apologies if i’m doing anything wrong.

I’ve just created a UK Ltd company and am trying to open a bank account for it. I’m the sole director/employee and am a UK resident. I currently live in Barbados though and have no address or phone number in the UK.

So far i’ve tried to open about 10 accounts but me living in Barbados seems to be the main problem since it’s financially black/grey listed.

Any help would be much appreciated thanks!

2

Hi, did you try HSBC? Also when filling the details in try using a UK address.

3

Just tried applying for an HSBC kinetic account thanks. Managed to get to the end of the application and am waiting to hear the result.

4

Nope… didn’t get past the application process. Main problem was lack of UK phone number so couldn’t get verification codes.

There were other problems though, like not being able to put £0 in the amount of money that the company has. Other applications wanted previous financial records of the company, but it’s a brand new company…

It’s hopefully going to be just me doing contracting work. So the company will get paid by clients about once a month, then i’ll pay that money to myself as wages or dividends. Annual turnover probably about £10,000-20,0000.

So the bank account requirements are very basic, but opening an account is very tricky.

Might be best, at least to begin with, to use my old personal UK bank account for the company?

5

Yes, you can use your personal account to collect money for your business.
You still need to keep records for preparing the company’s accounts and your personal taxation.
Your client’s should mind to much - invoice with something like “pay to xxxx xxxx on behalf of ABC Ltd” and you’re good to go until you find a bank that will open a business account.

6

hi, buy a virtual phone number and receive your texts in the app. Free virtual phone number. No SIM - No Roaming. MoreMins app
there is an app called zadarma it is good too, but a more tricky.

7

Thanks for the advice! It didn’t even occur to me that there were virtual phone numbers.

8

Or you can simply go a UK supermarket, buy a physical sim-card, plug into Nokia 105 and off you go.
In fact you can plug two sim-cards into Nokia 105 :slight_smile:

If you don’t want to visit a supermarket, visit ebay…