How to open UK bank account for Irish limited

Matt Bauer

We will be offering services to other businesses in the UK soon. For various reasons, including receiving payments from Stripe and sending payments to partners in the UK in sterling using the BACS system, we would need a UK bank account.

How does an Irish limited company go about opening an account in the UK, and which bank there has the lowest fees for a business account?

Matt Bauer

Santander UK looks like a possible option?

http://www.santander.co.uk/uk/business/current-accounts/start-up-business-current-account#tab01

jimmii

I'd imagine you will have to get in touch to see who will open an account for a company with no UK presence. I'd think it will be fine at least with thearge banks. In terms of fees most of them offer a couple of years free can easily just switch at the end of that.

JMR

Matt Bauer wrote: »

We will be offering services to other businesses in the UK soon. For various reasons, including receiving payments from Stripe and sending payments to partners in the UK in sterling using the BACS system, we would need a UK bank account.

How does an Irish limited company go about opening an account in the UK, and which bank there has the lowest fees for a business account?

You don't actually need a UK bank account to trade in the UK.
If your volume is high however, it does make more sense to trade in GBP as you will be charged for currency conversion from GBP to EUR on your UK sales and vice versa on your UK purchases otherwise.

Not sure if you are aware but Irish banks will open a GBP account for you, you don't actually need to go to a bank in the UK.

Stripe will allow you to take payments in GBP and convert to EUR to transfer to your bank account.

RiseToMe

As mentioned above, I'm an Irish Ltd company and I bank with BOI and they have set up a UK account for me as my customers are UK based. It is literally just an account so no online facilities however you just call to transfer monies over and their dealers will advise you on when is best of you want.

WicklowTiger

Like above poster, we have a UK bank account with BOI. Our branch simply opened one for us in the Enniskillen branch, the local branch handled all the paperwork. So we have a GBP account which is in the UK sorting code system. We also set up a separate profile online so we can process transactions similar to our main Euro account.

newacc2015

I suggest using currency fair to exchange money between UK and Ireland. It often gives a better rate than a bank

capefear

Have you looked at playwithfire.com should give u a uk bank account very easily and quickly. If you have a boi account they can help you get an account in the north but boi in the north will charge you £65 to process your application and when you submit your application and pay the fee there is still no guarantee they will open the account for you.

VincePP

newacc2015 wrote: »

I suggest using currency fair to exchange money between UK and Ireland. It often gives a better rate than a bank

For small amounts, probably, but if you do a lot of currency transfers you can get dealer rate from the bank. I've yet to see transfermate or currency fair beat the dealer rates I get from AIB.

Remember banks have their published rates - I see that as the absolute max. Almost like going to a convenience store for a 500ml bottle of coke.

Using the coke example, you then have the "supermarket" rate and then the "musgraves" rate if you are doing good volume. - Anything over 500k a year would get you dealer rate.

SuperO'B

Why not try an offshore bank account altogether with Lloyds? Can set it up by post. https://international.lloydsbank.com/
I have USD and EURO accounts with them. Use currencyfair to convert it back then for the best rates.

Matt Bauer

JMR wrote: »

You don't actually need a UK bank account to trade in the UK.
If your volume is high however, it does make more sense to trade in GBP as you will be charged for currency conversion from GBP to EUR on your UK sales and vice versa on your UK purchases otherwise.

Not sure if you are aware but Irish banks will open a GBP account for you, you don't actually need to go to a bank in the UK.

Stripe will allow you to take payments in GBP and convert to EUR to transfer to your bank account.

Stripe charge 2% for this service, and than we'd also need to pay to convert it back to sterling again. Our margins are too small, we'd make a loss.

newacc2015

VincePP wrote: »

For small amounts, probably, but if you do a lot of currency transfers you can get dealer rate from the bank. I've yet to see transfermate or currency fair beat the dealer rates I get from AIB.

Remember banks have their published rates - I see that as the absolute max. Almost like going to a convenience store for a 500ml bottle of coke.

Using the coke example, you then have the "supermarket" rate and then the "musgraves" rate if you are doing good volume. - Anything over 500k a year would get you dealer rate.

One benefit of currencyfair is the rates tend to be real time. Where as AIB and BOI tend to fix in the morning. My brother once sold a cheque to BOI and he could see the real time rates were 4 % off what the bank was offering(taking into account fees and commission it was still 3% off the real rate), as BOI were using the rates from the morning. There had been a massive fluctuation that day in the rates and bank didnt readjust

Matt Bauer

We ended up opening an account with Fire Financial Services, an Irish startup bank licensed by the central bank. They open both a UK-based sterling and a euro account. There are no account maintenance fees, but they charge 0.49 per transaction. Unlike traditional banks that give you rates 4% worse than the real rate, they give you the real rate you'd see on Google or xe.com and apply a 1.25% fee on top of that, so it works out cheaper than using AIB, BOI or the like.

It's a bit early for me to say, but it looks like they will solve the exact problem we've been having. I'm surprised no one here knew about them, especially as they're Irish! It's great to see Irish companies innovating in this space.

jimmii

Matt Bauer wrote: »

We ended up opening an account with Fire Financial Services, an Irish startup bank licensed by the central bank. They open both a UK-based sterling and a euro account. There are no account maintenance fees, but they charge 0.49 per transaction. Unlike traditional banks that give you rates 4% worse than the real rate, they give you the real rate you'd see on Google or xe.com and apply a 1.25% fee on top of that, so it works out cheaper than using AIB, BOI or the like.

It's a bit early for me to say, but it looks like they will solve the exact problem we've been having. I'm surprised no one here knew about them, especially as they're Irish! It's great to see Irish companies innovating in this space.

Interesting. I'm looking for the opposite of you so will have a look into them for us too!

pedroeibar1

Matt Bauer wrote: »

We ended up opening an account with Fire Financial Services, an Irish startup bank licensed by the central bank.

Fire Financial is not a bank, it is a payment services provider. Just monitor the rates offered. A levy of 1.25% plus associated fees can often work out more expensive that a clearing bank. Don't forget where Fire get their forex!

capefear

capefear wrote: »

Have you looked at playwithfire.com should give u a uk bank account very easily and quickly. If you have a boi account they can help you get an account in the north but boi in the north will charge you £65 to process your application and when you submit your application and pay the fee there is still no guarantee they will open the account for you.

Mention them above 😄, we have been using them for a few weeks now and so far so good. We use them for business and our personal banking as well as the app is very good.

Personal account opened within 30 mins by using the app, with out having to sign any forms or meet any one.

They have some faults no cards or physical bank but so far so good