I have a client who is a discharged bankrupt, wants to expand his business and set up a limited company. He is however having difficulty setting up a company bank account. He has tried the Co-op who are advertised as bankrupt friendly but they have declined.
I was wondering if anyone knows of a bank that will allow a discharged bankrupt to open a company bank account, or if a similar thing has happened to any of your clients.
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Santander a possibility
Co-op are indeed bankrupt-friendly, but only on no-frills personal accounts. I've always found them very picky as regards business accounts.
One success we recently had with a discharged bankrupt was with Santander (online application for basic business account). This was with a limited company, with the client as the only director and shareholder. He'd been discharged for about 2 years at this point.
Similar attempts to open a sole trader or LLP account with Santander have failed, with the clients in question being in similar circumstances.
Online applications with other banks didn't yield any success (for limited companies), so in our experience Santander is your best bet.
Good luck.
WS.
Depend on the bank manager
My local Barclays bank manager is very understanding and has opened accounts for one of my clients who is a discharged bankrupt.
Even gave him a small overdraft after 6 months.
I would imagine its judged on a case by case basis though.
Prepaid account?
If he's REALLY struggling to get anything opened then how about a business account with Cashplus. They'll guarantee to open one, it's all online and he'll get a MasterCard for it. Can't accept cheques or pay cheques but everything else is possible including direct debits, standing orders and online transactions. That might tide him over for the time being whilst he finds something else?