www.iva.co.uk

is it possible to open a Limited Company Account whilst on an IVA and which banks are most favourable?

Hello,

No idea on this one I'm afraid but I'll bump it back up the list in the hope that an expert sees it and can advise.

I was told, you can as I made enquiries before. You can be a director of a limited company, as well as a sole trader, but will need to be able to maintain IVA from your income from your business basically.

I think Lisa is asking about a bank account rather than the IVA itself.

I've no idea on banks that would be favourable though.

Hi Lisa - I have tried, even using a bank that favours bad credit - and was turned down. Seems they will accept you if you have unpaid CCJ's but not if you are actually paying your debt in an IVA ! Strange and frustrating !!!

You can have a ltd comapny account but that assumes you have a ltd company first? I hope you don't think that was a stupid question. It may be best to be a shareholder and let someone else be a director as getting a credit line will be easier

Remember as a sole trader you cannot have credit whilst in an IVA

foggy

It's just a thought what about if your mum or similar openend the ltd CO business account in their name. You could still be director and shareholder of the ltd company? Do they probe as to who the director is rather than the person who opens the account?

Sponge - good idea .. but ..... I think the account opener has to be a Director, and they credit check all the directors, I am told.

oh well just an idea. I did a post about ltd companies and old frozen pensions might be worth having a look at, you always have options with ltd company. Right must leave work, downside to having a ltd company I'm Mr No Life!

Hi Lisa

The limited company would be totally separate and you should be able to open a bank account for the company.

Are you forming a new company or do you need to open a new bank account for an existing company?

Hi Olivia. That's the theory, but the banks don't seem to differentiare between Directors and Company, althought they are legally seperate entities.

Natwest offer an account (Foundation) for self employed and Ltd companies. They allow all the usual banking facilities (cheque book, debit card, direct debits, etc) except an overdraft. New businesses also get 2 years free banking.
Now you do have to be persistent, you have to go into your local branch and speak to a Business Manager, explain the situation. Depending how well they understand IVA's will depend on how long it takes to open an account. They have to feed all your information into their system and the computer will say "No", after this they have to take the manual approach.
I opened my first business account 18 months ago, this took 4 months due to an incompetent Business Manager but after researching who the Chairman of Natwest Business Banking was, guessing his email address and sending him an email my account was opened the next day.
My wife opened the same account a year later within 10 days.
These were both happened halfway through our IVA's

Interesting Diciano -- one of my refusals was for the Natwest Foundation Account. I have a current account with them, opebed just before my IVA, so didn't want to push it.

Natwest have to go through the process of entering the application through their system. At this point it will always fail as Natwest's system cannot differentiate between an IVA and Bankruptcy. After this a hard copy application can be made with supporting evidence of the IVA and it is sent of to a 'real' person to make the decision.
Long winded but does work but you do need a Natwest employee that understands the process!

I always said a ltd Co was hard work from the start, but the benifits can be outstanding.