[Nursie]

The business is a separate legal entity to you. A business bank account clearly demarks what is your money and what is not. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's a requirement to work with a lot of companies, if not a legal requirement for working with a ltd company.

Business bank accounts can be had for free - most contractor-friendly accountants have an arrangement with Cater-Allen, for instance.

[framp]

It's not a legal requirement and they're certainly not free AFAIK.

It is a requirement for partecipating in certain contests (eg: Microsoft had a program for investing in indie games company and they required to use a business account entitled to the company) but I still haven't heard such requirement from a client.

[Nursie]

>> It's not a legal requirement

I'd be surprised if it wasn't a requirement with many clients though, it shows a level of professionalism.

>> and they're certainly not free AFAIK.

You haven't looked very hard then...

[framp]

> I'd be surprised if it wasn't a requirement with many clients though, it shows a level of professionalism.

Agree, but I've never seen such clause in a contract.

> You haven't looked very hard then... I guess it's a service provided by only certain accountants? All the (chartered) accountants I've talked to never offered a free business account. They offered introduction to paid business account but that's the usual.

If it's not and there is a free business banking account with a reputable bank out somewhere I'll be happy to look into it.

[Nursie]

Ok so the the two things I know of are that HSBC will give you a free intro year or two (but that's obviously only useful for a year or so) and that most contractor-specialising accountants have some sort of promotion/deal on with Cater-Allen to get you free business banking at their private bank.