Holding Company - What Bank Account?

[Audax]

Hello PHers!

I've been lurking the forums quite a bit, interestingly the Business sub one more than others as I've found a lot of insightful and helpful threads.

I come from a recent exit at the company I worked for quite some years, and wanted to invest "internationally", that means UK AND EEA startups/tech companies, and restaurants (by buying shares and equities, and resell them in the future). I plan to invest up to GBP300k.

I've been advised to do it through a Holding Company (that has already been registered, reason to do this is obviously CGT), and now I'm having few difficulties in opening a biz bank account.

My personal is a HSBC Premier, so I first tried with a HSBC Kinetic (got refused) and then Starling (refused too). HSBC didn't give me a reason, while Starling told me "We can't open a bank account if the company is a holding company". I then contacted the HSBC Team dedicated to opening biz bank accounts and apparently I'd need to be a UK Citizen to open the "Small Businesses Account".

I am a UK resident with SETTLED status (arrived in Nov 2014), and I could start the procedure for the UK Citizenship as I've already passed both language and LitUK exams, but that'd take at least 3 months.

Have you guys any suggestion about a Bank that will let me open a biz account? And also, why is a Holding Company so badly looked at?

Thanks for any suggestion you guys can give.

Have a great start of the week!

[NorthDave]

I feel your pain after trying to open some accounts recently. Someone more knoweldgable than me will be able to help I am sure but are you sure this is a holding company? I would class it is an investment company? Not sure if it will make much difference to the banks or not...

[Traffic]

Wise.com ? I run my business banking through it from UK and I am in Sweden.

[Audax]

Thanks Northdave and Traffic for your contribution, now to answer respectively:

The company would purchase equities (in the form of shares) of other companies, and then resell them for a profit in the future, but taking dividends in the meanwhile.

I've looked at it, mostly for the conversion rates that are extremely attractive, but it's not a regulated bank.

Looking forward to more replies

[JimmyConwayNW]

I have recently set up a new business account with Metro. I found the process incredibly simple, they were hugely helpful and the account is up, running and active.

[F31Simon]

We had the same issue recently and went with Revolut Business after being turned down by a large number of challenger banks. They were very quick and efficient to deal with and actually have a named business contact who actually seems to care and talks to us regularly.

[JimmyConwayNW]

F31Simon said:

We had the same issue recently and went with Revolut Business after being turned down by a large number of challenger banks. They were very quick and efficient to deal with and actually have a named business contact who actually seems to care and talks to us regularly.

Easy pickings for the new ones like Metro and Revolut as the traditional ones move away from offering these things, its what a lot of us want and need.

[MattyD803]

JimmyConwayNW said:

I have recently set up a new business account with Metro. I found the process incredibly simple, they were hugely helpful and the account is up, running and active.

You have done very well there - setting my account up with them back in 2019 was an absolute nightmare ordeal, as has been dealing with them on every single occasion since, for what should have been simple admin tasks. For what was an 'online account', I ended up having to go into branch on 3 separate occasions due to mistakes on their side.

They appear to operate their customer services (both in store and in their call centre) using completely clueless kids who cannot make a single decision or offer advice without extended periods on hold to check with their 'manager', invariably leading to huge delays. In some cases, i've also struggled to even understand their 'street' accents - its completely laughable - i'm on my 3rd formal complaint in 3 years.

Luckily their app / online system is fairly decent, but saying that, they still don't have FreeAgent connectivity, which really is pretty backward in 2022.

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone and I will be very shortly moving everything over to Natwest, who comparatively (despite not having the best rep), are a dream to deal with.

Edited by MattyD803 on Thursday 21st July 10:06

[JimmyConwayNW]

MattyD803 said:

You have done very well there - setting my account up with them back in 2019 was an absolute nightmare ordeal, as has been dealing with them on every single occasion since, for what should have been simple admin tasks. For what was an 'online account', I ended up having to go into branch on 3 separate occasions due to mistakes on their side.

They appear to operate their customer services (both in store and in their call centre) using completely clueless kids who cannot make a single decision or offer advice without extended periods on hold to check with their 'manager', invariably leading to huge delays. In some cases, i've also struggled to even understand their 'street' accents - its completely laughable - i'm on my 3rd formal complaint in 3 years.

Luckily their app / online system is fairly decent, but saying that, they still don't have FreeAgent connectivity, which really is pretty backward in 2022.

I wouldn't recommend them to anyone and I will be very shortly moving everything over to Natwest, who comparatively (despite not having the best rep), are a dream to deal with.

Edited by MattyD803 on Thursday 21st July 10:06

We have had a decent commercial manager who has been pro active, chased us, done most things for us and couldn't be more different in terms of experience.

Kind regards,
Rory

[MattyD803]

JimmyConwayNW said:

We have had a decent commercial manager who has been pro active, chased us, done most things for us and couldn't be more different in terms of experience.

Kind regards,
Rory

Yes, very different by the sounds of it. To this day, Metro are still unable to tell me who my business relationship manager is - I've been told its a dedicated call centre (that deal with online only accounts), but i've also been told it's a bloke at my local branch, who doesn't actually work there anymore - neither will take responsibility for my account. Its lucky i've not got a healthy chunk of cash sat in the account earning no interest......oh.

[SimeSer]

Thanks all for the contributions.

After some discussions I had with my accountant looks like the Holding Company is not a path that can be taken, so I'll refrain a bit and see what other opportunities can be explored.

Sad to read, however, that banks are unbelievably difficult to deal with even for simple business accounts, it's like they fear all of us are drug kingpins or money launderers or arms traffickers.

[DaveA8]

Putting it in a Holding company is creating a whole lot of needless aggravation and attention. What you are doing or planning to do is relatively complex as you have direct overseas investments, double taxation treaties, differing or no capital gains but some countries will deem gains as income potentially. You will have local reporting potentially. I've had shares (50%) in businesses in Spain and Poland, luckily in both of these the local shareholder dealt with compliance on my behalf locally but it still took time and cost. Poland always wanted to try and tax dividends as income on me and then wanted the equivalent of national insurance, Spain wanted to apply a with holding tax despite no tax applying, the local Tax offices are a law unto themselves. Their attitude is most people roll over as the cost of arguing is too much.
Obviously I don't know your exact details but before putting too much money down do serious research on each country/region