SOLE TRADER BANK ACCOUNT

A sole trader is someone who is self employed, and has their own source of income outside of a PAYE-based job. This is the first step for many businesses.

No, Tide isn’t a bank.

Tide is a business financial platform and the leading provider of digital business banking services in the UK. We are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and offer e-money accounts, provided by PrePay Solutions (PPS), as well as business bank accounts, provided by ClearBank.

We believe that this model gives us the opportunity to provide a wider range of products and services to our members, helping them to save time (and money) on their financial admin.

If you’re the director of an active company incorporated in the UK and registered with UK Companies House, you’ll be eligible for a Registered Business account. UK-based sole traders and freelancers with a valid UK residential address who are registered with HMRC are eligible for a Sole Trader account.

For both account types, you’ll need to be aged 18 or above, be eligible to run a business or be self-employed in the UK, have a valid UK phone number, and hold a device registered to a UK App or Google Play store.

We’re on a mission to help business owners spend less time on money admin.

However, there are a number of high risk industries that we can’t take on, as this would mean not being able to focus our time and energy on the rest of our members.

As a result and going forwards, we will not be offering current accounts to businesses in the following industries:

• The holding, managing an/or controlling of a third party’s (client’s/customer’s) funds in the Tide account. This includes using the funds on behalf of other individuals

• Insurance companies (incl. insurance brokers)

• Trading of crypto/virtual currencies

• Operating as a pawnbroker

• Extraction of precious metals and stones

• Investments (incl. real estate investments)

• Money services (such as foreign exchange, loan providers, money transfers)

• Banking services (incl. BCAs, loans, digital wallets, etc.)

• Casinos, prize draws and other betting or gambling activities

• Sale of unlicensed pharmaceuticals

• Sale or trade of cannabidiol (CBD) products

• Trading of weapons, explosives or armaments

• Unlicensed trading and processing of scrap metal

• Unlicensed waste management

• Unlicensed animal breeding

• Sale, import and export of used vehicles or heavy machinery

• Escort services and other services in the adult industry

• Bidding fee auctions

• Non-profit organizations, including charities

• Operating as, but not limited to, CICs and CIOs, PLC, LLP, Partnership, Trust.

You can read more about this in our blog post: Providing financial security for our members.