 If you are a new charity you need to have a registration number when you open a bank account but you can't be registered if you don't have a bank account.
No bank account, no charity number Our first thought was to go to the high street banks and explain – after all, we reasoned, we aren’t the first people to try to open a bank account for charitable purposes, it can’t be that difficult. Or can it? The big guns HSBC, NatWest, Barclays etc didn’t want to know – we didn’t fit into their ‘community’ or ‘not-for-profit’ profiles. Previous experience with other charities and trusts showed us that these banks do have charity accounts, and have made making life difficult for account holders into an art form. We applied to CAF Bank but they wanted a registration number. We thought we had a glimmer of light with Metro bank. A phone call was made, a form submitted and an appointment made. Two of us turned up at the appointed hour and were interviewed by a pleasant young man. The whole thing went pear-shaped when he asked us where our income would come from. We said quite truthfully ‘donations’. Sorry, was his response but you are a charity and you can’t have a bank account. A different angle Various suggestions were made to us such as ‘open an account then change the account’s name’ – but this can lead to an account being frozen, not something we were prepared to risk. Another, which came from several sources was to set up a company limited by guarantee with the same name and open an account for that. Finally we went to the Small Charities Coalition – such a helpful website. We set up a company so we could submit our application to Unity Trust Bank as recommended by the them. The lack of Charity Commission registration was not a problem, but we needed a business plan. The next hurdle Half and hour’s trawling on the web reading about business plans, and one downloaded template later and we were in business. The plan was written and reviewed and then submitted. Bingo – we had a bank account. Finally it was back to the chicken (or was that egg?) of the Charity Commission application for registration. The application was finished and submitted and after considerably longer than the advertised 40 working days, we got our registration.
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