I totally agree - I'm just posting this for people who are desperately looking for a lifeline. At one point, I thought the Bath Building Society would offer me a basic cash saver account, so I was contemplating driving down to Bath for the day with all my company registration documents to open the account - after all, the alternative was for the business to fail, 3 people to lose their jobs, and my IVA to fail. I then found out that their savings account required you to open a current account with them first, so that was a no-goer. Same with the Beverly Building Society - and yes, I would have quite happily driven to Hull!
So if you're in this sort of position, you might find the information useful. We IVA'ers have to look out for each other, after all! Oh, and UpToMyNeckInIt, HSBC will find you eventually - Halifax closed my Treasurer's account down; I got away with it for 4 years, but they got me in the end. And when you get that dreaded letter and realise your business only has 60 days before it gets shut down, it pays to have options. I just pray that Citibank don't do the same thing - I'm running my current account facilities with them, but they have a rule about not using it for business use. Honestly, I feel like a b***** refugee at the moment.
Just a rant here - the idea of an IVA is that you can continue to run your business, but if you can't open a bank account, or take out Professional Indemnity insurance, how the hell are we supposed to? Anyway, rant over, but my local MP happens to be Vince Cable, who's no friend of the banks, so I've a good mind to let him know what's going on here. For whatever good that'll do.