Who can apply for a Tide account?

We offer business accounts to sole traders and directors of limited companies. To apply, you must:

• Be a minimum of 18 years old

• Have a valid UK mobile phone number

• Have a device that's registered to a UK App or Google Play store.

Sole traders or freelancers must also

• Have a valid UK home address

• Be registered with HMRC 

Directors of limited companies must also

• Have a valid home address in the UK or overseas

• Be registered with Companies House 

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.

We don’t currently offer current accounts to businesses in the following industries:

• The holding, managing and/or controlling of a third party’s (client’s/customer’s) finances in the Tide account. This includes using the money 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 organisations, 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.