Trade accounts

[tomo8]

Arite all. Just thought id start with how good and usefull this site is.
Anyway was just wondering, what the score is regarding trade accounts with builders merchants?

Do i have to be a registerd company?
Do they do credit checks etc?

Anything else that might be of use, thanks.

[mickg]

>>>>>Do i have to be a registered company?
no you can be a sole trader, partnership or a limited company

>>>>>Do they do credit checks etc?
yes they do a credit check, if you have only lived in the house your in now for less than 2 years you need to say where you lived before
you need to give them bank detail and 2 or 3 other merchants or suppliers who you buy materials from so they can contact them for a credit reference

basically you need to build up a track record with them otherwise they won't give you credit

if they won't give you a trade account then Travis Perkins and B & Q do a trade cash card which give you a bit of discount on any products you purchase, the more you buy from them gives you a bit of leverage with prices

[tomo8]

You say they want names of other merhants that you've used. What if you havent?
Is it quite hard to start an account now? If youve got no other suppliers for them to check with. Also the old credit crunch, wont have helped.

[ratty]

As stated if you havent got previous accounts or references the only way to really start is use the trade cash cards.
You will find most national builders merchants are starting to use these now rather than accounts for new customers.
Once you have used these schemes for a few months they will be more likely to give you an account
Ratty

[tomo8]

cheers felas, thanks for the replies.