Business account for tradespeople in Belgium: bank or neobank?

For a self-employed tradesperson in Belgium, a neobank like Qonto or Revolut Business handles the daily grind nicely: fuel, over-the-counter material purchases, expense receipts. But it runs into three Belgian walls: the credit that finances the van, the structured communication, and the overdraft. The right setup is usually a pair.

A business account, for a tradesperson, isn't just a card and an IBAN. It collects job deposits, pays suppliers and VAT, and serves as the gateway to the loan that will finance the next van or lift. That last point is where neobanks and classic banks play in different leagues. Here's how to weigh them up, with the numbers.

Does a self-employed tradesperson need a separate business account?

A company must have one, a sole trader doesn't, but really should. An electrician or plumber operating as an SRL (limited company) must hold an account in the company's name, separate from the personal one. As a sole trader, no law forces it.

In practice, mixing private and professional spending on one account gets messy fast. When the quarterly VAT return comes due, or when deductible expenses need pulling out, a tradesperson who mixed everything spends hours sorting the family car's fuel from the work van's. A dedicated account does that sorting at the source.

One detail to watch: a "business" account at a neobank doesn't carry the same status as a Belgian pro account. Some features the tax office or suppliers expect are missing, as we'll see. What this means for you: open a separate account, yes, but check it ticks the Belgian boxes before moving your whole business onto it.

Neobank or classic bank for a tradesperson: which to pick?

Both, in most cases. The neobank shines on everyday expense management; the Belgian bank stays essential for financing and local footing. The table below sums up the gaps that matter to a tradesperson.

Verdict: no neobank finances an investment. For a tradesperson who drives a lot and renews equipment, the "credit" line is decisive, and it rules out the first three as a single account.

Can you open a Revolut Business account as a sole trader?

Not as a sole trader. Revolut Business restricts its accounts to registered companies and explicitly excludes individual self-employed people, alongside nonprofits and the public sector. A tradesperson with an SRL can open one; a sole trader is left out, or falls back on the Revolut Pro feature of the personal account, which offers weaker guarantees.

Qonto with a French IBAN, is it a problem for paying Belgian suppliers?

Not legally, a little in practice. Since 2012, IBAN discrimination has been banned across SEPA: a builders' merchant can't refuse your French IBAN just because it isn't Belgian. On the ground, some invoicing software and administrative services are still more comfortable with a Belgian IBAN, and the structured communication issue isn't solved by an EU regulation.

Why does the structured communication clash with a neobank?

Because that format is a Belgian specificity that foreign neobanks don't validate. The structured communication, those twelve digits framed by plus signs, is used by the tax office (SPF Finances) for VAT and advance-tax payments, and by many Belgian suppliers to tie a payment to an invoice.

On a Belgian bank, you paste that reference into a dedicated field that checks the format and rejects a wrong entry. On a neobank with a foreign IBAN, that checked field doesn't exist: you type the digits in free text, without a safety net. The payment goes through, but nothing flags a typo.

In practice, a single wrong digit on a misallocated advance-tax payment means a reminder from the tax office a few months later, once the department tracks down who the money belongs to. I've seen self-employed people lose half a day getting an allocation corrected that a Belgian bank would have blocked at the source. Nothing dramatic, but one more piece of friction when you're already invoicing between two jobs.

How do you finance a van or equipment with a neobank?

You can't, and it's the heaviest limit. Neither Qonto, Revolut Business nor N26 offers investment credit in Belgium. Yet a tradesperson's core tools, a van, a lift, a fleet of machines, are exactly what gets financed on credit.

That kind of financing remains the classic banks' business. KBC finances a new, used or electric van through its investment credit; BNP Paribas Fortis offers investment credit for professional equipment; Belfius and Banque Van Breda, historically close to the self-employed and liberal professions, play the same tune. A neobank simply doesn't lend.

What this means for you: a tradesperson's business account shouldn't be chosen first on the monthly subscription price, but on access to credit. A plumber won over by a nine-euro Qonto who finds out two years later that he has to build a banking relationship from scratch to finance his second van made a bad call. The bank that has known you for three years and watches your turnover lends more easily than the one meeting you cold.

Which card to manage fuel and job-site purchases?

Here the neobank takes the lead back. For fuel, materials and team expenses, the management tools of Qonto, Revolut Business and N26 are ahead of most Belgian banking apps.

Qonto automatically detects VAT on spending and asks for the photo receipt the moment a card is charged, which empties the glovebox full of crumpled tickets at quarter's end. Revolut Business lets you create a card for each worker with a per-card limit, handy when an apprentice fetches three bags of cement without fronting the cash. N26 Business gives 0.1% back on card payments, modest but real on a fuel line that weighs heavily.

In practice, that's why the pairing works so well for tradespeople. The Belgian bank (KBC, BNP Paribas Fortis, Belfius or Van Breda) holds the main account, collects job payments and opens access to investment credit. The neobank, as a second account, handles the team's cards, fuel and expenses. Each does what it does best.

To compare accounts and cards side by side, our comparator breaks down the fees, and our business account for starters guide covers the basics of opening one. Our analysis is written by Sophie Laurent, who spent eight years in a bank branch before comparing Belgian offers.

FAQ

The questions tradespeople and construction sole traders most often ask when opening a business account.