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How secure is a bank transfer?


milkeybar kid
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I just cant get my head around this.! For security reasons I have it imprinted on the brain "do not give bank details out"! yet a a client for the gite wants to pay me £200.00 deposit for 2012 hols. No cheque book ( this is a first)so he says he will do a bank transfer and needs bank details. Moi not being a very trusting soul would appreciate someone explaining to me what the worse scenario is if my bank info was in the wrong hands, how would the info be used. Also please it would be a UK bank to UK bank transfer so would they still need IBAN and SWift number. Thank you
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Anybody who you ever pay by cheque has the information he needs to pay you.

Exact Account Name

Bank and Branch

Six Digit Sort Code

Account Number

In order to pay you he also needs the supply / check similar information about hois account plus his date of birth and an eight digit security number. He may have an IBAN which reduces the amount of typeing.

I cannot remeber the last time I wrote a UK cheque. No envelope to address, to letter to post and the details I want appear on the bank statement so no guessing what I paid for, plus a printout which clearly shows the money was sent.

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This is our 3rd year and all our income is received by bank transfer to our Uk account. Very easy, trouble free way and very convenient for your customers. Not had a single problem. Moneys in our account usually within hours of the customer arranging it and i can confirm receipt to them often the same day. it's the way to go!
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[quote user="milkeybar kid"]Anton I have internet banking but I have neither transferred money or received as I found it scary!! Have I understood as long as no one has my password (number code) all the bank details are useless to a fraudster?[/quote]

That's my understanding, certainly. The account number, sort code, IBAN and so on are the "public" face of the account; the password, mother's maiden name, the name of your first pet and the street you lived on as a child are the private face. Keep the two firmly seperate and there should be no problem.

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MBK,

If you have a French bank account, you r bank details are printed on the RIB (Relevé d'Identité Bancaire) enclosed in your chq books. This is to facilitate pavements by direct debit or by transfers.

The paying guests from the Netherlands or Belgium I have dealt with almost exclusively pay by transfer and I transfer the security deposit back to them online.

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It's absolutely safe for all the reasons already given. I cannot remember the last time I wrote a cheque in the UK. If we need to send money to our children or grandchildren or they to us, it's always by bank transfer and we use it increasingly for other things too.
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I'm getting confused here, MBK. [8-)]  You specifically asked about bank transfers at the beginning of this thread and all the replies are on this subject. I have never done a banker's draft in my life but regularly make bank transfers online (which is what is meant by internet banking)  It's totally safe for both the recipient and the one doing the transfer and the money will appear in your account almost instantly. It's also totally free if the transfer is, as you say, between two different UK banks.  Just go ahead and let the person have your 'public' bank details as explained in previous posts and you'll see how easy and safe it is.
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Thanks KF, I am confused as well, I have double checked his 2 emails. The first says he will do a bank transfer. When I queried some points he says I have misunderstood he is not proposing a transfer through internet banking or bank draft, but he will ask the bank to transfer money directly but he needs my bank details!!!

At the start of this thread I do refer only to bank transfer the replies have been on "online banking transfers" . But all very informative. I have now emailed our bank to ask what other way other than cheques, bankers draft, and internet banking can money be deposited into ones own account by another person! I will post the reply.
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No need to be confused.

The client can pay you in one of the following ways: 

They can send a cheque (but I think you said they had no cheque book)

They can ring up their bank with your account details (name of account, sort code and bank account number) and request their bank to pay money into your account.  Their bank might ask them security questions but that's their problem and not yours as none of the security stuff will refer to your account.

They can go to a branch of your bank in the UK and, using your details as above, can pay in cash or cheque to be credited to your account.

(Benjamin, I don't think it is necessary to physically go to "your branch", any branch of "your" bank will do).

If they use internet banking, then by the simple expedient of inputing your "details", again if UK bank to UK bank, just account name, sort code and account number will be sufficient.

No problems with giving out, as someone has explained, any "public" information about your account.  Any details that you find on your cheque book is "safe" information.  Usually, there is a sort code (6 figure number) that identifies your bank, an account number of  8 figures and the name that you use on your account.

For a sum such as £200 and UK to UK, there is not usually the need for any more information as regards the address of bank or IBAN or other information.

I worked in a bank immediately before coming to France and I am hoping my information is still current. 

C'est tout!

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All makes sense so far but what exactly are the bank details that you are not supposed to give out?

I get on average 20 E-mails a day from various people on the Ivory coast wanting to pay several millions into my bank account, ever since I uttered the famous last words "I have never yet recieved a spam E-mail" [blink]

Now as I already feel like the richest person on the planet I have not replied to any of them but I assume that very quickly they would ask for bank details such as the above, do they also ask for passwords? Do people really give these out? Or is it that armed just with the details on an RIB they have some way of taking your hard earned?

I ask because enough people do get taken in by these scams to make it worth their while

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But from what you read, the Ivory Coast gentlemen's scam is not that they take money out of your bank. You do. They put money into your bank (not), and persuade you to give them some of it back. Unfortunately you end up with none of the money they 'sent' you, whereas they do get the money you send them, and that's the last you see of it.
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Sweet 17... you hit the nail on the head. We have a reply from our bank........

The easiest way to make a transfer is by the Faster Payment system

operated by all the main clearing banks, which can be done by internet

banking, telephone banking or by personal visit to the branch. The payer

needs the sorting code , account number, beneficiary name, and amount. The

payment is normally instantaneous , costs nothing and is available for any

amount up to the value of £10k
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