Giving Bank Account details to renters of holiday home

H

Homer

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I have an apartment in Portugal that I let out via a website. When I get a booking, I give them a choice of paying by cheque or credit transfer.

Someone has suggested to me that it is not safe to give my bank account details to strangers. It had not occurred to me that this would be risky. Am I being naive?

Surely someone would need more than your account name, number and sort code before they could 'attack' your account. Or is that how the various Nigerian bank scams work?
 
All they technically can do with your account details is lodge to it, which is generally a good thing. :)

Of course any information can be useful wrt social engineering, for example I had a bank statement stolen several years ago and it was used alongside fake ID to set up multiple Vodafone accounts, but in that case Vodafone was as much to blame as anyone for poor security procedures.

I've had my company account details on my public facing website for years, and I've never had an issue.
 
Every time a person writes a cheque they give their name, bank account address, account number, sorting code and a copy of their signature away.
 
Similarly, every credit transfer slip for a business such as paying an ESB bill has a sort-code and bank acc number. It is this kind of ridiculous unfounded rumouring as to why we still work with 19th century payments systems such as cheques and cash in Ireland.

A cheque costs about €1.50 to send/process. Stamp duty about 50c, postage 55c, envelope 5c, processing time by payments staff etc e.g. 20c, lodgement fees e.g. 20c. Cheques can take a day to get to the receiver, the receiver then takes another day getting it lodged, another 5 days through the clearing cycle. And it can bounce!

Compare that to the cost of a credit transfer about 0-20c, which is far quicker. Multiply that by millions of transactions and one can see the productivity savings to be made as a country.
 
Thanks for the replies. It's reassuring to know that I'm not doing anything dangerous. I guess if I'd thought it through, I would have realised it's no worse than writing a cheque.

Thanks
Homer
 
Hi Homer,

I would also get advice from your bank to see if there is anything else you need to bear in mind.
 
In Germany, the standard way of paying bills is credit transfer. I have friends in Germany
who pay invoices to tradesmen by credit transfer every week.
BIC and IBAN numbers are printed as standard on some invoices.I have not seen any
suggestion that this means that the German bank system is constantly under threat of fraud.
 
Hi,
I used to have the same concerns. I had mail which was opened or stolen (at least 1 item) in my last houseshare, and at least 28 items of mail (that I know of) which were stolen in the studio flat I rented afterwards.
Apparently, if fraudsters only know your sort code and account number, they can't do anything: even to set up a direct debit from your bank account, in the UK, they would have to go to your local branch and identify themselves as you.
However, stolen correspondence (paper bills) can be used as proof of address and you can become a victim to identity theft.
For the past 2 years, I've been checking my 'credit reports' online with Checkmyfile: it costs me £17.55 per quarter, and it is very reassuring. I'm sure they must be a similar service in Ireland.
Regards.
 
You could have just a basic account with no money in it to which rent can be lodged and you transfer the money out once lodged.
 
You can get a copy of your credit report in Ireland at the ICB for €6. Everyone should be checking their report at least every year or two, as errors do occur.

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dahamsta said:
You can get a copy of your credit report in Ireland at the ICB for €6. Everyone should be checking their report at least every year or two, as errors do occur.

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Click to expand...

I paid my €6 and got the report today. The report said that there were no accounts found on the ICB system relating to my credit history. I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news.
 
It's generally better to be on there than not, particularly if you want to borrow at some point in the future. Have you ever actually borrowed in Ireland though? If not, then you won't be in their system. If you have then you should, so did you give them all your addresses, past and current? Is there room for error in your address? It's not an exact science in Ireland because we don't have postcodes.
 
I'm in the same house for the last 28 years. I've done relatively little borrowing over the years apart from my mortgage and a top up mortgage to build an extension. I have a credit card which I pay in full each month and I don't have any car loans or other short term loans and it's possible I may not have taken one out since I moved into my current house.

The only thing they may have got wrong in my name. When filling in the form, I entered my first and second forenames and they seem to have taken this to be two separate people i.e. Homer Simpson and Jay Simpson, instead of Homer Jay Simpson. But I would have thought that Homer on its own would have been sufficient as I seldom use my middle name. Maybe the search they did related solely to joint borrowings by two people, one of whom doesn't exist? In which case, the application form is very badly designed and confusing.

Should I spend another €6 to find out?

Homer
 
If you have a credit card, you should have a credit record. As Sue Ellen suggests, get in touch with them to clarify. Generally speaking, official records use full names.
 
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