Is it safe to hand out your bank details?

H

horizonverizon

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When I was broke a couple of years ago and wanted a present for my birthday, I shamefully went on Reddit and asked for help thinking I'd get no responses. Interestingly, I got someone to send me €40.

My friend says this was stupid for the person as someone could have stolen the details but is that just paranoia? As far as I'm aware, no one can do anything with your BIC, IBAN, or even PayPal username. Even if someone did get your password, many baking apps/merchants use two-factor authentication.
 
You can leave your front door unlocked and the chance are no one will break in but would you take the risk?

In your case, you gave out your banking details and some of your other online personal details via your reddit page. it's the beginning of a fraudster putting a profile together. They could have used your user name etc to try and track you down on social media, then they may get a name and other details

And yes, many banking apps and merchant do us 2 MFA but an awful lot don't
 
Jeremy Clarkson once wrote and article poo-pooing the idea that anyone could do something with your bank details and published his within the article as ‘proof’.

People signed him up for direct debits all over the place for things like charities and his account was cleared out.

He ended up eating humble pie.
 
Gordon Gekko said:
Jeremy Clarkson once wrote and article poo-pooing the idea that anyone could do something with your bank details and published his within the article as ‘proof’.

People signed him up for direct debits all over the place for things like charities and his account was cleared out.

He ended up eating humble pie.
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That was 2008. A lot has changed in the meantime. These days, every second business seems to have its IBAN on its website. Even the Revenue Commissioners does.
 
I got a phone from Laya Health Insurance. They said that their records indicated that I was an Ulster Bank customer and if I could give them my new bank details over the phone.
I always make my annual payment to them rather than they taking their payment from me via DD.

I didn't volunteer my details and forgot about it until I read this thread.

Has anyone else had a phone call from Laya about this?
 
Maybe for processing claims as they get paid direct to your bank account, you can update via the app I think
 
Tintagel said:
I got a phone from Laya Health Insurance. They said that their records indicated that I was an Ulster Bank customer and if I could give them my new bank details over the phone.
I always make my annual payment to them rather than they taking their payment from me via DD.

I didn't volunteer my details and forgot about it until I read this thread.

Has anyone else had a phone call from Laya about this?
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I pay Laya once a year directly too so they don't need my bank details for that, however they do need details if you have any claims so they can pay refund into it, I had an UB account as well but changed the details by updating it online with them.

I imagine with UB closing in just over a month that maybe they have started contacting customers who have not yet updated their claim account details.
 
This might be a silly question, but... Is it possible to get the bank account number changed if I have concerns in this area?
 
wondering said:
Is it possible to get the bank account number changed
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No. You would need to close the account and open a new one. But what are you concerned about? Your card details and Internet Banking login derails are important to keep secure, but your account number alone is pretty useless except to set up a SEPA direct debit which comes with its own guarantee that you can recall.
 
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