Giving out bank details - security

ericpode

I'm considering setting up a web page which will have a PALPAL "donate" button to allow visitors to make a donation if they wish.

I'd like to offer an alternative in case someone does not have a Paypal account. It strikes me that I could just open a savings account and publish the sort code and account number then anyone could make a direct payment into the account if they wished.

Can anyone think of any security problems with this?

If the savings account is the only one I have with the bank then this sounds pretty secure, but I don't want to risk someone hijacking my relationship with the bank.

jonesMUFCforever

The only problem I can see is that you will have to tell the bank the purpose (and where payments are coming from and roughly how much) of the account before you put it on your website.
Is it going to be a charity? or a business?

ericpode

<i>Is it going to be a charity? or a business?</i>

I will be a personal web site with a couple of items of free software to download. It's a bit niche, and will probably get very little interest, but I'd like to offer the option to donate to help with the cost of the site. I'd anticipate very few if any bank transfers of that type.

Incidentally can such direct bank transfers only be done from accounts in the UK or would it be free/cheap for people outside the UK to pay directly into a UK (savings) account?

jonesMUFCforever

In that case I would open a PAYPAL acount and let people donate to you that way.
Banks will not be interested.

grumbler

ericpode wrote:

It strikes me that I could just open a savings account and publish the sort code and account number then anyone could make a direct payment into the account if they wished.

Can anyone think of any security problems with this?

If the savings account is the only one I have with the bank then this sounds pretty secure, but I don't want to risk someone hijacking my relationship with the bank.

Sort code and account number are clearly printed on all personal cheques along with the account holder name. Do you see any security problems when writing a cheque to somebody?