Thirdfort - Any info please

jewelz

Hi, I've just started dealing with a conveyancing company who use the Thirdfort App, I'm pretty confident about the company (so therefore the App), but have never come across this App before. When I rang my bank they also do not know of this App. but did know about 'Open Banking'.

They use 'Open Banking' to connect to your bank account (to access statements), via the App. Has anybody used this App? What was your experience? Do they access all my statement history? Is this standard now? What if I want to use the old method?  It worries me.

TripleH

We have used it.

From memory it is used to verify your ID without you having to go in person with bank statements and ID.

I think they are more concerned about confirming you are who you claim than probing into your spending habits. We still had to confirm where the money we were using to buy had come from.

You can still go in and verify yourself the old way if you wish but I think in an online world where you don't have paper bank statements this will become more common.

Also with online conveyancing I suspect this is what they will want you to use. We used them because we were 100 miles from where our covayancer was based and in a national lockdown.

jewelz

Thanks for your post, yes, I'm quite a way from my company too, so I'm sure it makes sense for that reason alone; just feels a bit wrong to give someone access to my account in that way.  Probably I'm just old school and need to embrace the new tech.

TripleH

I don't think they have full access to your account, its more that they are piggybacking off the bank's verification of ID steps.

They should have no more access to your bank details than a solicitor firm photocopying your bank statements and ID, in fact in my mind they should have access to less information.

jjxzhang

We used it as well and were given the option of just uploading bank statements directly, as opposed to giving them access via Open Banking. I used the Open Banking connection with my HSBC account, but if I remember correctly my partner had issues with it and she's with NatWest.

jewelz

TripleH & jjxzhang, just what I was after, that helps a lot, thanks.