Is HMRC "Pay by bank account (new)" legitimate and safe

kulath

HMRC have suddenly introduced a new "Pay by Bank Account (Approve a payment to come straight from your bank account)" way to pay your Self Assessment bill.

They have hidden the old details of their BACS account that I always used to pay with.

It turns out that Pay by Bank Account goes through some company called Ecospend that I have never heard of, and sounds exactly like a scam to me.

Has anyone every heard of Ecospend, and are they legitimate? It seems to me that if this was a real way to pay your tax bill, there would have been some publicity about it, and it would have been done direct through HMRC, not through some dubious third party.

Has Ecospend ever done anything else? It seems to be a company with only two employees (Companies House return 2018 and 2019, 4 in 2020), one director Metin ERKMAN who is a Cypriot, and they have an interest in a Turkish company. Is this really the sort on company I should be sharing my details with?

[Deleted User]

Does this help?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-banking-privacy-notice/open-banking-privacy-notice

Jeremy535897

I paid my 31 January bill using it. My HMRC account shows no tax to pay, so they must have got it.

[Deleted User]

Might be an idea to withdraw some of the presumptions made in the opening post.

kulath

purdyoaten2 said:

Might be an idea to withdraw some of the presumptions made in the opening post.

Which "presumptions" do you have in mind? I am not aware that I made any presumptions. "sounds exactly like a scam to me" is clearly an opinion ("to me") not a presumption, or are you thinking of something else?

Thanks for the reference to the "privacy notice", but most of what it says boils down to "We only permit them to process your personal data:

• for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions
• with our agreement"

this in not at all reassuring to say the least, because it is not clear whether they will process my data off-shore, and if so, any assurances are probably completely meaningless.

I am not reassured in the slightest by the "Privacy Notice". Having looked up the "company" on Companies House, it looks more and more like a scam.

kulath

Jeremy535897 said:

I paid my 31 January bill using it. My HMRC account shows no tax to pay, so they must have got it.

They may have got the money, but most scams start by carrying out a legitimate transaction. It is called the convincer "The victim receives a small payout as a demonstration of the scheme's purported effectiveness. This may be a real amount of money or faked in some way (including physically or electronically). In a gambling con, the victim is allowed to win several small bets. In a stock market con, the victim is given fake dividends.".

Why has there been nothing about this "payment company" in the comsumer champion websites?

Jeremy535897

This isn't a payment to me. I paid HMRC. HMRC have received the money according to my personal tax account. If you are suggesting that they have hacked or scammed the government and HMRC, and will take the next payment I make in six months' time, they must be both very confident and be prepared to play a very long game. If they went to all this trouble, I would have thought it would be child's play to pad out the Companies House entries.

[Deleted User]

Jeremy535897 said:

This isn't a payment to me. I paid HMRC. HMRC have received the money according to my personal tax account. If you are suggesting that they have hacked or scammed the government and HMRC, and will take the next payment I make in six months' time, they must be both very confident and be prepared to play a very long game. If they went to all this trouble, I would have thought it would be child's play to pad out the Companies House entries.

A client of mine paid her tax by this method on Wednesday. Like you her account has been updated with the payment.

kulath

Jeremy535897 said:

This isn't a payment to me. I paid HMRC. HMRC have received the money according to my personal tax account. If you are suggesting that they have hacked or scammed the government and HMRC, and will take the next payment I make in six months' time, they must be both very confident and be prepared to play a very long game. If they went to all this trouble, I would have thought it would be child's play to pad out the Companies House entries.

No, I'm not suggesting that they have hacked or scammed HMRC or the government. Just that there is no evidence that Ecospend is a trustworthy company. If they were going to steal your money, they don't need to wait till your next payment, they already have all your banking details, they could steal your money at any time.

This doesn't of course mean that I believe they are going to steal anything, I am just saying that that I expect rather more evidence that they are trustworthy than a two or four man company with minimal assets.

sheramber

The linked article does say if you don't want to pay that way you can pay another way.

BACS still available according to this  https://www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill/bank-details

[Deleted User]

Announced February 2021:



https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/37400/hmrc-awards-open-banking-contract-to-ecospend

https://www.altfi.com/article/8678_nearly-25bn-open-banking-transactions-via-ecospend