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

[Deleted User]

sheramber said:

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

Yes - I use that. I don’t like change.

dales1

I paid by this new method in the middle of December, and received an immediate email receipt from HMRC.

Jeremy535897

I had to authorise the payment. I don't think the bank would allow Ecospend to take funds from my account without authorisation from me. If they did, they would have to reimburse me.

400ixl

kulath said:

Just that there is no evidence that Ecospend is a trustworthy company.  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.

Ecospend is an FCA regulated payments platform developed by Starling Bank and is on their register on their public website.

https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=0010X00004KSo9HQAT

Not sure what more you need than FCA regulated.

penners324

It's not a scam, it's a brand of Starling Bank. It uses an API to link HMRC to your bank to collect the tax.