HMRC tax refund online: UK banks only, no online accounts

UncleJoes

Just a warning to anyone else who gets a letter from HMRC saying they owe you tax (always a letter, an e-mail is a scam). There is an online system to claim it and get it paid into your bank account. However, they do not recognise accounts from online-only banks (Monzo, Chase, Virgin Money....). They are considered an international payment transfer because the bank entity behind the account is not a UK one. So if you don't have an alternative account to use, you'll have to wait for a cheque.
Not surprising they haven't caught up to how the world works now but disappointing. (And potentially discriminatory to younger people who are more likely to have online-only accounts and whose app process for paying in cheques doesn't always work properly.)

etienneg

People who use an online-only account for their banking are free to open an additional account at a more traditional institution for unusual situations, one of which you describe. Most (if not all) traditional accounts offer online access as well, so you can pay in a cheque and transfer the money to your online-only account without difficulty.

In fact, it's the usual suggestion on MSE that everyone should have more than one account, at different institutions, in case of access issues to the account you normally use - either technical issues or delays for security reasons. So doing this would kill two birds with one stone.

It's often easier to seek readily available alternatives than rant about perceived injustices!

Peter999_2

I got a refund cheque from HMRC for just over £1,000.     Great  I thought, I'll use the Barclays online cheque paying in app.

However, it only allows you to pay in up to £1,000 which is ridiculous, so frustrating.   I had to go to my nearest Barclays branch, which is now quite a way, for a guy to take the cheque off me, put it in an ATM and pay it in.   What a waste of a couple of hours.

etienneg

etienneg said:

... so you can pay in a cheque and transfer the money to your online-only account without difficulty.

I meant to say:

so you can pay in a cheque or receive a transfer and transfer the money ...

penners324

You must be doing something wrong. Those institutions you mention are UK banks so receiving a payment from HMRC into them is definitely possible.

In fact I've received a refund into 1 of them 2 years ago (Starling).

penners324

HMRC also use Starling Bank to process their Open Banking refunds