this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
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Mfw the rest of the world just has bank transfers
Right, I'd just get their account number and sort code, and can transfer securely for free, normally immediately or at least within 2 hours if their bank also uses SWIFT, which they all do.
If I understand correctly your account number is kinda of a big deal and a security risk to share it. But I may be wrong, nothing in US banking is straightforward or makes sense.
Depends. It’s not an issue at all for European bank accounts. All you can use it for is to deposit money in my account. Pretty much every company will have their bank account number listed on their website and in their letterhead.
That is what I thought was in the US also, but it seems to not be the case.
If someone has your account and routing number they can pull money out of your account. This is literally how autopay works for your internet or credit card or whatever.
Granted doing so without authorization is fraud and the account you pull into is going to be investigated, but that's all you really need. Two numbers.
In the UK the bank account number is just a form of ID. Sort code identifies the bank and branch.
When I add a new payee, the bank runs a check to see that the name, sort code and account number match (even if it's from another bank). Even if they do match there's a pop-up warning about scams before the transfer goes ahead. Once they're on my list of payees it's just click and transfer. I do all that on my phone via my bank's app.
There's no way to "pull" money from another account purely using its number. Banking scams do exist here, but they generally rely on bamboozling people into paying money themselves, eg buying gift cards, or giving the scammers control of their phone.
You do need the person's name as well, but yeah that's just about it. It's not great.
That is what I thought, so not something you wanna do to send money to random people.
If you hand someone a check, it has those numbers on it.
Security and PII is a joke in the US. Public info started getting used as if it were private.
What year is it?!