Things your bank will never ask you to do

UK Finance, the trade association that oversees the UK finance and banking industry, found that nearly £1.3 billion was lost to fraudsters in 2020 – although an additional £1.6 billion in fraud was prevented thanks to safety measures. While companies are doing what they can to keep their customers safe, we have to be vigilant too.

That’s why the banking association has launched fraud awareness campaigns, which offer tips to try and prevent people from losing their hard-earned cash to scammers. While there is a lot of advice out there and there are unfortunately a lot of different ways for people to get scammed, the most important thing you can do is to try and keep your bank account safe.

This means knowing what you can expect from your banking provider and when you need to be on your guard. So, to help you keep your finances safe, here are eight things your bank will NEVER do:

1. Ask you for your full PIN number or any online banking passwords, either by email, over the phone or in person.
2. Send someone to your home to collect cash, bank cards or anything else.
3. Ask you to email or text personal or banking information.
4. Send an email with a link to a page that asks you to enter your online banking log-in details.
5. Ask you to authorise the transfer of funds to a new account or hand over cash.
6. Call to advise you to buy diamonds, land or other commodities.
7. Ask you to carry out a test transaction online.
8. Provide banking services through any mobile apps other than the bank's official apps.

Now, there will be other ways by which fraudsters can scam you out of your money, but at least these tips should help keep your bank account safe. Remember to do your research whenever you’re looking to spend money and you might not only save yourself from becoming a victim of fraud, but also save some cash.