New employer needs bank statements of last 8 months - how to send safely?

[dowie]

How would providing bank statements uncover that?

because you'd have a salary paid into your account if you were employed somewhere else for example

also if you were claiming to be 'travelling' but your bank statements show you're buying things from boots on your local high street then you're rumbled too

 

[NickK]

Email is not secure between servers.

This. Plus the company may or may not be secure itself.

Perhaps it should be illegal for companies to request bank details like this without adequate security.. After all - there's no guarantee that your details don't go missing or are exposed as a hack later on after you've been rejected for any reason..

 

[.Lethal]

Because he can't provide references which cover the workless period, presumably. Well, he says he can't, and this'll be to make sure he wasn't employed and then sacked etc.

Could be this, never heard of it personally.

To be honest, it's none of their business.

What kind/nature of work is this?

It really depends on the type of work.

Fairly common, certainly within financial services.

This was my first thought having worked in this sector previously, however they didn't ask me for bank statements, a credit check and some other stuff they did themselves. Only reason I remember this is that the other guy who got the job with me shortly lost it as he had CCJ's

 

[The Geezer]

Pull down PGP, create pass phrase and create a self extracting file.

Send the pass phrase via alternate method like SMS

 

[Semple]

Does sound a bit odd, i've not heard of anything like this.

To be fair it doesn't prove anything either, i have a current account that i've not paid into for 8 months and could use that to meet your criteria, all while i still have a full time job being paid into another account.

 

[BDEE]

Fairly common, certainly within financial services.

No, it isn't.

 

[Aldav]

Erm, tell them to do one!

Why on earth would they want proof that you haven't been working the last 8 months?

At which point, they may well tell the potential employee (altich88, in this case) to "do one" over his ex-new job. Remember that it's up to an employer who they hire, and don't hire, provided they don't fall foul of discrimination legislation in the process. As this is not one of the issues protected by anti-discrimination laws, they'll probably just withdraw the offer if told, politely or otherwise, to do one.

That said, I agree it's rather offensive asking for these and, personally, I would be wondering if I wanted to work for them. But, after being out of work for 8 months, that may be a line altich doesn't feel inclined to take.

@altich .... have they put any stipulations on the form? Are copies acceptable or must these be originals? If originals, then short of hand delivery, nothing is entirely safe. Recorded delivery is relatively safe, as is a decent courier, but both could go wrong. Can they be hand-delivered to a senior manager at your office, who then copies them, signs them and forwards them to HR.

Also, can transaction data be blanked out? If so, consider what to obscure.

Can HR provide, and I know it's a bit last century, a point-to-point fax number? Failing that, as others have suggested, some form of encrypted file, and the key under a different delivery method is probably the best bet.

Also, how do they know that the statements you provide are your only bank accounts? Or, for that matter, that you weren't paid in cash for the last 8 months?

 

[teaboy5]

Forgetting as to why they are needed, what do you think you are sending here? New plans for a joint strike fighter?

Blank out the important information such as account number etc etc and just email the dam thing over.

No matter how much you encrypt the information you have no idea what they will do on the other side with it. It may be printed and left on a desk for the rest of it's days, or they decrypt the file and extract the contents in a share everyone in HR can see.

 

[AHarvey]

yes because bank statements can't be falsified to hide anything....

 

[dowie]

Blank out the important information such as account number etc etc and just email the dam thing over.

why would you blank out the account number - you're going to be giving them that information if you want to be paid anyway

 

[chaparral]

To be honest, it's none of their business.

This is what I was thinking...

I would ask them to give me there bank statements for the last 8 months and tell them you want to can check that they can afford to pay you as a lot of businesses are going bankrupt these days..

 

[PapaLazaru]

To be honest, it's none of their business.

What kind/nature of work is this?

I had to go through a fully 6 year address history, criminal record check and full credit check for my last job but I agree, the OP's outgoings are nothing to do with them.

If they want proof you have not been working just blank everything out apart from credits, as surely that would suffice?

 

[Pez]

No, it isn't.

I'm aware of 5 high street banks that all use screening services that will request bank statements, travel tickets or other evidence to support employment claims/gaps.

That certainly meets my criteria for fairly common.

 

[Hades]

Stuff like financial services and the intelligence services it's normal, given the former gives you the opportunity sort out your financial problems... so if someone owes ridiculous sums, etc, there's potentially a risk they'll commit crime through desperation... and with the latter it's something which could be used against employees in terms of blackmail and all that.

I've been employed by 4 banks in both the Retail an IB sides and never had to provide my bank statements ( never had a period of unemployment yet though so maybe that's a factor ). They have performed very detailed credit checks and background checks on me though.

 

[muon]

yes because bank statements can't be falsified to hide anything....

May as well never ask for evidence of anything, ever. After all it can all be falsified.

 

[mattyfez]

If the job offer is legit, then encrypting it or even a password protected .rar file is simple with free software, but my primary concern is why they would want it, there are CRB checks and more intrusive checks that they do on thier own for government institutions for that kind of thang, no need to supply and drill into minute detail of personal statements.

Unless the employer is Prince Hajeem III of nigeria.. it might well be a phishing scam.

In fact a good vetting or even ask them to call the job center will immediately prove your status... is seems very fishy to me. I've never heard of such a thing, asking someone to send detailed un-encrypted financial data over email stinks of a data protection act breach at best.

 

[mattyfez]

Stuff like financial services and the intelligence services it's normal

No, it is not, they carry out their own independent checks on you.

 

[mattyfez]

Yeh, I'm not convinced. At all.

 

[itchy]

Total bull, never in my life I have been asked for bank statements for employment.

Proof of residence and ID/Ni number but bank statements never.

You are applying for a job, so ask these questions in the interview.

What relevance is it to see my financial income?

How will this effect my ability at my new position?

What impact will it have on my job outcome if I am poor/rich?

What if you had no income?

Its a job not a mortgage, tell them to go screw themselves.

 

[mattyfez]

Well, I have the DV questionnaire from a while back in front of me, where they ask all the questions about financial matters... but clearly they don't just rely on that!

Yeh it's normal to be asked about CCJs, convictions, previous addresses, relatives, relatives known convictions, their CCJ's etc, I've gone through some substantial vetting at high level and have never been asked to provide bank statements.