Name from sort code and acc number?
Discussion
If you have a bank sort code and an account number, is it possible to find out the name of the account owner? I have a sneaking suspicion (call it paranoia) that the recipient of a transfer I intend to make is not the actual person I want to send money to. Australian bank, if that makes any difference.
I assume you can't, but it's worth asking.
I assume you can't, but it's worth asking.
Their bank will certainly be able to find this out, but I doubt very much you could obtain this as a third party.
I imagine you are talking about a personal transfer between friends and you don't suspect fraud? i.e. if you suspect this is a scam, then you should contact the recipient by phone to confirm the bank details.
In the UK the name is not important, only the sort code and account number is checked. However, I have had international bank transfers held back and investigated whenever the beneficiary name does not match the account details.
I imagine you are talking about a personal transfer between friends and you don't suspect fraud? i.e. if you suspect this is a scam, then you should contact the recipient by phone to confirm the bank details.
In the UK the name is not important, only the sort code and account number is checked. However, I have had international bank transfers held back and investigated whenever the beneficiary name does not match the account details.
NickCQ said:
The sort code does give the location of the branch (https://www.sortcodes.co.uk/checker.html), so if it says the branch is different to where the purported recipient lives (or has lived in the past), that may be a clue.
...but remember online banks don't have geographic branches, so it's not always useful. Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff