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An organization outside of the USA (I'm in the USA) is going to wire money into my bank account and has asked for the following information:

  • Bank Name
  • Bank Address
  • Bank City/State
  • Bank Zipcode
  • Bank Account Number
  • ABA Number
  • SWIFT Code
  • Account Type

Is all of this information safe to provide, or will this amount of information empower other people to withdraw money from my account?

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    Reminder: If something is too good to be true, it is not. I hope this is an organization you know.
    – Paul
    Dec 31, 2013 at 9:20
  • Be very careful about who you provide account information to. There are dishonest people.
    – ChuckCottrill
    Dec 31, 2013 at 20:25
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    What I would do, if this organization is one you know & trust, is open a new bank account, disable any overdraft options, and give them that. Don't let money sit unless necessary. If this is an organization you don't know/trust, I wouldn't transact with them at all. Definitely never release any personal info unless you can verify their identity.
    – BLaZuRE
    Jan 1, 2014 at 23:24

3 Answers 3

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That information is the only way to get money wired directly into your account so you don't have a lot of options. You should be reasonably comfortable giving out that information as there checks and balances (as noted above) but more than this the banks tend to err on the side of avoiding a PR nightmare if someone uses routing/account to defraud their customer.

For bank security you should be more concerned about

a) your credit card, only use secure https sites and ones you can see are dealing with lots of customers

b) your identity, someone with your social security number, a recent bank statement and some basic information about you (like family, birth location etc) can assume your identity

c) your bank login, be sure to create a strong password, pref 10 characters or more with numbers, symbols and upper & lower case. A site like http://strongpasswordgenerator.com/ can help here.

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This is the information required to wire money into your account from abroad.

They would only need the account number and the ABA (routing) number to withdraw, and it is printed on every check you give.

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    @karter: What littleadv has written is correct. However don't be too worried. Its not that anyone who has ABA & Account Number can withdraw money, there are checks and balances. However in the hands of a fraudster, this info can be mis-used. So if you are not comfortable with the company, request for a paper check [it would take a month to get funds credited]. Or open a different account and give it to them. One funds arrive move it to your account.
    – Dheer
    Dec 31, 2013 at 4:38
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    +1 for 'different account'. Paypal likes to have a checking account to pull from or deposit to. I asked my bank if there were any fees for an extra checking account, and they said 'no' and opened the new one on the spot with $100.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica ♦
    Dec 31, 2013 at 13:04
  • @Dheer Can you please provide more details on "checks and balances"? I understand that checks are verified, and transfers have grace period to settle etc. But what about using the bank account on a website? Not all of them are keen enough to do the "test deposit" check to ensure the ownership.
    – alexandroid
    Mar 17, 2018 at 5:08
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In Frank Abagnale's book "Art of the Steal" the author talks about how to set up a bank account for safe wire transfers. He recommends setting up an account at your regular bank and specifying that money can be transferred into that account from another bank, and out to your regular account only. You are then free to give the necessary transfer information to whomever you want, knowing full well they can't take money out.

This guy should know what he's talking about since he's an ex-confidence man legitimately working as an American security consultant.

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