The IBAN number identifies the bank account of each customer. A kind of financial ID that is used for collections, direct debit of payments in services, for online purchases and in procedures with the administration. Is there a risk in just giving it away?
"Providing our account number may have caused us some uneasiness due to ignorance of what a third party could do with said information," they comment from the Bank of Spain. But you can rest easy: "Having your account number will not allow anyone to extract money from your bank." Of course, with some more information things can be complicated...
The panorama is twisted if a third party also has a personal ID, with which they could make direct debits of bills, such as water, electricity or telephone. To solve this problem, it will be necessary to pay attention to the bank account and return the receipt when the payment is detected. Once again, the advice to periodically review movements to avoid surprises becomes relevant.
Thus, the situation would be somewhat less compromised than if "a malicious third party has your debit or credit card number, since in this case it can sometimes cause money movements that make us victims of fraud" , points out the Bank of Spain in its banking customer portal.
In general, to avoid all this hassle, it is recommended not to keep the PIN of the cards written down on a piece of paper, to avoid being seen when entering the PIN at the ATM, to check the statements to detect suspicious movements, not to use the credit card as identification personal, use strong authentication when buying online and do not give key card details when paying online or by phone unless they are completely trusted people or portals.
