Reply to: Is Agency Asking for Bank Statements for Gaps of 3 Months or More Unreasonable?

[SueEllen]

rubbish, Agencies usually pay to your business account and if there are payments on your private account they can still be for your partner if it's a shared account

And that was my initial point.

Looking at someone's personal bank account you cannot tell whether they were in a contract unless they used an umbrella company.

And the account to use is the one you do your supermarket shopping with as it shows you weren't in prison.

Though they will probably be puzzled if like me you visit people so end up in random supermarkets.

[Eirikur]

Lot's of contractors leave out bad contracts from there CV. If you rock up to a client site and rapidly realise that it isn't the contract for you (for professional or business reasons) then immediately serving notice and excluding it from your CV is commonplace.

By looking at your bank statements they are checking to see if you have been paid by an agency for a period that you have claimed to be out of work on your CV.

They will then be looking for a reasonable explanation. It is easy to explain away these things .

rubbish, Agencies usually pay to your business account and if there are payments on your private account they can still be for your partner if it's a shared account

[kaiser78]

Lot's of contractors leave out bad contracts from there CV. If you rock up to a client site and rapidly realise that it isn't the contract for you (for professional or business reasons) then immediately serving notice and excluding it from your CV is commonplace.

By looking at your bank statements they are checking to see if you have been paid by an agency for a period that you have claimed to be out of work on your CV.

They will then be looking for a reasonable explanation. It is easy to explain away these things .

Would they really want to play forensic detective in this way - I am not so sure ?

[GambitUK]

Don't panic - totally normal

Lot's of contractors leave out bad contracts from there CV. If you rock up to a client site and rapidly realise that it isn't the contract for you (for professional or business reasons) then immediately serving notice and excluding it from your CV is commonplace.

By looking at your bank statements they are checking to see if you have been paid by an agency for a period that you have claimed to be out of work on your CV.

They will then be looking for a reasonable explanation. It is easy to explain away these things .

[Whorty]

Some will accept accountancy, or similar, references instead of bank statements, it is unusual they will only accept only the one thing.

As NLUK says it is then up to you whether you want the contract or not.

In addition, I have seen people walked from site on a number of occasions, if the right paperwork was not subsequently produced, or if they have been found to be lying during the checks.
One thing I would say if you are going to have any untruths on your CV make sure they check out and are completely water tight.

I've worked quite a bit in insurance, banking and financial services and they have taken a ref from my accountant and carried out a credit check. For an investment company I also had to disclose all share holdings. I've never been asked for personal bank statements. I never lie on my CV either .... my CV really is that good

[kaiser78]

Surely not personal statements ? Business activities maybe but have never been requested for personal statements.

You are kidding right? It's not the business that sits in front of the computer and is a risk to the client.

Next you'll be saying SC should be done on the business only.

:

Er nope. Why do you ask in such a tone ?

[MrMarkyMark]

Never been asked for personal statements either, and if I was I wouldn't supply. No business of the agency how much activity is in my personal account. When I took a gap year a few years back I provided personal references to prove where I was, which is fair enough.

Some will accept accountancy, or similar, references instead of bank statements, it is unusual they will only accept only the one thing.

As NLUK says it is then up to you whether you want the contract or not.

In addition, I have seen people walked from site on a number of occasions, if the right paperwork was not subsequently produced, or if they have been found to be lying during the checks.
One thing I would say if you are going to have any untruths on your CV make sure they check out and are completely water tight.

[northernladuk]

Never been asked for personal statements either, and if I was I wouldn't supply. No business of the agency how much activity is in my personal account. When I took a gap year a few years back I provided personal references to prove where I was, which is fair enough.

Your choice but if that is their policy then you've only got one option left. It's not the agency that are looking at it by the way.

[Whorty]

You are kidding right? It's not the business that sits in front of the computer and is a risk to the client.

Next you'll be saying SC should be done on the business only.

:

Never been asked for personal statements either, and if I was I wouldn't supply. No business of the agency how much activity is in my personal account. When I took a gap year a few years back I provided personal references to prove where I was, which is fair enough.

[SueEllen]

Have you actuality provided.'personal' statements of the account that you use on a day-to-day basis? It is incredibly intrusive for someone to be analysing my daily spending activities. If it's usual than I would guess I should do it but what sort of conclusions/presumptions would the client make and how is the information used? That is why my thoughts are to provide statements for an account I just use for my monthly standing orders and direct debits. It just seems odd as I wonder whether there is this much scrutiny made of applicants applying for permanent roles within a same financial organisation.

You can be anywhere in the world to have the monthly direct debits and standing orders going out.

However your Tesco and Waitrose shopping transactions shows that you were actually in the UK.

[SueEllen]

Secondly, I have more than one personal bank account i.e. another one for bills/standing orders. Does it matter which bank statements I provide or from which account, depending on exactly what they are looking for, which I am not sure what that is?

Use the day to day spending one as it will have more transactions in it plus will show you have been in the UK as some of the transactions will have place names on them.

It is also normal for people not to have bills going out of their own account for completely valid reasons e.g. they have a joint account with a partner.

[northernladuk]

They aren't analysing your day to day spending. They are doing a risk assessment on you. Can you not appreciate that this is common sense when giving people access to finacial systems? They will be looking various flags to see if you could be a problem. Are you heavily i debt, can't pay your way month in month out and a ton of other stuff that might put you in a position to abuse their systems.

I am a bit surprised you don't think this is to be expected in such a heavily regulated area of business and where money is involved.

What do you think they should do? Just give access to every Tom, Dick and Harry that turn up whatever their levels of debt and money problems are? If you are going to be a supplier you are going to have to understand your clients a bit better than this.

Of course permies are checked. Might be different as they aren't short term suppliers but they will be checked.

[ziggystardust]

Surely not personal statements ? Business activities maybe but have never been requested for personal statements.

Have you actuality provided.'personal' statements of the account that you use on a day-to-day basis? It is incredibly intrusive for someone to be analysing my daily spending activities. If it's usual than I would guess I should do it but what sort of conclusions/presumptions would the client make and how is the information used? That is why my thoughts are to provide statements for an account I just use for my monthly standing orders and direct debits. It just seems odd as I wonder whether there is this much scrutiny made of applicants applying for permanent roles within a same financial organisation.

[northernladuk]

Surely not personal statements ? Business activities maybe but have never been requested for personal statements.

You are kidding right? It's not the business that sits in front of the computer and is a risk to the client.

Next you'll be saying SC should be done on the business only.

:

[kaiser78]

Surely not personal statements ? Business activities maybe but have never been requested for personal statements.