Yoga teacher wants my banking deets. Why not she supplies hers?

[Fordian]

I'm a bit annoyed. A locally FB recommended yoga teacher offers a taster lesson for £1. But to do it, she wants my bank details so effectively she can extract cash from my bank account before every possible ongoing lesson. We've had some friendly too and fro.

Is this normal? Shouldn't she give me her details so I can pay her?

Am I old fashioned? Am I being too paranoid? Is there a mechanism where I need to approve her withdrawals from my account?

As I say, many locals have recommended her but are they her mates?

I'd rather write her a cheque!!

This sounds very unusual for a yoga teacher. Find someone else.

If you wrote her a cheque, it would have all your banking details on it anyway!

She can't use your bank details to extract money from your account unless she is using the direct debit scheme, which sounds unlikely as a sole trader, but a PP mentions an intermediary, so perhaps that's what she's doing.

If she is taking money by direct debit, you must be informed of this in writing and be shown a copy of the direct debit guarantee, which protects you from having unauthorised amounts taken from your account. If this happened, you call your bank and they return the money straight away.

I still don't understand how she is going to "take" the money out of your account ?

*What use would giving her your bank sort code and account number do ?

No one can do anything with them apart from pay YOU money*

This is incorrect. If she is registered to set up DDs, and as a yoga teacher she may well be depending on the size of her business, then she can. Obviously she should be getting your written consent on a signed form.

Well if she didn't get consent that would be fraud? I think it's unlikely a yoga teacher woukd quality for the dd scheme

I’m not sure how she’d take money but it sounds a very weird way to do business- you need her details so you can pay her, not the other way round.

I wouldn’t give them, just sounds weird.

No don’t do it. Ask for her details

She sounds dodgy, but as PPs have said, there isn't much she can do with your a/c number and sort code, and she would have these anyway if you gave her a cheque.

I'd suggest you tell her you have some understandable concerns about giving out this information and that before you do so you would like to check that she is registered with the Information Commissioners Office and ask her what her ICO reference number is.

Even as a sole trader, if she is holding personal data on her customers she needs to be registered. A cynic might think she hasn't bothered. And a malicious person might report her to the ICO for breaching the GDPR.