to feel uncomfortable about this?

[WishIwasanastronaut]

I am soon to be moving into a new flat.

Obviously, I have had to provide evidence that I can pay the rent and so I've sent the LL various things.

I need to show evidence that my ex-P is paying a monthly sum and the only way I can do this is to send a screenshot of my bank statement.

Is this OK to do or a massive personal security risk?

My gut feeling is that it is not a good idea but I am not sure why (could be being quite naive here).

Shall I just go ahead and send it or should I black out some of the details? Or not send it at all?

Can you not download a statement from your online banking app?

I doubt your phone will let you screenshot a banking app. Mine doesn't (RBS)

Would your ex perhaps write a signed statement to give to LL?

But I guess you can take a screenshot of it and draw a line through your other transactions and s/c and acc number. They dont need to see anything other than that one transaction.

Yes, GreenMeerkat I can do it. My question is, is it appropriate to share this info with a third party? I don't want my account hacked or my identity stolen or whatever...

Get an app called Lightscreen. You can pick a window to screenshot and dont need to show anything else. All you need to do is screenshot the payment line.

Presumably LL has your name, current address, birthday etc and they will soon know who you bank with when you start paying them rent. So could you just black out your bank account numbers etc.?

Maybe I'm niave too though!

Or, if you don't want LL to see your other transactions or bank account balance jyst nlack those out too.

Is this a private agreement or are you going through an estate agent? We had to show loads of bank statements when we rented our last couple of houses, that’s pretty standard, but they were to the estate agent not the landlord.

Take a screenshot on a tablet and then blackout your account number and sort code if it's showing.

We did this for our mortgage.

I can just download my online statement (barclays) as a PDF. I would then obscure my account number etc.

What do you think anyone can do with the information? Presumably you have direct debits or standing orders, and you have given all those companies your bank details, account and sort code etc. The only thing anyone can do with those details (in the absence of a dd or so authorised by you) is put money into your account, not take it out.

And if you blank out even that, what do you think the LL can do with a screenshot showing how much you spent in Tesco last week?

No one can do anything with your account number and sort code. That info is on every cheque in your cheque book. I can't see an issue.

The main risk here depends on what other transactions you have visible. For example say you have a payment going to a life/pension company that could be investment related. Given they have your name/address/dob/the amount and date of the last payment plus your full bank details and possibly also a policy number (sometimes that is noted on the transaction) it would mean that someone pretending to be you could call the company who the payment is going to and pretend to be you, alter your address and potentially make a withdrawal. though it isn't quite as simple and companies will have fraud protection procedures in place. It's a balancing act between providing enough to LL but not over exposing your data to them.

Hi all,

thanks for the input.

Honestly, I am not sure whether there is a security issue and if so, what is could be. Generally, I tend to share as little as possible to keep my risk as low as poss.

On a personal level, I thought it was somewhat oversharing for the LL, who I had only met once to see exactly what I was spending my money on, particularly one month when I had withdrawn a lot of money for various (totally above-board) things!! Probably LL would not have given a shit.

I tried to black out the info with the pen function on the ipad and it looked awful - like an angry child had scrawled over it. Again, probably being a bit obsessive here, but it just did not make me look very professional.

Anyway, I downloaded Lightscreen, the app recommended by Oldaintallthat and it is a great app, did just the job and looked good. I would thoroughly recommend it :-)

Thank you all very much for the swift advice. I hope this post can hep someone else some day. Mumsnet is great isn't it.