Ask users for Bank details

This guidance is for government teams that build online services. To find information and services for the public, go to GOV.UK.

WCAG 2.2

New WCAG 2.2 criteria affect this pattern

To ask users for ‘Bank details’ and meet the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 criteria, make sure that users can successfully:

reuse previously entered bank details

See the full list of components and patterns affected by WCAG 2.2.

HTML
Nunjucks

HTML

<h1 class="govuk-heading-l">Bank or building society account details</h1>
<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="name-on-the-account">
    Name on the account
  </label>
  <input class="govuk-input" id="name-on-the-account" name="nameOnTheAccount" type="text" spellcheck="false" autocomplete="name">
</div>
<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="sort-code">
    Sort code
  </label>
  <div id="sort-code-hint" class="govuk-hint">
    Must be 6 digits long
  </div>
  <input class="govuk-input govuk-input--width-5 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing" id="sort-code" name="sortCode" type="text" spellcheck="false" aria-describedby="sort-code-hint" inputmode="numeric">
</div>
<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="account-number">
    Account number
  </label>
  <div id="account-number-hint" class="govuk-hint">
    Must be between 6 and 8 digits long
  </div>
  <input class="govuk-input govuk-input--width-10 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing" id="account-number" name="accountNumber" type="text" spellcheck="false" aria-describedby="account-number-hint" inputmode="numeric">
</div>
<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="roll-number">
    Building society roll number (if you have one)
  </label>
  <div id="roll-number-hint" class="govuk-hint">
    You can find it on your card, statement or passbook
  </div>
  <input class="govuk-input govuk-input--width-10 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing" id="roll-number" name="rollNumber" type="text" spellcheck="false" aria-describedby="roll-number-hint">
</div>
<button type="submit" class="govuk-button" data-module="govuk-button">
  Continue
</button>

Nunjucks

{% from "govuk/components/button/macro.njk" import govukButton %}
{% from "govuk/components/input/macro.njk" import govukInput %}

<h1 class="govuk-heading-l">Bank or building society account details</h1>

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "Name on the account"
  },
  id: "name-on-the-account",
  name: "nameOnTheAccount",
  autocomplete: "name",
  spellcheck: false
}) }}

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "Sort code"
  },
  classes: "govuk-input--width-5 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing",
  hint: {
    text: "Must be 6 digits long"
  },
  id: "sort-code",
  name: "sortCode",
  inputmode: "numeric",
  spellcheck: false
}) }}

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "Account number"
  },
  classes: "govuk-input--width-10 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing",
  hint: {
    text: "Must be between 6 and 8 digits long"
  },
  id: "account-number",
  name: "accountNumber",
  inputmode: "numeric",
  spellcheck: false
}) }}

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "Building society roll number (if you have one)"
  },
  classes: "govuk-input--width-10 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing",
  hint: {
    text: "You can find it on your card, statement or passbook"
  },
  id: "roll-number",
  name: "rollNumber",
  spellcheck: false
}) }}

{{ govukButton({
  text: "Continue"
}) }}

When to use this pattern

Follow this pattern if you need users to provide their bank details so you can pay them.

Only ask for bank details securely within your service. For example, do not ask users to send their bank details by email.

This pattern does yet not cover asking users for bank details so they can pay by Direct Debit.

If your service lets users set up Direct Debit payments, first check if you can use GOV.UK Pay.

How it works

Include extra fields if your payment service provider needs additional information.

Do not ask users for their account type

Do not ask users if they have a bank account or building society account as not all users know this.

If your service does not support building society accounts, remove building society from the content and do not ask for a roll number.

Reusing entered bank details

WCAG 2.2

Do not ask for bank details more than once within a single journey if only one transaction is taking place.

Make sure users can easily reuse previously entered bank details within a single journey, unless the information is no longer valid or doing so would be a major safety or security concern. This is to comply with WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.7 Redundant entry.

You can make it easier to reuse bank details through one of these methods:

pre-populate fields with the previously entered bank details
show any previously entered bank details as an option for the user to select

Continue to give users the option to enter new bank details.

Asking for building society roll numbers

Roll numbers are only used by some building societies for certain types of account, so make this field optional.

However, you need a user’s roll number when they have one. This is why the label says ‘(if you have one)’.

Allow different formats for the sort code

Let users enter their sort code in whatever format is familiar to them. Allow additional spaces, hyphens and dashes.

Use one input for the sort code. It allows users to enter their sort code more quickly, and avoids them needing to read and understand multiple input labels.

Use a branching question if users can choose how to get paid

Not everyone has a bank account or wants to share their account details online.

Let users choose to get paid by an alternative method.

Adapt this question depending on what payment options your users need and what your service can support.

HTML
Nunjucks

HTML

<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <fieldset class="govuk-fieldset">
    <legend class="govuk-fieldset__legend govuk-fieldset__legend--l">
      <h1 class="govuk-fieldset__heading">
        How do you want to be paid?
      </h1>
    </legend>
    <div class="govuk-radios" data-module="govuk-radios">
      <div class="govuk-radios__item">
        <input class="govuk-radios__input" id="methodOfPayment" name="methodOfPayment" type="radio" value="bank-account-or-building-society">
        <label class="govuk-label govuk-radios__label" for="methodOfPayment">
          UK bank or building society account
        </label>
      </div>
      <div class="govuk-radios__item">
        <input class="govuk-radios__input" id="methodOfPayment-2" name="methodOfPayment" type="radio" value="non-uk-bank-account">
        <label class="govuk-label govuk-radios__label" for="methodOfPayment-2">
          Non-UK bank account
        </label>
      </div>
      <div class="govuk-radios__item">
        <input class="govuk-radios__input" id="methodOfPayment-3" name="methodOfPayment" type="radio" value="cheque">
        <label class="govuk-label govuk-radios__label" for="methodOfPayment-3">
          Cheque
        </label>
      </div>
      <div class="govuk-radios__item">
        <input class="govuk-radios__input" id="methodOfPayment-4" name="methodOfPayment" type="radio" value="none" aria-describedby="methodOfPayment-4-item-hint">
        <label class="govuk-label govuk-radios__label" for="methodOfPayment-4">
          None of the above
        </label>
        <div id="methodOfPayment-4-item-hint" class="govuk-hint govuk-radios__hint">
          We&#39;ll contact you to arrange payment
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </fieldset>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="govuk-button" data-module="govuk-button">
  Continue
</button>

Nunjucks

{% from "govuk/components/button/macro.njk" import govukButton %}
{% from "govuk/components/radios/macro.njk" import govukRadios %}

{{ govukRadios({
  name: "methodOfPayment",
  fieldset: {
    legend: {
      isPageHeading: true,
      classes: "govuk-fieldset__legend--l",
      text: "How do you want to be paid?"
    }
  },
  items: [
    {
      value: "bank-account-or-building-society",
      text: "UK bank or building society account"
    },
    {
      value: "non-uk-bank-account",
      text: "Non-UK bank account"
    },
    {
      value: "cheque",
      text: "Cheque"
    },
    {
      value: "none",
      text: "None of the above",
      hint: {
        text: "We'll contact you to arrange payment"
      }
    }
  ]
}) }}

{{ govukButton({
  text: "Continue"
}) }}

International bank account details

If you expect your users will have a non-UK bank account, you’ll need to:

use different fields to sort code and account number - usually BIC code (also known as ‘SWIFT code’) and IBAN
do research on other fields you may need to add for the countries your service supports
only show the fields for the country your user selects

If you expect your users to have a non-UK bank account, give them an option to select this.

International bank accounts require different fields to sort code and account number.

Different countries ask for additional details. This guidance does not cover all possibilities. You will need to research what information is needed by the countries your service supports.

Only show the fields that relate to that country.

Most countries need the IBAN and BIC, sometimes known as the SWIFT code.

HTML
Nunjucks

HTML

<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="bic-code">
    BIC or SWIFT code
  </label>
  <div id="bic-code-hint" class="govuk-hint">
    Must be between 8 and 11 characters long – you can ask your bank or check your bank statement
  </div>
  <input class="govuk-input govuk-input--width-10 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing" id="bic-code" name="bicCode" type="text" spellcheck="false" aria-describedby="bic-code-hint">
</div>
<div class="govuk-form-group">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="iban">
    IBAN
  </label>
  <div id="iban-hint" class="govuk-hint">
    You can ask your bank or check your bank statement
  </div>
  <input class="govuk-input govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing" id="iban" name="iban" type="text" spellcheck="false" aria-describedby="iban-hint">
</div>

Nunjucks

{% from "govuk/components/button/macro.njk" import govukButton %}
{% from "govuk/components/input/macro.njk" import govukInput %}

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "BIC or SWIFT code"
  },
  classes: "govuk-input--width-10 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing",
  hint: {
    text: "Must be between 8 and 11 characters long – you can ask your bank or check your bank statement"
  },
  id: "bic-code",
  name: "bicCode",
  spellcheck: false
}) }}

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "IBAN"
  },
  classes: "govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing",
  hint: {
    text: "You can ask your bank or check your bank statement"
  },
  id: "iban",
  name: "iban",
  spellcheck: false
}) }}

Error messages

Error messages should be styled like this:

HTML
Nunjucks

HTML

<div class="govuk-form-group govuk-form-group--error">
  <label class="govuk-label" for="sort-code">
    Sort code
  </label>
  <div id="sort-code-hint" class="govuk-hint">
    Must be 6 digits long
  </div>
  <p id="sort-code-error" class="govuk-error-message">
    <span class="govuk-visually-hidden">Error:</span> Enter a valid sort code like 309430
  </p>
  <input class="govuk-input govuk-input--width-5 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing govuk-input--error" id="sort-code" name="sortCode" type="text" spellcheck="false" value="12" aria-describedby="sort-code-hint sort-code-error" inputmode="numeric">
</div>

Nunjucks

{% from "govuk/components/input/macro.njk" import govukInput %}

{{ govukInput({
  label: {
    text: "Sort code"
  },
  classes: "govuk-input--width-5 govuk-input--extra-letter-spacing",
  hint: {
    text: "Must be 6 digits long"
  },
  value: "12",
  id: "sort-code",
  name: "sortCode",
  inputmode: "numeric",
  spellcheck: false,
  errorMessage: {
    text: "Enter a valid sort code like 309430"
  }
}) }}

Make sure errors follow the guidance in error message and have specific error messages for specific error states.

If the name on the account is empty

Say ‘Enter the name on the account’.

If the sort code is empty

Say ‘Enter a sort code’.

If the sort code is not in the correct format

Say ‘Enter a valid sort code like 309430’.

If the account number is empty

Say ‘Enter an account number’

If the account number is not in the correct format

Say ‘Enter a valid account number like 00733445’.

If the account number is too long or too short

Say ‘Account number must be between 6 and 8 digits’.

If the building society roll number is too long

Say ‘Building society roll number must be between 1 and 18 characters’.

If the building society roll number uses characters that are not allowed

Say ‘Building society roll number must only include letters a to z, numbers, hyphens, spaces, forward slashes and full stops’.

Research on this pattern

This pattern was originally contributed by a team at the Ministry of Justice.

It has not been tested in user research yet. It’s closely based on the pattern used by GOV.UK Pay, and patterns used by the following government services.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit

Get Jobseeker’s Allowance

Get your State Pension

HM Revenue & Customs

Register your anti-money laundering supervision

Tax-Free Childcare

Office of the Public Guardian

Claim a power of attorney refund

Ministry of Justice

Claim for costs of a child’s funeral

If you’ve used this pattern, get in touch to share your user research findings.

Next steps

The team that developed this pattern only found one service, Claim power of attorney refund, that warns users their bank details will be hidden for their security.

But GoCardless says to display a user’s bank details again before the user submits them.

Some users with older bank or building society accounts might have account numbers that are 9 or 10 digits long. Research is needed to confirm that these users know how to shorten their account number to fit into the field.

More research is also needed on:

how to ask users for their bank details in the context of setting up Direct Debit payments
whether bank details should be shown or not on a ‘Check your answers’ page and how that affects this pattern
how to handle international bank accounts so users are only asked for information that’s needed based on the location of their bank account
the information required to pay credit union accounts and how to ask credit union members for that information

Help improve this pattern

To help make sure that this page is useful, relevant and up to date, you can:

take part in the ‘Bank details’ discussion on GitHub and share your research
propose a change – read more about how to propose changes in GitHub

Tell us if your service uses this pattern

Take part in our usage survey (opens in a new tab) to help us improve this pattern to better meet the needs of the services that use it.

Need help?

If you’ve got a question about the GOV.UK Design System, contact the team.

Cookies on GOV.UK Design System

Ask users for Bank details

New WCAG 2.2 criteria affect this pattern

When to use this pattern

How it works

Do not ask users for their account type

Reusing entered bank details

Asking for building society roll numbers

Allow different formats for the sort code

Use a branching question if users can choose how to get paid

International bank account details

Error messages

If the name on the account is empty

If the sort code is empty

If the sort code is not in the correct format

If the account number is empty

If the account number is not in the correct format

If the account number is too long or too short

If the building society roll number is too long

If the building society roll number uses characters that are not allowed

Research on this pattern

Next steps

Help improve this pattern

Tell us if your service uses this pattern

Need help?