The website is the sales pitch. The register is the receipt.

What “checking a company” actually means

When you pay a deposit you are not paying “Aurelia Kitchens”. You are paying a limited company with a number, a registered address, directors and a set of filed accounts. The brand on the website and the company on the invoice are not always the same thing — and only one of them will owe you the money back.

Four things about that company are public, free and take a minute to read if you know where to look:

1. Who the legal entity is — its name, number, status and registered address at Companies House.
2. How long it has existed — the incorporation date, compared with the age of the website and what the site claims.
3. What the last accounts show — net assets, cash, employees; whether the accounts are overdue.
4. Whether the website agrees with the register — “20 years”, “our own workshop”, “a team of 15”, put next to the record.

Why a deposit by bank transfer is different from every other payment

Most deposits go by bank transfer because that is what the firm asks for. Three things follow from that:

• The bank will not refund it. A transfer to a genuine company that later folds is not fraud. The reimbursement rules for scams do not apply to a commercial dispute, and there is no chargeback on a transfer.
• In an insolvency you are last in the queue. A deposit is an unsecured debt. Secured lenders, then employees and HMRC, are paid first; unsecured creditors typically receive little or nothing.
• The protection exists — but only with a card. Pay any part of a purchase between £100 and £30,000 by credit card and Section 75 makes the card issuer jointly liable for the whole contract. A debit card gives chargeback rights. A transfer gives neither.

So the first question is never “is this firm honest?”. It is “if this firm failed next month, where would my money be?” — and the answer depends almost entirely on how you paid.

The six situations we see most often

Names changed. Every figure comes from a public register.

1. New company, old brand

The website says “over 20 years of craftsmanship”. The register shows a company incorporated last spring, at the same address as one that was liquidated the year before, with the same director. Sometimes this is an honest restructuring; sometimes it is a firm that has already left customers behind once. Either way, your contract is with the new company, which has no history and no assets.

What the report shows: incorporation date, previous companies of each director and how many were dissolved, the domain and archive history — which often reveal whether the business really is older than the company.

2. The cloned website

The photos are real — they belong to a joinery firm in Yorkshire. The text is real — copied word for word from its “about” page. Only the phone number and the bank details are new. These sites are built to take deposits and disappear; the company number, if any is shown, belongs to someone else.

What the report shows: whether the stated company number matches the brand, whether the text and images appear elsewhere on the web, how old the domain is, whether anyone has ever reviewed the firm.

3. The sole trader with a “factory”

“Handmade in our own workshop.” The register says the company is registered for installation only, files micro-entity accounts and has one director. That does not make it a bad firm — many excellent tradespeople subcontract manufacturing — but it changes the deposit: 50% up front to a firm that does not itself buy the materials is a lot of trust.

What the report shows: the registered activity against the website’s claims, the size of the balance sheet, and what a normal deposit looks like for that trade.

4. The serviced-office address

Suite B, 42-44 Bishopsgate, London — shared with several thousand other companies. A registered address at a formation agent is legal and common, but it means there is no premises to visit and no one to knock on the door of if things go wrong.

What the report shows: how many companies share the registered address, whether the website gives a real trading address, and whether the Google Business profile matches it.

5. Overdue accounts, or a strike-off notice

The company is still “active” on the register, but its accounts are months overdue and Companies House has published a notice in the Gazette that it will be struck off. Firms in this state can still take deposits. Once the company is dissolved, there is no one to claim against.

What the report shows: accounts due dates and whether they are overdue, Gazette notices, insolvency history. These are the few things that turn a report red on their own.

6. The genuine firm with an unflattering record

Ten years on the register, 29 five-star reviews, a proper landline — and net assets of £342. Nothing is wrong: small trade businesses draw their profits out, and the machines were written down years ago. But a £6,000 deposit by transfer to that balance sheet is unsecured. The right answer is not to walk away; it is to pay the normal deposit for the trade in a way that does not depend on the balance sheet.

What the report shows: a green verdict with the point worth asking about, the normal deposit range for the trade, a staged schedule to propose, and which payment methods protect you.

What we do that “googling the reviews” doesn’t

Reviews tell you about the work. The register tells you about the money. A firm can have 200 five-star reviews and net liabilities; it can have no reviews and a spotless twenty-year record. We read both and keep them separate.

• One of three answers, with fixed rules. Green, amber or red — the rules are published, and a business cannot pay to change them. A red flag is always shown free.
• Record strength, 0–100. A single score showing how much of the record we could confirm, with every point listed.
• Discrepancies weighed, not counted. “30 years” from a 15-year-old company whose domain dates back to 2005 is a question to ask; the same claim from a company formed last year is a warning. The report says which.
• Deposit guidance for the trade. What is normal for staircases, kitchens, windows or building work, what the balance sheet would return, and how to pay so you are covered either way.

Every rule is written down on the methodology page.

When to check

• Before the deposit — the moment most of the risk is decided.
• Before each stage payment — companies change between the deposit and the final invoice; a director can resign or an address can move in a week.
• The moment the bank details change — an email saying “please use our new account” is the single most common way a deposit is stolen from a genuine job. Check the company, then phone the number on the original quote, not the one in the email.

What it costs, and why

The free check gives you the legal entity and any serious warning sign, because everyone should have those before sending money and because it is easy to share with the person about to pay. A full report — the verdict, every website claim against the register, directors, accounts, deposit guidance and the three questions — is £14.99 from inside any check, £24.99 for two, £49 for five, or £79 for unlimited reports over 90 days. Each is a fraction of the deposit it protects.

If you run a genuine business

A report is your best advertisement: it shows your real company number, your years on the register, your filed accounts and your reviews — exactly what a copied website cannot show. The badge is free. If anything in a report about your business is wrong, tell us and we correct it within 48 hours. More for businesses →