Free tool · Spot fraud
Is this supplier real? Company checker
Search for a UK company by name or number to see its Companies House record and the red flags worth knowing about before you pay it: dissolved or dormant, newly formed, overdue filings, and recent changes to its office or directors.
What this checker looks at
Every UK limited company, LLP and most other incorporated bodies must register with Companies House and keep their record up to date. That record is public. This tool reads it, along with the company's list of officers and its address history, and highlights the facts that a finance team should notice before paying a supplier for the first time or before acting on a request to change where payments go.
- Status: whether the company is active, or dissolved, in liquidation, in administration or otherwise not trading normally. A proposal to strike the company off is flagged too.
- Dormant accounts: the latest accounts declare the company had no significant transactions in that period.
- Age: the company was incorporated less than 12 months ago.
- Registered office: the address changed in the last 12 months, or it has been disputed or reported as undeliverable.
- Officers: directors or other officers appointed or resigned in the last 6 months.
- Filings: accounts or the annual confirmation statement are overdue.
- Insolvency: the company has a recorded insolvency history or has been liquidated.
Each flag has a severity. High means the company may not be able to trade or receive payment in its own name, so stop and find out more. Medium means something unusual that has an innocent explanation more often than not, but is also a pattern seen in fraud. Low means a change worth knowing about, particularly if it lines up with a request to change bank details.
Why these signals matter
Fraudsters use companies in two ways. Some register a brand-new company with a name close to a real supplier's, so an invoice or a new bank account in that name looks plausible at a glance. Others take advantage of companies that have gone quiet: dormant, overdue with their filings, or recently dissolved, where nobody is watching the record. A string of recent changes, such as a new registered office and new directors, can mean a company has changed hands, and the people you are now dealing with may not be the ones you knew.
None of these flags proves anything on its own. New companies are formed every day, small businesses file late, and directors come and go. The point is to slow down when the record and the request don't fit together. A supplier you have paid for years that suddenly sends new bank details, a month after changing its registered office and appointing a new director, deserves a phone call before the next payment run.
What a clean record doesn't tell you
Most invoice and mandate fraud doesn't involve a fake company at all. The fraudster impersonates a real, healthy supplier, often by sending an email from a lookalike domain or from the supplier's own hacked mailbox, and asks you to pay a different account. Companies House can't help with that: the company is genuine, and so is its record. Companies House doesn't hold bank details, so nothing on the register can confirm that an account belongs to the company.
So treat this check as one step, not the whole process. When bank details are new or have changed, confirm them with the supplier using contact details you already hold, not the phone number or email address on the request. Use Confirmation of Payee when you set up the payment, and don't let urgency in the message rush you past either step.
Where Paylist fits
Paylist is a directory of verified UK business bank details. Businesses listed on Paylist are checked against Companies House and their bank accounts are validated, including Confirmation of Payee where available, before they appear. When a listed business changes its bank details, the businesses connected to it are told that something changed. Paylist doesn't make or route payments. It gives you somewhere to check a supplier's details before you pay, instead of trusting an email.
Frequently asked questions
How can I check if a UK company is legitimate?
Start with the Companies House register. Check that the company exists, is active, and that its name, number and registered office match what's on the invoice. Then look for warning signs: very recent incorporation, dormant or overdue accounts, and recent changes of address or directors. Finally, confirm any bank details with the supplier using contact details you already hold. A genuine company record doesn't prove the bank details on an invoice are genuine.
Where do I find a company's registration number?
UK companies must show their registered number and registered office on their website, invoices, order forms and letters. It's usually in the footer of an email or website, or at the bottom of an invoice. England and Wales numbers are eight digits; Scottish companies start with SC and Northern Irish ones with NI.
What does it mean if a company is dissolved?
A dissolved company no longer legally exists. It can't trade, enter contracts or hold a bank account in its own name, and any assets left in it pass to the Crown. If you receive an invoice from a dissolved company, don't pay it until you've spoken to someone there you already know and understood who is now trading.
Is a dormant company a red flag?
Not always. A dormant company is one that declared no significant transactions in its accounting period, which is common for holding companies and businesses that have just been set up or are winding down. It's worth questioning when a company that filed dormant accounts is now invoicing you for real goods or services, because shell companies often look like this.
Can I check a sole trader on Companies House?
No. Sole traders and most ordinary partnerships aren't registered with Companies House, so they won't appear in this search. For those suppliers, rely on checking their bank details directly, such as with Confirmation of Payee and a call-back to a number you already hold.
Does a clean Companies House record mean the bank details are safe?
No. Companies House doesn't hold bank details, and most invoice fraud impersonates a real company that's in good standing. A clean record tells you the company exists and is filing normally. It tells you nothing about whether the email or invoice really came from that company, or whether the account it names belongs to them.
Do you store the companies I look up?
No. Searches go to Companies House and the result comes back to your browser. We don't keep a record of which companies you looked up. To stop the tool being abused we count requests per visitor, using a one-way hash of your IP address rather than the address itself. Those counters are deleted once they're a day old.
Check before you pay — every time
Paylist is a verified directory of UK business bank details. Your suppliers list theirs once, and you look them up instead of trusting an email.