bank transfers

cornholio

Hi all,

Have recently done some bank transfers, which got me thinking. If I make a mistake in entering the account details etc for the destination account, and the money therefore goes somewhere I don't want it to, could I get the money back, or is it a case of if you make the mistake in putting the wrong account details in tough ?

Cheers

Stu

dave76

I must say I have had the same thought - especially when I transferred 4.5k on monday! I checked the numbers half a dozen times to make sure I had put the right ones in - fortunately it turned up in the destination account this morning

dchurch24

I transferred 36k Euros once and was told by a legal advisor that if the account no. was wrong I might not see the money again!!!!!

I couldn't believe it!

soolin

dchurch24 wrote:

I transferred 36k Euros once and was told by a legal advisor that if the account no. was wrong I might not see the money again!!!!!

I couldn't believe it!

On the ebay boards this is often discussed from the point of view of receiving money. It is always considered the safest way of receiving money purely because once the money hits your account it is understood that it cannot be reversed unless the bank themselves made a mistake. That would rather suggest that as a sender of money if you were unfortunate enough to mis key the account number and get a valid account still, that the money could not be recalled.

I don't think there has ever been a 100% guaranteed answer to this one though, so it still gets discussed regularly.

Soo

Caped_Avenger

A very simple question, but the answer is far from simple. One of many things could happen, depending (partly) on which number you enter incorrectly:

Sort Code - If you enter a sort code incorrectly, There's the chance that your payment may end up at a different branch, or if you get a certain digit wrong, a totally different bank! If the sort code doesn't exist, there's a decent chance that your bank may recognise this before the money is released, and block the transfer.

Account number - Depends on whether the account number you've typed in (incorrectly) exists at that sort code. If it does exist, then it'll be applied directly to that account. If the sort code and account number combination don't exist, the bank may look for similar account numbers on that sort code under the name you've entered, and if there's a similar one, manually apply it.

Alternatively, it may stay in a holding account at the bank/branch it was sent to until claimed, or auto-returned to where it came from.

Either way, if money somehow gets into an account it wasn't intended to end up in, it doesn't mean it becomes the property of the recipient. A BACS trace will reveal where it's gone, and it can then be retrieved.

E.g.:

Payment intended to be sent to account in name of Mr J Smith, s/code 112233, a/c no 12345678:

1) Payment sent to J Smith 112233 - 12345677. Bank look at s/code & a/c number, it's clear what the mistake is, manually apply it.

2) Payment sent to J Smith 112233 - 21354678. This account actually exists in the name of Mrs T Wright. Gets applied to her account. Has to be chased by the sender of the funds.

BenL

I used to trace money for customers when it went missing.

If the payment was made over telephone banking we would do everything we could to get the money back asap as it may have been an adviser error.

If customers kick up a fuss or happen to be the wife of a board member money is taken from the exchange account and put to customer saccount and we retrieved the funds from the destination.

If you make the payment on the internet and set it up yourself (can be seen on the system how customers did it) the terms and cons of using internet service meant we didn't have to do anything. Most times we did though as customer care.

Most errors were to credit card companies wher the reference wasn't updated when customers were given a new card. Easy to trace as it would be sitting in their suspense account as the sortcode and account number were ok.

We had a period during TXU Energy were merging with other electric companies and payments were always going to the wrong part of organisations.

If aeveryhting fails that a bank can do on the phone a BACS trace is requested but costs £10 each I think. Avoid at all costs is the direction that came from above

Ben

llol_slim

I used to work in a bank, and I heard of this happening, it happened to me once. I typed in the account number, it came through a month or so later that the customer told us the wrong number.
We wrote a letter to the customer who recieved this money for free, and asked them if they would mind repaying it (they didnt have to). due to the amount, the couldnt afford to repay it all at once, because they had spent it (good for them!!) so we offered them a 0% loan to help them. As for the customer who was supposed to recieve his money but didnt, his account was credited the say it became obvious it had gone into the wrong account.
the bank I worked for have accounts set up just for this purpose.

cornholio

llol_slim wrote:

We wrote a letter to the customer who recieved this money for free, and asked them if they would mind repaying it (they didnt have to). due to the amount, the couldnt afford to repay it all at once, because they had spent it (good for them!!) so we offered them a 0% loan to help them.

so if money is transferred into your account becuase of an error you don't have to pay it back ??

soolin

cornholio wrote:

so if money is transferred into your account becuase of an error you don't have to pay it back ??

Look at it from the other way. A buyer buys say a car from you and transfers £5000 into your account via an internet transfer. A week later the buyer contacts the bank and says the payment was made incorrectly and instead of the payment going to you it should have gone to his mother and asks the bank to recall the money. That should show why payments made online and made to a valid account are not strictly recallable.

I would like to think though that where a genuine error can be shown the bank would make it good as others have already suggested, but where the money was paid into a valid account directly by the sender then I can't see how the money should be able to be reclaimed.

Soo

cornholio

so it's a case of check and double check when you enter account details ...

and hope that someone transfers a wodge into your account :rotfl:

llol_slim

cornholio wrote:

so if money is transferred into your account becuase of an error you don't have to pay it back ??

Well, dont take this as gospel, because its been nearly 2 years since i worked for the devil, but I do know it happened.
They may have changed everything by now, as there were ALOT of changes going on with policies as I was leaving.
I think basically they would gently persuade you until you gave in and agreed to help them out.
LLol_slim