Are transfers using IBAN and BIC from Germany reversible?

chriskv

Someone from Germany wanted to buy an item off of me . It's an antique and we agreed on £870GBP.

He asked for my bank details (IBAN and BIC) and I gave it over.
Today I received it , However I'm wondering if he would just reverse it after I ship the item to him ?

Is this possible ? or am I overthinking this ?

jonesMUFCforever

No the payment canot be reversed.

chriskv

So shall I go ahead and ship the item to him ? I'm only wary because the guy said that he doesn't have a paypal account and didn't want to get one . I know some people hate paypal but you can never be too safe when it comes to things like this

Ballard

The Swift message received by your bank will have the full name and address of the remitter. On the rare occasions that I receive a Swift payment I get an advice in the post a day or two later. It might be an idea for you to wait until that arrives (or call your bank). If that address matches with the one that you've been given it'd obviously be a good sign.

Waiting a couple of days would also give the account holder a chance to check their account. As has already been said, however, the payment can't be reversed.

chriskv

Ooh! Great idea @Ballard . I will wait for that.

Regardless of it being reversed I don't want to send the item to a scammer . I'd rather refund the owner of the bank account if it does turn out to be a fraudster doing this .(however unlikely it may be)

realaledrinker

The guy has sent you the money, it's in your account and cannot be reversed. For some reason you still have the item and seem reluctant to send it out. Yet you still think your customer is a fraudster?

chriskv

@realaledrinker : Lol . Yeah I do. Because he rejected paypal and insisted on wiring the money. One can never be too safe.
And on the fraudster remark , Go suck a banana .
My question was if it can be reversed. If you don't have an answer then why insult me ?

ERICS_MUM

It can't be reversed by the German bank via the payment system.

steveE2

Many German ebay users don't use Paypal as it's not compulsory there unlike uk.
Your bank payment is safe and cannot be recalled,much safer than a Paypal payment which can be recalled up to 13 months later.

agrinnall

I presume the OP's reluctance to send is that while he has the money he is uncertain of the source: if the buyer is a fraudster they may have hacked somebody else's account and used their money, which probably would be recoverable by the real account owner. Waiting for the SWIFT advice as suggested by Ballard seems like a reasonable precaution in the circumstances.

Ballard

I think that Chrisv understands that they aren't liable to lose any money through this transaction. They are, however, aware that bank accounts can be hacked for precisely this sort of purchase and is delaying posting the item a day or two solely to give themself comfort that the bank account owner and purchaser are one and the same person.

The item is an antique so although the purchaser will be eager to take delivery it's not life or death so an additional short wait isn't likely to have particularly disastrous consequences for them.