Incorrect IBAN on transfer: Can I get money back?

f.castle

Hello,

I sent a payment from England from a reputable UK bank to a reputable bank abroad (non europe, non america) to help pay for the cost of a wedding.
I noticed the IBAN is 30 digits but I put in 29 digits. All other details are correct. I acknowledge it was me who made the mistake.
Was worth £2000.
Date of transfer made: Sunday 24th June.
Date bank sent the money: Thursday 29th June
Date bank sent amended IBAN: Friday 30th June

This morning, there is still no news.
I have contacted the uk bank, who have sent the amendment, and said there is still no news from the intermediary and recipient bank in terms of if they have received the amendment. The recipient bank have asked for  SWIFT copy, which the uk bank are providing me with.

EDIT: used the IBAN checker online as @SiliconChip suggested, and there is no IBAN that exists with the details I put in first time round.

Have I lost the money?
What are the chances they deposit the money to someone else? "all"  I did was miss out one number on the IBAN, all other details are correct.
Can the money get sent back?
Any solutions to my issue aside from send another 2k, check the details x10 times?

Thanks,

grumbler

Contact your bank and ask them.

SiliconChip

Have you checked whether the 29 digits that you did enter form a valid IBAN?

https://www.iban.com/iban-checker 

If they did then the money will have gone to the owner of that account and you may have a struggle to get it back unless the recipient does the decent thing and asks their bank to return it. If it's an invalid IBAN then it can't go anywhere so will be somewhere between your bank and the end bank, which could be many places for a SWIFT transaction As @grumbler says, you need to go through your bank to start tracing the payment. Don't expect a quick resolution.

f.castle

SiliconChip said:

Have you checked whether the 29 digits that you did enter form a valid IBAN?

https://www.iban.com/iban-checker 

If they did then the money will have gone to the owner of that account and you may have a struggle to get it back unless the recipient does the decent thing and asks their bank to return it. If it's an invalid IBAN then it can't go anywhere so will be somewhere between your bank and the end bank, which could be many places for a SWIFT transaction As @grumbler says, you need to go through your bank to start tracing the payment. Don't expect a quick resolution.

Literally just checked this, and the 29 digit number does not exist.
I have asked for a swift copy, and going to send this to the recipient bank.
THANKS

born_again

These payments may not go  direct to the receiving bank, so can take a while to get sorted. 
Although that error should have been picked up on sending with a check on the IBAN not having the correct digits.

While, as you said, it was your fault. I would be tempted to raise a complaint on how it was sent given the IBAN was not complete. 

SiliconChip

I'm not sure that the recepient bank will accept anything from you unless they ask for it, the accepted method of tracing a payment is for it to be done by the sending bank. And as @born_again says (and I implied in my previous post) it's very likely that there will be one or more other banks in the chain, so the money may never have got to the recipient bank.

I'd also agree that the invalid IBAN should have been picked up at the start and prevented the payment from going through, and that is the responsibility of the sending bank, so a complaint would be worthwhile.

[Deleted User]

born_again said:

These payments may not go  direct to the receiving bank, so can take a while to get sorted. 
Although that error should have been picked up on sending with a check on the IBAN not having the correct digits.

While, as you said, it was your fault. I would be tempted to raise a complaint on how it was sent given the IBAN was not complete. 

Given it wasn't within SEPA, the IBAN was optional and possibly not even checked. SWIFTs BIC (Business Identifier Code) for the local bank are much more important. 

It might be manually allocated by the local bank to the correct account if it's one digit out and all the other info is correct or it might be eventually returned.