Can money transferred into my bank account be sucked back out again?

StonedPenguin · 19 Sep 2011 at 13:44

Once it's in your account no.

Cosimo · 19 Sep 2011 at 13:47

shine said:
That's not true, only once the payment has cleared can it not be reversed. It's an important distinction.

It's what I meant.

spudbynight · 19 Sep 2011 at 13:49

Rroff said:
Lets put it this way, once cleared it a lot more hassle for the buyer to get it reversed than it would be through paypal, its not impossible but they'd have to go to a lot more lengths.

EDIT: On an unrelated note "feek" is currently featuring in the "most wanted" on Eve Online with 400m bounty lol.

What is Feeks char called?

Feek · 19 Sep 2011 at 13:52

spudbynight said:
What is Feeks char called?

"Feek". But it's not me any more, hasn't been for quite some time.

Thanks for the advice, it looks like once the money has cleared into my account that I'm pretty safe.

Rroff · 19 Sep 2011 at 13:56

spudbynight said:
What is Feeks char called?

Feek in Eve is now owned by someone in Raiden.

Paul11 · 19 Sep 2011 at 13:59

bank transfer direct in to your account cannot be undone

Jano · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:00

StonedPenguin said:
Once it's in your account no.

Wrong. It can be done. It would be fiddly and would take a lot of work from his bank, plus some sort of ok from either the person receiving the funds or their bank, but it definitely can be done.

Paul11 · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:09

Jano said:
Wrong. It can be done. It would be fiddly and would take a lot of work from his bank, plus some sort of ok from either the person receiving the funds or their bank, but it definitely can be done.

my bank seems to disagree with you

Hairybudda · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:19

Paul11 said:
my bank seems to disagree with you

It can be done and I've seen it done on multiple occasions when I worked for Santander

Gaz1988 · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:21

paypal + recorded delivery?

Rroff · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:22

Paul11 said:
my bank seems to disagree with you

Yeah usually they can't be reversed once the transaction is complete and cleared... its essentially like any other contract a shop can't demand you return a product if they accidentally gave you a £1000 TV instead of the £300 one you thought you were buying.

However there are some conditions under which they can be reversed my sister had 1.6m accidentally paid by BT into her account once and she didn't get to keep it heh.

Django x2 · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:23

mrk1@1 said:
I sold quite a lot of my transformers / starwars to buyers abroad and I would only take bank transfer for this very reason. highest sale was circa £500 for one transaction.

can't be reversed if from a bank acc to bank acc. you may want to check with your bank re the counter fraud / money laundering policies though although this is a slightly separate issue.

only thing you should do is make sure you send it by express and fully insured mail for the buyers benefit unless they want it by the cheapest method. also worth checking with the shipping agent re packaging requirements. I used to use mailboxesetc and they needed required 50mm styrene inners for protective lining for some items under insurance and even then they would only cover for loss, not damage in transit.

This isnt true, money can be reversed instantly by the issuing or receiving bank but there has to be justification for it. Wrong account number (agreed by both parties), damaged item refusing refunds etc. It's not a simple process to get to the reversal, but the reversal itself can be instant

Rroff · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:26

^^ I believe with bank transfers if you can prove that the person initiating the transfer didn't have permission to do so it can be reversed, however you'd normally need either a situation where you can prove the bank didn't do sufficent security checks before allowing it (in which case the bank would probably take the hit on the chin tho wouldn't put it past them to simply switch the money back) or sufficent evidence to put a 3rd party before the court, in most cases the failure to secure against a 3rd party unauthorised transfer would lie with the account holder (so you couldn't reverse it).

Jano · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:30

Paul11 said:
my bank seems to disagree with you

And my ten years of working in banks and actually having to handle these after errors or fraudulent account activity disagrees again.

It most definitely is possible to do, but is also a pain in the backside for all involved.

Django x2 · 19 Sep 2011 at 14:49

^ agreed. Whilst the actual process is easy, the paperwork and audit trail is most definately not

Dave M · 19 Sep 2011 at 15:39

If he paid it in cash over the counter in a branch of your bank, I'd say that was safe, depends if your bank is willing to tell you the method used to pay in though (could be cheque - extremely dodgy).

I know if someone pays you with a stolen cheque it can be reversed months later, I don't know if this would apply to bank transfers but I wouldn't assume anything.

Feek · 18 Oct 2011 at 10:58

Just as an update to this, a month later.

The buyer paid by direct back transfer from a foreign bank account. I shipped the goods, he's happy and I cancelled the auction (because there was no record of any payment through their systems) so there were no eBay or Paypal fees. A result for all concerned.

Scrutinize · 18 Oct 2011 at 12:06

Feek said:
Just as an update to this, a month later.

The buyer paid by direct back transfer from a foreign bank account. I shipped the goods, he's happy and I cancelled the auction (because there was no record of any payment through their systems) so there were no eBay or Paypal fees. A result for all concerned.

Feek = 1 / eBay = 0

jas72 · 18 Oct 2011 at 12:43

Just want to say Feek hats off to you. I don't know how many auctions I can't bid in due the lots of UK posters saying no bids from outside the UK. (Presuming you live in the UK that is

)

I understand it's to prevent the scammers but it is mighty annoying...