Account transfer question....

iv-tecman · 11 Jan 2010 at 10:15

If someone transferred funds into my current account, and claimed to have the right account numbers, and sort code, and then two weeks later tells you it got returned, does this sound feasible?

Reason I ask, family member has my account number, and was meant to transfer money over and today informed me it has failed when I questioned why it hadn’t shown up in my account yet….

Should normally take 3 – 5 days, but due to hols etc allowed two weeks…. They say it got returned to their account?

Unless he typed in the numbers wrong, what happens to funds transferred to an incorrect number? Can it take 14 days to go around and come back to the original account? Or did they simply not make the payment, as informed?

Many thanks...

killsta · 11 Jan 2010 at 11:02

If the account number was completely wrong and didn't exist, the fund transfer would fail.

If they were incorrect but still a valid number, the money would be transferred into some random persons account.

Also, most big banks now use the Fast Payment Scheme which means the money will hit the target account pretty much instantly, so none of the old 3-5 day rubbish.

Will Gill · 11 Jan 2010 at 11:05

thought you had to include the payee's name to prevent random accounts getting cash?

Raumarik · 11 Jan 2010 at 11:29

Doesn't always work Will.

antijoke · 11 Jan 2010 at 11:32

I remember reading a story not so long back about a rather unlucky lady who transferred a substantial amount of money to the wrong account due to the wrong number being entered, she lost it all.

I think your family member either entered it wrongly and it was a bogus account or they didn't do it in the first place.