Sent money to wrong bank account number

Good afternoon madaaaaam I am calling from your bank.

A pigeon has intercepted the monies you wired. And we need to send a pigeon catcher into your account so he can retrieve it.

To let him in I need your bank account number and sort code madaam
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JBod said:
I think that is slightly unfair, I've used transferwise (Or Wise) multiple times a month for years moving money between the US and UK. I have nothing other than great things to say about them.
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I don't see why it's an unfair thing to say.

I use it to send money to contacts in China, the way that TransferWise conduct business is still pretty sketchy, they're far from a bank and from memory there's very little ID checks and things such as that.
 
chrcoluk said:
Now I get asked for recipients name, what happens if the name mismatches though I got no idea, it always seemed a bit of an odd system, that made it so easy to send money to the wrong place.
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It tends to tell me whether it's a close match or not close at all and then gives the actual name (For Natwest anyway), that way i get to see for myself whether it seems legit.
 
Gaygle said:
I was the donut who typed the account number and sort code into their phone and they transferred it there and then. I only noticed when I got the confirmation email and noticed one digit of the account number out.

The company was TransferWise or "Wise" as they're known now. Similar to Monzo/Revolut
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I read that as TransferWives and thought you were being paid £250 to take someones wife off them. I didn't know it was that cheap :D
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
OP, if the recipient account number doesn't exist then the sending bank is unable to complete the transfer and this should be flagged automatically and near-instantly (or at least by day end) on your internet banking or mobile app*

* I'm basing this on the NZ/AUS banking infrastructure and setup so this may or may not be particularly useful to you.
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Yeah when I tried to replicate the situation (i opened a TransferWise account and tried to send money to the same erroneous bank account number) it wouldn't let the money even go. It came back almost immediately saying there was a problem with the details and if you forced it to send, it immediately cancelled and refunded the money. With this in mind, I have no idea how the original money has actually gone from the ladies account (which I have verified) and can see that the transaction is marked as "complete" whereas when I tried to replicate it, it went to "pending" then "cancelled".

She said she'll call TransferWise today and find out what's happened to it. Hopefully it'll just be a case of clawing it back. I'm just glad it hasn't gone into someone elses account otherwise it becomes a lot more difficult.

Martynt74 said:
I read that as TransferWives and thought you were being paid £250 to take someones wife off them. I didn't know it was that cheap :D
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I would need at least 100 times that amount - if their husband is selling, there's going to be a reason why! :p
 
Gaygle said:
I have a question if anyone else has gone through it - if you send money to an incorrect bank account number, and more specifically a bank account number that doesn't exist, what happens?

Long story short, someone tried to send me £250 - the sort code was correct but the account number had one digit wrong. It was my fault as it was me who sent the wrong account number (fat fingers).

Now, I've been able to confirm that the bank account number does not exist, but struggling to get anyone in Halifax customer services to give a straight answer on what happens next. Unfortunately the person sent the money from one of these Monzo/Revolut type app based accounts rather than a proper bank account.

Does it just get bounced back/rejected when the money reaches Halifax and they find the account number doesn't exist? Or is there a process?
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It goes to a central suspense account for clearing (if it doesn't exist)

However, like most covered Confirmation Of Payee should help prevent this, but not fully (usually a soft warning - not a block like most suggested)
 
tlrBeta said:
It goes to a central suspense account for clearing (if it doesn't exist)
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Where does it go after the suspense account? Does it get returned or just sit there forever until it's claimed?

tlrBeta said:
However, like most covered Confirmation Of Payee should help prevent this, but not fully (usually a soft warning - not a block like most suggested)
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Yeh it's strange because it stopped me from doing it and pretty much blocked me from sending it - I physically couldn't force it to. But it didn't do anything when she tried to
 
I did this years ago. Copied and pasted details in and included issue number of card as account numbers.. D'oh.

Contacted my bank (NatWest) and explained the error and they very kindly reimbursed me the amount (£200). The account I sent it to did actually exist, so somebody received £200 from me!
 
It will eventually get returned. It will be sat in the recipients bank's suspense account. Can take a week to come back though.

We have had money back the next day from errors though so it does vary from bank to bank.

Ask the person who sent you the money to ask the their bank for it back.

Good job the account didnt exist as AFAIK if it had existed then the money would be gone for good. You can ask the recipient for the money back but legally they arent obliged to return it I think. That used to be the case. I had a friend who got £3k by accident and he got to keep it.
 
robfosters said:
Monzo are awesome. Never been happier banking wise since I switched
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Yea, OP has been a bit hasty lumping Monzo in with the unregulated non-FSCS protected offerings.

Although tbh, I've been able to send to bank accounts without the correct name with numerous banks, it's just they warn you before hand to double check everything.

If the account did exist, you likely wouldn't get it back unless the recipient agreed.
 
Further salt to the wound is that Monzo actually lets you share account details directly from the app so removes that element of human error.
 
Gaygle said:
Where does it go after the suspense account? Does it get returned or just sit there forever until it's claimed?



Yeh it's strange because it stopped me from doing it and pretty much blocked me from sending it - I physically couldn't force it to. But it didn't do anything when she tried to
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You need to speak to your bank, Halifax and tell them the mistake. Dumb it down if you need to, just tell them its gone to the wrong account and you want the money back.

May I ask what makes you think the account and sort code combination doesn't exist?
 
I have done this a couple of times on international transfers.... if the account doesn't exist the money will automatically be returned to sender, but in my experience this took about 10 working days.
 
Macky said:
I did this years ago. Copied and pasted details in and included issue number of card as account numbers.. D'oh.

Contacted my bank (NatWest) and explained the error and they very kindly reimbursed me the amount (£200). The account I sent it to did actually exist, so somebody received £200 from me!
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I once transferred money to the wrong account, but I was lucky in that I could email the person I'd sent it to. I'd had a brainfart and entered the bank details for a different person to the person I intended to send money to. They'd received the money but they hadn't received any indication of where it came from until they got my "Hello, I am a silly billy who accidentally sent you money" email :)
 
My sister had 1.6 million transferred into her account incorrectly when she was a kid - needless to say it got reversed 2 days later.
 
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