What to do if you’ve sent money to the wrong account

At a glance

• If you’ve sent money to the wrong person you should be able to get it back, provided they don’t dispute it.
• You’ll need to contact your bank as soon as you realise a mistake has been made, and should get a refund within 20 working days.
• However, the onus is on you not to make a mistake – take your time and double check when making payments.

These days we’re used to transferring money from our current account at the tap of an app, but that means we can often get complacent – and that’s when mistakes can happen. It can be all-too easy to type in the wrong digit and send your money into a banking black hole, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get it back. Here’s what to do if you accidentally send a payment to the wrong account.

Can a bank transfer be reversed?

The transfer itself can’t be reversed, but it is possible to retrieve the money if you’ve sent it accidentally.

Some banks may allow you to undo a transfer within a small window of making the payment, but this will be incredibly limited – typically, you’ll have to realise and cancel the transaction in less than a minute – and not all banks offer this kind of feature. In most cases, you’ll need to take further steps to get your money back.

If you think you’ve been scammed and suspect you’ve transferred money to a fraudulent account, it’s vital to take action quickly. Call the police immediately on 101 and get in touch with your bank to see if you can recover the funds. Read our guides on what to do if you’re scammed and how to get your money back after an online scam to find out more.

What to do if you’ve transferred money to the wrong account

First thing’s first – don’t panic! Take a deep breath, and think about where you’ve sent the money.

Contact the recipient

If you know who you made the payment to – if you clicked the wrong name or business in your list of recipients, for example – you can simply contact them directly and ask them to send it back. This will hopefully make it fairly straightforward and, apart from a bit of embarrassment, there shouldn’t be any lingering issues.

Bear in mind too that if you’ve sent the money to an account that’s closed, inactive or non-existent – such as if you typed in the wrong digits altogether – the money should be returned to you automatically.

However, if you don’t know where the money’s gone or the person/business isn’t playing ball, you’ll need to get in touch with your bank.

Contact your bank

You should contact your bank or building society as soon as possible to let them know the details of the transaction. You’ll need to provide the amount that was sent, when the transfer was made, the name on the account, and the account number/sort code. Under the misdirected payments code of best practice, the bank will then have a maximum of two working days to start to try and put things right.

Note that there may be different processes depending on the amount that was mistakenly transferred. If it’s only a small amount some banks may be able to quickly deal with the matter via online chat, for example, whereas larger amounts will likely need you to call directly.

If they find evidence of a genuine mistake, they will contact the receiving bank on your behalf with a request to prevent the money being mistakenly spent. As long as the recipient does not dispute your claim, you should receive a refund within 20 working days from when you notified your bank.

What if there’s a problem?

There’s no guarantee that you’ll get your money back, but in most cases your bank should be able to arrange a refund. However, if it can’t reclaim the funds – for instance, if the recipient doesn’t accept the money was sent in error – you will be notified within 20 working days and will be given clear and accurate information on what you can do next. This could include court action against the recipient, but this will be a last resort.

Making a complaint

If all else fails, you can make an official complaint to your bank. They should have a formal complaints procedure in instances where you don’t receive the help you expected, such as if you don’t think it followed the code of best practice.
If you’re still unhappy with the outcome and haven’t been able to get your money back, you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

What checks are in place?

Although the onus is always on you to double-check the details of any payment, banks have their own checks in place to ensure you’re sending money to the right account.

Confirmation of Payee is one of the biggest changes to have been enforced in recent years, whereby the bank will check that the name you’ve input matches that on their records. This name checking service was specifically designed to help reduce the incidence of misdirected payments, and is also a powerful tool to help stop fraud.

Strong Customer Authentication is another key change that means banking customers now have to confirm their identity via two- or multi-factor authentication before they can make a payment. Another way to improve security and help reduce fraud, this means you’ll typically need to provide a password as well as another piece of identifying information, such as a unique passcode or biometric scan, before the payment will be approved.

How to prevent payment mistakes

Of course, the best way to avoid problems is not to make a mistake in the first place. Banks and building societies go to great lengths to ensure the design of their online, mobile and telephone payment channels reduce the risk of customer error, but it’s still important to be vigilant.

Whenever making a payment, you should:

• check that the bank account number you intend to pay matches up with the name of the account holder
• take note of extra warnings from your bank about using the correct details (such as if it says the account details don’t match)
• double-check the summary page before you confirm

If it’s a particularly large sum you may also want to consider sending a small amount first to check it’s going to the right place, and if you have any payees on your list that you haven’t used for some time, it’s worth checking the details so they can be updated or deleted as necessary.

Above all, taking your time is key, but if you do make a mistake, notify your bank as quickly as possible to get the ball rolling to recover your cash – and the same goes if you receive money mistakenly into your account too!

What if you receive a payment by mistake?

If you notice a payment coming into your account that you don’t recognise, contact your bank straight away. They’ll be able to take the money back and refund the person who made the original payment. You absolutely shouldn’t spend the money – not only is it morally questionable, but you’ll be committing a crime as well.