What happens when you accidentally transfer money to wrong bank account ?

POSTED BY Jagoinvestor ON January 1, 2015 COMMENTS (382)

Have you ever wondered what will happen if you accidently transfer money online to some strangers bank account ? If you are thinking thats its a rare event, you are wrong. There are thousands of real life cases where a person transferred the money to someone account and then realised that one digit in account number has changed by mistake .

Do you get the money back ?

What are the rules from the bank side and what are your rights as a customer? We will look at this topic today, so that you know what you need to be careful about !

NEFT by mistake to someone else account

Before we go ahead, I would like to show you some real life examples and complains people have given

Real Life Example 1 – How Rajni transferred Rs 30,000 to strangers account

I did online transaction of transferring Rs 30,000 with ICICI Bank on September 30th,2008.By mistake I transferred money to wrong account number which I did not intend to .I wanted to transfer money to Adarsh Kumar A/C – 000501518633 but by mistake i transferred it to someone by name Virender Asati A/C 000501518366.I gave written letter to ICICI bank ,GT Road ,Jalandhar branch on Oct 4th which they are not able to trace and then I gave one more written letter to ICICI,Dwarka Branch ,Sector 5 ,New Delhi where I am holding the account in November and also sent several emails to them through net banking but ICICI back says that they can not transfer the money without Account holder’s permission . (Source)

Real Life Example 2 – How Vipin by mistake sent Rs 1,00,000 to strangers bank account

I am writing to you for a payment of 1 lac rupees through NEFT transfer on 2nd April 2012 to my sister Meena A/C . But due to a very high level technical mistake by HDFC my payment didn’t receive to my sister a/c whereas it had gone to other person account in some where. After few days when I enquired about that same we came to know that you have filled a starting digit incorrect that’s why your payment had gone to other person accounts. Here my question is to hdfc if anybody fill any information inaccurate, account will not be added as i know but in my case my all entries was correct except one digit error as you are telling us. It’s a universal awareness that there are so many mandatory requisite information criteria; when they not simultaneously completed transaction becomes failed like unmatched IFSC Code , unmatched city and even error of gender.

From that date I called so many times to customer care and visited the respective branch but I am not getting any proper answer from them and not knowing that what action is taken from your side. This is very sad to me that your are not taking any action and not giving me any assurance of my money. (Source)

Only “Account number” matters for online transfer

Let me give you shock of your life now.

Do you also think that if you transfer money to someone by adding their name, accounts number and IFSC code and if one of those does not match the transaction should fail and you should get back your money in your account. Right ?

But its far from reality ! . As per RBI guidelines, at the end of the day only bank account number should matter and name of the account holder and IFSC code are additional information which should be ideally checked by bank on their end, but there is no rule like that.

If you mess up with the account number, the transaction can go through you the money will be transferred. Its totally a bank choice and a “suggestion” from RBI to banks that they should ideally match Name and IFSC code before the transaction, but its not mandatory.

Below is the RBI notification for you to read, which clearly states this. I suggest you read it fully to understand how the banking world thinks and works.

RBI Notification for using only account number for online transfer

Responsibility lies with the remitter and not beneficiary

As per RBI directions, the final and sole responsibility of cross checking the account number, Name of the account holder, amount and every other detail lies with the remitter (the person who is sending money) and not the beneficiary (who is getting the money) . You can check numerous times before clicking the final button and after that no one else is responsible for your loss or transaction.

You as customer can not blame the bank to not check details at their end. There are thousands of cases where while typing the account number, one last digit got interchanged with another digit and the person did not realise this and their money is then at stake and in most of the cases , they never got it back. (You can learn more about NEFT and RTGS here)

If the account number does not exist, then surely the money will come back to you, because there is no valid destination to send the money. But if the account number exists and its active, then there are high chances that the transaction will go through .

What you should do if you have accidentally transferred money to wrong bank account ?

If you have made a mistake of transferring the money to a strangers account, then you should follow these steps mentioned below

The first step is to make sure you inform your bank the moment you realise that unintended money transfer has taken from from your end. The bank will then contact the beneficiary account holder and try to explain the situation to them. They will ask the account holder to give them permission to reverse back the transaction. In most of the cases, I have read on internet that the recipient of the money have agreed for the reversal (We have good people in this world, despite widespread belief that world is evil) . Below is a real life incident where the person sent back the money.

Getting back money after wrong transfer of money

In some cases, where the other party is greedy (when amounts are quite big) , the other person might not revert back at all or just delay the whole thing and withdraw the money or just don’t take any action . In which case you really are in a fix and it becomes almost impossible to get back your money.

You should then meet the branch manager of your bank, who can go one step further and talk to the destination bank and if they can help in this or in communication with the beneficiary.

One important point to note here is that bank cannot reverse the transaction from their side without the customer approval, because its a breach of agreement and is not the right thing. You never know what exactly is the whole story and who is saying truth (I can pay you and then just say, it happened by mistake)

icici response in case of wrong NEFT transaction

3 Precautions you should always take while transferring money Online ?

Precaution is better than cure, I personally believe that we are ourself responsible for any money transfer done online. Nothing stops us from taking extra precautions while transferring money online.

Lets see few things you can do ..

Trick #1 – Use CTRL-F to verify your account number

Most of the times, we are typing an account number which we have got in our emails, we look at the number (few digits at times) and then type it in other window when we are adding the beneficiary. What I personally do is once I have typed the account number (you cant copy paste the account numbers in all the bank website, as its disabled) . In that case you can just copy your account number from email, and type CTRL-F and paste the number there and you can visually see if it matches with what you just typed. Below is a screenshot I created for you to understand what I am talking about..

copy paste technique wrong neft

Trick #2 – Transfer Rs 1 first and test the transaction incase of big amounts

If you are transferring a big amount to someone, you can go one step ahead and first transfer Rs 1 and then confirm with the beneficiary if they have got it, and then on confirmation, you can trasfer the full amount. But I suggest to use it only in extreme situations when you really want to make sure if the account is genuine or not. At times, you might come across someone who gives you their account number and you are aware that they are careless by nature, and might have made some mistake while sharing account number, In that case you can take this extreme precautionary step ! .

Trick #3 – Verify the account number from right to left

Generally we are programmed to read left to right and we also match the account number that way, truly speaking, it might happen that we sometimes get fooled by our own confidence (4 zero , might look like 5 zero) .. So its better to also cross check the account number digit by digit from right to left. I personally cross check an account number digit by digit 2-3 times because I transfer any money online. I have never faced any issue of wrongly sending money to strangers account or sending excess money by mistake (One excess Zero in 10,000 and it becomes 1 lac) ..

Spend 1 extra minute to save your self big trouble

I hope you are clear by now that its your mistake if you transfer money to someone else account and you cant held someone else responsible for your mistake. Hence its always better to add the beneficiary account with precaution. Always cross check the account number 2-3 times.

I would be happy to know if you benefitted by this article and if there are any real life incidents around this area. Also please share anything related to this topic in comments section.

382 replies on this article “What happens when you accidentally transfer money to wrong bank account ?”

  1. Sonu Kumar Gautam says:

    Sir, I have gone to bank for the transition of money because I have to deposit the fee of my college. IFS code, name of university, bank name was right but the account no was typed wrong in place of 33 they have typed 32 what can be done for this. Sir please tell me

    1. Hi Sonu Kumar Gautam

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  2. champak says:

    Sir.. i entered IFSC code wrongly.. i forgot to type one number but my account number is correct.. is it possible for transactions ?? Plz rply

    1. Dont worry in that case

  3. Muthu says:

    Hello Sir,

    Today i added my uncle account as bene without entering the last 2 digit of the actual account no. Actual no is 15 digit but i entered only 13 digit IOB account. I enabled the payee and transferred the amount. The amount also debited from my account. After sometimes only i came to know that account in invalid. When i enquired in IOB bank there is no such account have only 13 digit. So the trasnferred money not went to other wrong account. I raised a complaint in my andhra bank. They have mentioned like it will take 7 days to credit back to my account. Now my query is surely my money will be back to my account or not.

    IFSC code : Entered Correctly
    Account no : Actual is 15 digit but i entered only 13 digit. Entered wrongly
    Bene name : Entered Correctly
    Acct type : Entered Correctly

    1. In that case it will come back to you soon

  4. praveen says:

    sir ,

    I transferred money wrongly to one account .Could you please revert back this money from ABB acoount.

    06/10/2016 IMPS OUTWARD ORG IMPSTO XXXXXXXX3280 CTB REF NO:-628016241739 9,600.00

    I have sent from my citibank account 5052452815.

    Regards,
    Praveen

    1. How can I revert it back ? What powers do I have ?

  5. vishwajeet says:

    Sir today i deposit my money in wrong account .. do u plzz tell me something . How i get my money back.. i also talk about thise to the same bank branch where i deposit the amount. so they only give the beneficiary mob no… but her mob no . Is switch off… so plzz tell me what should i supposed to do….

    Could i go to the police??

  6. Shishir says:

    very nice articles are provided by u.

    1. Thanks for your comment Shishir

  7. Raghu says:

    Hi,
    In a NEFT transaction, the destination bank, branch, IFSC are entered correct. But the account number is mentioned as a 16 digit no. instead of 15 digits. One extra ‘0’ got added somewhere in the middle. Fund has been debited from the source account but not yet credited in the destination account. Kindly clarify the likely implications. Whether the money will revert to the source account automatically ? TIA

    1. Hi Raghu

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  8. GSBSChowdari says:

    I am one of the active readers of your pages. Wish that you continue to post valuable tips and information.

    I have an issue with HDFC Life and HDFC Bank with regard to AUTODEBIT of yearly premium.

    I have been a TERM Insurance Policy holder with HDFCLife for the last 13 years. My renewal premium (annual) was due on 26th July 2016. Since I decided to discontinue this TERM effective from 26th July 2016, I called up HDFCLife in May and Jun 2016 to stop the renewal of policy. Customer Support Executive has taken request and when I asked them do I require to send a written mail, she said that there is no NEED. On 20th Jul 2016, I received an SMS alert from HDFCLife to keep sufficent balance in the bank towards renewal premium payment. Then I immediately sent out a mail to both HDFCLife and HDFCBank to stop AUTODEBIT of premium since I requested for discontinuance of policy on its expiry ie.,26th July 2016. And I also called up customer support and informed that please DONOT send an AUTODEBIT Advice to bank. There was no reply from HDFCLife to my mail and HDFC Bank sent me a reply on 25th July 2016, advising me to go to nearest HDFC Bank and give a STOP request in person. Accordingly I went to the Bank and gave a written request to stop AUTODEBIT on priority basis. However, on 26th Jul 2016, I got a SMS message from Bank that an amount of Rs.11,248/- was debited. I immediately called up HDFCLife, they mentioned that there is no payment reflected and even if the payment is received the same will be reversed since there was a request NOT to renew the policy. On 28th July 2016, HDFCLife sent me an electronic payment receipt. I got annoyed and immediately called up HDFCLife Customer Support and Bank Relationship Manager, they should reverse the transaction and credit the debited amount. I have been following up with both HDFCBank and HDFCLife since then to get my money back. HDFCLife is claiming that since amount is already AUTODEBITED, the same cannot be refunded. My argument is here that – any renewal is subject to acceptance by policy holder / insurer. AutoDebit is one of the methods of facilitating the payment which is usually claimed on start day of the grace period of 30days. My claim is that since I already requested NOT to renew the policy, the insurer should refund the money without any questions asked. What is your opinion? How should I approach to get my premium amount refunded. What actions I should initiate with HDFCBank and HDFCLife. I cannot simply forego an amount of Rs.11,248/-. Kindly suggest.

    1. Yes, you seem to be right here . If you have already told them not to renew it, That request must have got recorded .

      I think you can complain against them to banking ombudsman and also insurance ombudsman once. If I were at your place, I would have made sure I dont have sufficient balance around that time when the auto debit was suppose to happen, just to be on safer side !

      Manish

      1. GSBSChowdari says:

        Thank you Mr.Manish.

        I will send a notice before complaint. Then I lodge my complaint with banking ombudsman and insuranace ombudsman.

        Can I also file a case before consumer court for deficiency in service.

        1. Yes you can , but I would recommend first going to ombudsman

  9. snehal says:

    Hi. Today I transferred Rs 5000 to my brother by using online banking bt instead of bank account no. I wrote his atm no. which is 16 digits and his name and ifsc code is correct. money deducted from my account BT not received by my brother. is it transferred to any others account who have atm no. as his account no.is it possible? If that account no. not exist then it will created back to my account. Plz tell me what will happen to money can I get it back. Thanks

    1. If there is an existing account with the account number you mentioned (card number) , then you might have tough time to recover it. Otherwise it will be back in your account.

      1. sai krishna says:

        Sir. I intended to transfer money from a cheque to my account but in the form i filled all the details correctly but by mistake i wrote my father’s account number. Now what will happen to the cheque. Will they keep it on hold? Can i get the amount.

        1. Yes, it will not go through . As the name and cheque account number does not match . Now issue a new cheque

  10. Jephthah says:

    I transferred money to an account where the account holder is on verification because of various scam associated with the account,how do I revert it and how long will it stay

    1. Hi Jephthah

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  11. Vignesh says:

    Very informative,thanks

    1. Thanks for your comment Vignesh

  12. MaheshNath says:

    Hi Sir, i am entered wrong IFSC code but entered correct account number transaction go’s to Corporation bank to SBI but amount is not credited to SBI account but amt was debited so what can i do further transaction date is 10/08/2016 please help me sir thanks you

    1. Check with them where the amount went. Mostly it will be back to you in some days

      Manish

  13. SANTOSH says:

    I had made online transaction of ₹3600 but i entered wrong debit card expiry date.As usual an OTP arrived at my mobile phone and completed that transaction.My account debited but money not reached its destination. I CONTACTED TO BANK AND THEY SAID MONEY WILL AUTOMATICALLY CREDITED BACK TO MY SOURCE ACCOUNT WITHIN 7 DAYS BUT IT IS 15 DAYS NEITHER MY MONEY CREDITD TO MY ACCOUNT NOR TRANSFERRED TO ITS DESTINATION. PLEASE SIR HELP ME TO GET MY MONEY BACK.

    1. Only your bank will be able to help you on this. Its purely a banking related issue.

  14. Abhinav says:

    A month back my ex-company transferred my gratuity payment to a wrong account. They didn’t inform me when the transfer was made. I came to know about it today. Looking at account details, it seems that the account is of Gulbarga. However, the ifsc code provided is of an branch in Bangalore. What are the chances that this transaction might have failed ? What should I do?
    I have a big amount at stake.

    1. I dont think its your problem. Ask your old company to fix it ! .. However if you have provided wrong account number to them, then its your mistake. Check with bank on this

      Manish

  15. Deepali says:

    Hi Manish,

    I have received some huge amount in my PPF account from an unknown source that too almost close to a year now, but no one contacted me in this regard. Neither bank approached for wrong transfer. But it is someone hard earned money, I can not keep it like this. What should I do, how to reach back to the money owner.

    Thanks,
    Deepali

    1. Check that with PPF office and ask them to find out about it !

  16. Trupti says:

    I have transferred 15k to wrong account instead of my MIL by IMPS,Which she required for her medical bills settlement at hospital.one of the account number digits was wrongly entered. Mine account in Apna sharakari bank and beneficiary account Bank of India

  17. sanketshah11 says:

    Hi Manish,
    Thanks for the article, as always.
    I am facing a similar problem. Y’day I was trying to purchase mutual funds from the UTI website. The Billdesk payment gateway connected to my Kotak Bank account, debited the account, but then errored out. Now, I am in a situation where my account is debited, but there is no transaction showing on UTI. What should I do ?

    Thanks,
    Sanket

    1. Its a common issue. All you need to do is check with UTI on this and also send me the screenshot of your account where the debit is clear.

      They will resolve the issue. Either the money will be back to your account or the units will be allocated.

      Dont worry. happens at times.

      Manish

  18. Bhavna says:

    Accidentally on the ppf maturity form i wrote my last 4 digits of account no wrong. Now the maturity amount has been transferred to someone else. What do I do??
    Plz help

    1. Inform the office immediately on this.

  19. subhash says:

    hello sir,
    I received a caution money cheque (ACCOUNT PAYEE CHECQUE OF SBI BRANCH)of Rs 4000/- (Four Thousand) from my college after completion of my course..
    I had deposited that checque in an E-CORNER of SBI and after two days i received Rs 40,000/- instead of Rs. 4000/-
    What can be the possible reason for it. It has been approximately 15 days now since the credit but i havent got a call from the Bank and the college.
    Also, I am not willing to tel my college by my own as they had looted me for 4 long years and gave this caution money cheque after 7 years.

    1. It might be a mistake mostly. I suggest better keep the amount as it is anyways for quite some time, so that incase its deducted back you dont face any issues!

    2. subhash says:

      thank you sir…..
      1 more query….can the credit amount through checque be reverted back without the permission of the beneficiary???

      1. Hi subhash

        Looking at your query, I think your case is complicated and you should discuss and consult a financial planner, because just a random answer will not help you at all.

        If you are interested, I suggest you look at our financial planning service also and fill up the form there to have initial discussions

        http://www.jagoinvestor.com/services/financial-planning#fill-form

        ManishHi subhash

        I am not clear on what is your question. Please repeat it with more clarity

        Manish

      2. Hi subhash

        I am not clear on what is your question. Please repeat it with more clarity

        Manish

  20. rasheed says:

    Sir while doing online transaction using sbi quick transfer to a syndicate bank account i entered only 13 digits of the account number instead of 14, ie. I missed a zero in the middle. Is there any possibility of such a number to exist. if the number doesnot exist will i get my money back???

    1. Atul says:

      No, All account has similar digits, if you mentioned 13 digit, you money will get rejected. Only Corporate account has different series of account no, but in those account also digit count is same.

      Thanks
      Atul

    2. I dont think there is a possibility. You should check about this with your bank

  21. teja says:

    hi
    my problem is, i went to deposit the money to my brother’s account through atm deposit machine.
    i accidently swiched the account number and mobile number.
    the problem is I entered my brother’s cell phone number which is not registered to the account and entered the different accunt number.
    This other account number belongs to my friend’s father.
    so i asked her if they have received the money but she says she has not received the message about credited money. Now what can I do about this???

    1. YOu need to check this with bank only. Its very specific matter related to your bank

  22. Ashish says:

    Sir i entered a wrong IFSC code but write account number while transfering the money through paytm and money deducted from my account number an the amount did not transfer in my bank account now what happen with me will i get my money back

    1. You should get back your money in 1-2 days . dont worry !

  23. faizan says:

    I received unwanted credited in my bank account and interesting things has happened with me…d amount is same as my salary and d same day when my salary credit in my account.
    Mai samjha do salary aà gayin bas Phir kya tha mai nainital ghoomne nikal gya Mazey kiye but unfortunately jab mai wapas aà rha tha to mere cousin ka phone aaya usne kaha by mistake tumhare account me paisey credit ho gaye wapas dalwa do.bas uske baad abhi tak tension me hun ki how come to refund his amount.usko poora amount chahiye aur mai installments me dene ko tayyar hun.what can I do

    1. I think this is a personal issue, how can we comment on this ?

  24. Touseef says:

    Last couple of days back in my mother’s saving account Rs. 38000 has been credited. We thought it was our money as because from last 2 years my mother was receiving the pension money of my late father which was directly credited to her savings account. Before the transfer of the Rs. 38000 amount, my mother saving a/c balance was approximatelyRs. 8000. So after receiving we had Rs. 46000. We thought we had received our own pension’s money, so we start spending it to buy the household goods, returning money which we had taken from some one earlier…like that… which lead my mother’s saving a/c have Rs. 37400 (approx).
    After 3 days my mother received a call from the BM of the bank and he said that the 38000 rupees had been wrongly credited to your account so you must return it back to the person who had wrongly credited it. We immediately went to our bank and they had shown the documents regarding the wrongly credit. We accept that it was not our money, but we had spent approximately Rs 9000 believing that it was our own money leading my mother’s saving a/c to Rs. 37400.
    Now the problem arise was that the BM of the bank told us to deposit Rs 1000 and he will than transfer it to the other party whose money had been wrongly credited to my mother’s a/c. But he is not understanding that if we do as he say we will have a zero balance in my mother’s saving account which will lead us come to road with no money at all. The problem has been created by some other person, if he hadn’t done that we will be living peacefully with our own 9000 that has been there before the wrongly transfered. We had told the BM that for now we can return him rs. 30000 and after couple of days when we again receive some money in the a/c we will be transferring back the remaining Rs.8000 as we have to look for ourself also to run the family. The BM does not agree with our condition so do the other party. Now what should we do, please help.

  25. MITESH says:

    i mistakenly got 1 crore in my bank account which the bank themselves reverted back and said it was transferred in error

    1. Yes, thats totally fine. It happens many times !

  26. ankitmehta says:

    an interesting things has happened with me… i received a unwanted credit entry in my X bank account.
    I had transferred this money to an different bank for safe keeping. i wanted to see what the bank are doing. onthe next day of wrong credit entry , bank has marked my entire available balance as lien but has not contacted me. i will be paying that money back soon, but for the sack of experimentation i want to see how many days will the bank take to contact me.

    1. Good , please let us know what happens in your case !

      1. ankitmehta says:

        Hi,

        It took bank 4 days to realize that credit entry was wrong.
        also i gave them the money asap and they rrleased lien….

        There reconcilation method is slow…in my case erroneous dividends of hindzinc was given later which was taken back.

        1. Thanks for sharing that !

  27. Meghna says:

    Instead of switching account number digits , I accidentally added an extra digit to the account number. Does this change the situation in any way?

    1. Yes, if the account you entered exists and has another owner , the same thing applies

  28. Deep says:

    53k seems to have been accidentally credited in to my account. There is nothing that indicates on who transferred it. How do I return the money to the concerned person?
    I understand the pain and anxiety of losing the hard earned money and don’t even feel like seeing it in my account.

    1. Unless someone contacts you , whom will you reach ?

      I suggest just let that money be there as of now and refund it once you trace the person. Anyways you wont loose anything !

  29. Abdullah says:

    Dear sir, Today I got an amount of 44340 from Someone…I went to my bank and asked about the details but they are saying that they can’t trace who is that…

    1. Yes, banks cant trace it if they are not from same bank

      1. SHIVAMMISHRA says:

        मुझसे गलती से 31046014410 गहमर ब्राँच के खाते में 1500 रुपए चले गए है मेरा खता संख्या 3565177836 सराय ख्वझा फरीदाबाद में ही मैंने ब्रांच मैनेजर को लिखित शिकयत क्र दे है पर वे कोई करवाई नहीं कर रहे है
        और बतमीजी से बात और करता है
        किर्प्या क्र पूरी जाँच करके मेरे रुपए लौटा दे गलती किसी सेभी हो सकता है
        my contact no – 9910979388,8802921591

        1. Complain to banking ombudsman on this issue

  30. Anju says:

    Hi,
    Year back I got some amount transferred into my account, knowing well it is not my money I was in need , I did spend the money.
    After few month I changed the job & my salary account also got changed, in last one year no one tried to contact me for refund now after a year I have received notice from their advocate stating to refund the money, I have 2 question a. What if I don’t refund and b. Can I refund in small EMI.

    1. Better talk to a lawyer on this.

    2. RajveerSingh says:

      Dude. In good faith you should return the money. But legally, they cant do anything.

  31. PCRANASINGH says:

    Thanks for educating .

  32. stallio says:

    I want to add something, you can take legal action very very easily same thing happened to me DDA deposited 1 lakh rupee twice to my account for which I proactively called them, but you know they never picks up the call so I waited till they realise thier mistake and after a month I got both ‘phone calls and legal letter. I did the same thing when I accidently submitted 38,000 in someone else A/C the guy was giving me a run around so I sent him a legal notice and the action which an be taken at first he was saying you cannot do anything but when I said you have only 30 days then wait and watch. He returned my money all of them. See you have to understand what that stranger will say in in court why you are not returning the money and he gives any false statement then he has to prove. It cost 500 rs for that legal notice from a lawyer.

    1. Thanks for sharing that ! . I am glad that you shared it , so that others who are in similar situation can also get back the money . But can you share what if the guy still didnt return it ? How did you get the phone/address of that guy. What stops that guy to say that you had taken a loan from him in past in cash and now you returned it back, but now you are asking him to repay the money back else you will put charges on him ? I think the liability to prove is on you and not him , because its you who have transferred the money !

      1. stallio says:

        This incident happened to me, I was giving an expample that if the guy had lied in the court( assume he says that I have to pay him) then he has tp proof, which is very difficult. Address was given to me by the bank manager on a good note( for that I had to insist him). Now it does not mean that you cannot commit a mistake, you said that liability is on me, how? Laws also give you some space to do such mistakes, dont you think its funny that I accidently transferred to your account which was supposed to go somewherw elso and you will take it just beacuse it was a mistake. Consult a good lawyer he will guide you in detail.

        1. ok , thanks for this info . I will do a post on this ..

  33. Thank you Manish Sir, for adding wonderful blog. It can help many mistakes… Do continue…

  34. Nilesh says:

    By mistake i done wrong IMPS ..please can any one help me for same .

    I want to transfer in 2815 but my mistake it went to 2875

  35. rahul says:

    I have done the wrong IMPS transfer, Only last 2 digits got replaced, the amount is around 4850, I was doing the money transfer form my paytm wallet, can you tell me wheather paytm can help me in this or bank side i can get the help

    1. Hi rahul

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  36. rahul says:

    I have dont the wrong IMPS transfer, Only last 2 digits got replaced, the amount is around 4850, I was doing the money transfer form my paytm wallet, can you tell me wheather paytm can help me in this or bank side i can get the help

  37. Mudit says:

    Thanks Manish for knowledgeable article. I was having Citi Bank Account, and they used to match the Account Number and Account Holder’s name. once I was adding my friend account, and I put his name what I knows, and i was not able to add him,then I asked his original account Name and I was able to add him. HDFC don’t have this checks.

    1. Not all banks have it .

  38. thahazeeb says:

    Hey Manish,

    Thank you for this great article! Please let me know how I can support you.

    We would also like to see you talk about digital wallets, card less cash withdrawals, PayZapp and so on. I have always wondered how, for instance, Pockets wallet app by ICICI Bank is different from the normal ICICI Bank savings account. They say you can recharge mobile phones, send cash to friends, pay utility bills and so on but all these could be done using the ICICI Bank app itself. I also keep reading about how you can send money to people with only mobile numbers or even to their WhatsApp account or Facebook account. How do these things work and would also like to know if somebody has actually tried these?

    I am sure most of the readers would love to see you write on all these things now that we are all in the digital banking era.

    Regards

    1. Yea sure why not . WIll cover these very soon .

  39. santosh says:

    Hello Manish,

    Is there any chance of having same account number with the different Banks in India?

    1. No , there cant be any case like this

  40. ashish says:

    Sir can an errorneous credit in someone’s credit card be reversed ??
    If yes how many days does it take ?

    1. No , it wont happen unless its a bank mistake

  41. Akhilesh says:

    I did a NEFT transaction by sending some money to beneficiary account but then i realized that IFSC code is incorrect. Will the transfer take place or i will get the money refund in my account. If i will get refund than how much time it will take.

    Thanks

  42. balaji says:

    I also had this wrong account trfr to a friend sometime back.
    My friend had given a wrong number eg 89 instead of 98.
    Fortunately for him as well as me, the a/c number did not match the name.
    Though the money was taken off my a/c, it was not credited to anyone.
    The Axis bank manager saw through the mistake and asked my friend to write out a letter
    pointing to the mistake, and credited it to my friends a/c.

  43. rahul says:

    as suggested I do transfer a small amount , say rs 100 first and then the rest once the beneficiary confirms receipt of the same . NEFT is otherwise robust but the payer should be careful . The other day I have transferred to an account and it returned back after few hours stating that the account no does not exist in the payee bank. on examination it was found so , that is , I left out one digit of the account no. So the system is foolproof that way except when we are foolish to punch in somebody else account number .`

  44. vivek says:

    I have made a rtgs transaction of inr 5,00,000/- from my pnb branch, inspite of filling all correct details on all forms (including name, account number, ifsc code nd all.
    but still by mistake of bank employee( which is a peon which i got to know later ,as they have shortage of staff).
    what should i do now, as the person to whoom the amount is credited has already withdrawn entire money.
    I have receipts with me , orignal ( customer copy ) & photocopy of bank copy which clearly indicates its bank fault not ours.
    but still we are not getting any response from bank customer care dept ,inspite of repeated reminders….
    kindly advise …
    regards
    vivek

    1. If you had filled the account number properly then its not your mistake , rather bank mistake.

      Contact banking ombudsman on this incase you do not get proper reply from bank

  45. Pratik says:

    The wrong beneficiaries account is a Doormat account i.e. Bank Charges some fine on that account as the Customer Stopped using it 2 Years back. So the Balance shown in it is Say 100 instead of 500. I talked to the wrong beneficiary they said they don’t want the a/c anymore and nor do they have any debit card or cheque book. But they are giving me an application signed by them stating that “I received a wrong payment and I authorize the Bank Officials to reverse the Payment to the Sender. ” But now the bank says that You will get your money only if the Wrong Beneficiary credits his account with sufficient money as much as I claimed for. What can I do to get my money back.

    1. Complain to banking ombudsman

  46. Sasikanth says:

    My name is sasikanth. I have taken room for staying. This month (02-01-2016) I have transfer the money(1600/-) to my room owner through ICICI Net banking .But he didn’t credit the amount in his account. While transferring the amount i had choose IMPS-IFSC (type of transaction) option. So can anyone suggest for the solution.

    1. Hi Sasikanth

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  47. Ashish says:

    Hi, I have put account number correctly but IFSC code was wrong. Still Bank debited my money and the concerned party didn’t receive it. I even logged a written complaint but nothing happened. What should I do?

    1. IFSC code does not matter with most of the bank !

      1. Ashish says:

        Means I have lost my money?

  48. Jiwan says:

    Hi Manish..i tranaferred funds in other account by mistake of one digit..and the account in which i transferred money accidently also exist. And in my case there is a mismatch in a/c no and name. Will it reverse automatically.

    1. No it will not reverse, because system does not know that you mistakenly did it. It feels that you wanted to do that same transfer

      1. Ashish says:

        Means. I have lost my money?

        1. Look at the options you have. Bank is not at fault here. THey are doing the transfers as per RBI guideline only, which is based on account number. IFSC code does not need to be checked at their end. Its just one of the field you fill.

          So in a way you are just using their netbanking to transfer money to an account which you typed yourself, If you have made a mistake, bank has no idea about it. Only you know it was a wrong account number, the system does not. It does what it is designed to .

          All you can now do is, check the account number details from bank( which they can refuse) , and then talk to the guy at other end to give bank your money. This is the max you can do.

          Manish

  49. Moin says:

    Thank you for the informative article,
    Someone accidentally transferred an amount of 34 k to my account and I would like to return it,went and checked my statement but couldn’t find the proper information,could you please guide me as to how to go about this so that the money can be given to whoever transferred it.

    1. Its tough to find from where the money came. I think if the person is claiming it, you can ask them for the reference number and also the bank statement, You can match the amount and day of transfer. That would be a good approximation !

  50. Jaibharath says:

    Hi,
    I gave my employer my Debit/ATM card number instead of account number and the salary transfer was successful, Does my debit card number have an real time bank account in same bank or in different bank?. And how do i get it back?.

    1. I didnt get it. You said that its successful , so why you want to it back ? Did you not get it ?

  51. Aman Mohammed. says:

    Hi Manish,

    We have one beneficiary in India , One day I receive one email from same Email Id stating that ” Please remit next transfer to our subsidiary bank based in China.” , they given details. also. On the basis of that I made transaction to Bank of China. Later I come to know that email was from Fraud. after i submit the bank mentioned all stories. After 15 days our bank message I receive . That beneficiary account closed. that means we will not get back that fund. for this any solution Please let me know.

    Regards.
    Aman.
    UAE.

    1. It was a fraud . I think you will not get the money back. Its your mistake completely !

  52. Sam says:

    I deposit 17k in an account who claims himself to be a phone seller.
    I have all proofs regarding the transition I made.
    After the moment I deposit money he blocked me from his contact and I can’t get him now.
    I went to the bank for help and they say they can’t do anything.
    I need your help.
    His account has money so I need to sue him from withdrawing money.
    How can I do that.
    Please help me and reply asap
    Thank you

    1. Hi Sam

      I dont think bank has any role in this. Person A transferred money to person B, now if there is a fraud, you need to reach out to Police, not bank

  53. sabir says:

    Dear Sir, I think i have done a wrong online transaction to paradise nutrition buying supplements from the website called http://ultimatenutritionindia.com .So is there any way of getting the money back please tell me! I am in big trouble now

    1. There is no way to get back the money

  54. Nirup says:

    Sir yesterday day I transferred 5000 to my frnds account …its imps transfer …now I came to know that …I missed one digit …in quick transfer its showing imps pending… What will happen now ??

    1. Mostly it should come back to you

  55. Kasanaram says:

    I have a wrong transfer from bank of baroda m commect to union bank

    How can i het the money back

    1. Try to get in touch with the original account holder.

  56. n says:

    Hi,
    In Nov 2015, I got my salary twice due to an error on my employer’s part. I wasn’t aware of the “error” and spent the money. The employer will recover that amount in my next salary for sure and I happily accept that. The HR team could not educate me if the entire amount will be recovered in “ONE GO” or in installments. Are there any guidelines in place wherein I can request for the installments option ?

    Please suggest.

    1. Hi n

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  57. Aadi says:

    In my case, I was suppose to receive an X Amount from one of my parties but I gave them a wrong account number, by wrong I mean instead of giving them a 14 digits account I gave them a 13 digits account number. I called up my bank and have been advised that the transaction won’t go through as the account numbers at the bank is always 14 digits.

    How long does it take for the RTGS refund to happen?

    1. I think we cant comment on this . RTGS happens in few hours .. But now check with bank on the exact status

  58. Krishna says:

    Excellent article.
    I always do a Rs 10 transfer even if the amount is relatively small – 1000 or so and then get the confirmation from the other side if the transfer is successful or not. This is perhaps the safest bet that anyone can use.
    Also, whenever transferring money, I always try to do in at a time when I am not disturbed.
    I had once in my HDFC credit card about 23,000 deposited by someone. When I called up the bank, the customer care told me that it was for my credit bill statement. I had to convince her that I did not put that money. Interestingly, HDFC had no clue what to do with the credit! This was sometime in 2009. I just hope the right guy got the amount.

    1. Hi Krishna

      Thanks for your sharing your valuable comment on this topic. Please keep sharing your views in future also

      Manish

  59. Raghav says:

    Hi Manish,

    Supposed if my account has credited some xx amount in xx’15 month stating that “you account is credited with Rs.xx on xx’15 ,
    info F *F for xx’15. What does this F*F mean?? Please explain..

    Thanks
    Raghav

    1. I think its a specific bank terms , check with your bank on this

  60. vikash says:

    sir i transfer the money to the wrong account number ..but that account name is not match with the concern person name then what can happen with that money

    1. Mostly the transfer will happen

  61. binayak says:

    Hi,
    I had one online purchase 5 month back through neft. That account i closed 1 month back. The item was defective and they approved the refund and transfer the money to the closed account as they are telling me. But the bankers are saying they have not received any. How i will get the refund amount, please advice.

    1. Hi binayak

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  62. Chakradhar says:

    Hello Mr. Manoj:

    In my case, an error occurred from my side and money was transferred into a wrong account. I have contacted both banks (one which the deposit was made from and the one deposited into), and the response was similar stating nothing can be done officially unless the account holder (wrong beneficiary) authorizes. As officially nothing could be done from bank’s end, I had to go through some back channels and found out the person’s (wrong beneficiary) name and mobile number. Interestingly, when I called this person, she denied having any such account. I have rechecked the details through a friend from back end processing center, and the details were confirmed. I would be thankful if you could suggest , if anything else could be done. Thank you very much.

    1. Sadly nothing can be done here in this case. Its like you transfered Rs X to person Y , and now you are saying you mistakenly did it, please refund me back . thats technically not possible .

      Manish

    2. I dont think you can do much here. Try Police complaint

  63. Priyanshu says:

    I have transfered 20k to a closed bank account. How can I get the money back.

    1. Hi Priyanshu

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  64. Chandan says:

    Sir on 17 sep I had transferred from my SBI card to sbbj card but after 2 days it has not reached,while I updated my a/c I see that the transaction had on an a/c no but while I gone through earlier transactions it is showing me the name of beneficiaries person not their a/c no how it is possible ? And if the money has reached to a wrong a/c no what to do ??

    1. Hi Chandan

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  65. Tushar says:

    By mistake, I made an online transfer from my savings account to a wrong credit card (very old expired Visa card that I held once). I have raised the case with the Bank where my savings account is, but no resolution yet.

    1. I think you will get it, because its a credit card account which is closed. Not a third party ! . Just keep following up

      1. alphonsa says:

        hi manish,

        i made neft for credit card expired three years ago. And i got confirmation message that amount has been credit to beneficiary account. How can a transaction happen when card is expired. Please let me know how to revert the amount debited from my account.

    2. pavan says:

      HI Tushar,
      Any update on this ? because i also did the same thing today. can you please share wether you got money or not ?

  66. Nepoleon says:

    Hello Manish,

    Firstly, thanks a lot for resolving a lot of financial queries people have through your site. It helps a lot of poeple.

    I have a doubt about what happens when the name of the payee is wrong while giving a cheque .

    Where does the amount go? What are the internal procedures? What should the drawer do?

    Hoping for a prompt reply.

    Thanks

    1. The payee will deposit the cheque in their account and because of name mismatch the cheque would be rejected. NO payment will happen !

  67. Mahi says:

    Hi,

    My friend wrongly transferred the money to another icici account instead of my account from his Citybank account. how to get the money back. please help us.

    1. Its very tough unless the account holder gives it back

  68. thiagarajan says:

    i had transfered money from my icic a/c to another icici a/c and money was debeted from my account but money was not Credited to a/c which i transfered. and also money was not credited back to my a/c also.
    please help me for the issu.

    1. Hi thiagarajan

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  69. Sathvinder says:

    Hello Sir,

    I have incorrectly transferred money through NEFT transaction. The amount has been transferred to Kotak account holder instead of SBI account holder. Now neither the Kotak nor the SBI taking any action. The Kotak bank account is financial organization and I am unable to contact the right person.

    Please suggest how do I proceed. I have contacted both the banks they are re-directing to other account.

    I am planning to raise the consumer forum and complaint against both the banks.

    Appreciate your prompt response and appropriate redirection.

    Thank you,
    Sathvinder

    1. Hi Sathvinder

      I suggest that you now take the RTI route. You can file the RTI and ask your queries to them. THey are bound to reply you on your queries.

      Its a bit long cut, but works well

      Manish

  70. Suhail says:

    Hi,

    I was supposed to do a payment to a supplier through for Rs. 1,00,000/-. By mistake I did it to a different supplier. The name of the suppliers are the same. Now when I contacted the my Bank i.e Yes Bank , they said that they have a written a mail to the other bank but other bank refused to transfer back the money as they need authorisation from the account holder.
    The tricky part is that the account holder is not contactable and it is heard that he is a fraud and had left town after duping some of the people over there. Even after explaining this to the bank authorities they are not acceding to my request of refunding the amount. Neither they are committing to any lien on the amount. Can you guide me on how I can recover this amount ?

    1. I dont think you can do anything in this case. Though it happened by mistake. It happened from yourside.

  71. ramana says:

    Hi Sir,

    Please Advice………… I transformed money of 4000 in an Other A/c by Mistake How can i get it back and can I know the address of the A/C holder

    Regards,
    Ramana

    1. Ask the bank, if they give you then you are lucky

  72. Sumit says:

    Sir i am a banker a wrong rtgs happen throught my staff due to change in last 2 digit what will be happen in this case

    1. Already I shared it in article. You mostly lost it

  73. Elie says:

    Hi!
    To send money to someone’s account you usually have to type in their account number which is a 10-digits number,right? What happened if I send it to a 16-digit number which is stated in the Islamic bank card? Will the money reach that account,even after deducting the money in my account?

    1. I am not sure what is your question and how its related to this article

  74. akhil says:

    Hello I transfered some guy money 1100rs and he is telling me he didnt got it it was online trade so he probably lie to me and he want to scam so what i can do in this situation?

    1. I dont think you can do anything ! .

  75. akshay says:

    sir manish,

    i have an savings account in state bank of india. On 21st july 2015 ihad made a international bank transfer to natwest bank plc london. the beneficiary name was Worldpay ap limited. All the beneficiary account details were correct. but still today i.e 29 july 2015 they (beneficiary) told me that they couldnt locate my money. i had used internet banking to make the payment. The amount was 232 euros (16200 INR). ON The state bank online sbi website it was writen that the transaction was succesful, and the funds were succesfully recieved in the other bank. but they told me that they couldnt locate my money. please tell me whether the money will get reversed to my account or not?

    1. Hi akshay

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  76. My manager deposited 150,000 in my sbi a/c from his sbi a/c(different city) but I haven’t received any money.My manager also has proof of deposit slip where all details are true.Even money from his a/c is deducted what to do?

    1. In that case, you can only confirm this with bank

  77. Sundeep says:

    Hi,
    Please help….I had done a NEFT transfer from my HDFC bank A/c to ICICI Bank A/c on 6th Jul. On 10th Jul, I rec’d email from hdfc regarding the fund transfer. I was surprised as no transaction was done on 10th. I lodgeda complaint on phone regarding mail rec’d and also said that my account don’t show any debit as such. One week later, I got a call from hdfc fraud dept clarifying the technical delay.
    In spite of this, they blocked my net banking & & also put remark on my NEFT transfer as fraud credit without my consent. I am unable to access my funds transferred in icici acc and both banks are sending me to and fro.
    P
    Tomorrow I am going to my home branch to see if they can resolve. Pls advise… Any other alternative.
    Thanks

    1. Hi Sundeep

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

      1. Sundeep says:

        Thanks Manish for your revert.
        I have approached HDFC bank and have been assured that the issue shall be resolved.

        Regards,
        Sundeep

        1. Glad to know that Sundeep ..

  78. Dhiren says:

    Hello Sir,
    Sir today i made online transaction from my sbi account(NEFT) to pnb.buy my friend gave me the wrong account number it was 14 digit number but PNB account number is alway 16 digit I got succesful transaction message over my mobile.Now what should i do now please help me.

    1. Hi Dhiren

      This is very specific query which you should follow up with the concerned authority only. We wont be able to comment on that

      Manish

  79. Manas says:

    Hi Manish,
    Thanks for the informative article. I have a huge problem.
    My friend transferred money through NEFT yesterday to me. I made a huge mistake. Instead of giving him my 15 digit account number of BOI, I gave him 16 digit number embossed on my ATM/Debit Card. He sent money on that ATM number and received a message saying transaction successful. How can i get the money back and where exactly might the money be? Since all BOI account numbers are 15 digit, and i had given a 16 digit number, has it gone on someone else’s account?

    Thanking you in anticipation.

    1. Its very unlikely that the debit card number you gave him actually is a BANK ACCOUNT number . If that account does not exist, then mostly the money will be back to you in few days. But now you should contact the bank asap and ask them to check where is your bank. your bank would know about it because they are processing it.

      Manish

    2. Manas says:

      We got the money back. Thank you for the valuable information.

      Thanks and Regards,
      Manas

  80. saif says:

    Hi manish,
    Today by sbi mobile banking through imps using account no. And ifsc i transferred rs 8598 to my frnds account which is of bank of baroda. But accidentally i made a mistake, my frnds ac. No ends with 410 and i transferred to account ending with 810. i contacted bob they checked the account of that stranger in which my money is gone, i got a big shock after knowing that the ac. Is in the name of vikas khand adhikari, it is the government account and no phone no. Is regestered, and address is bdo office, but it is the same branch in which my frnd holds account., help me out

    1. Hi Saif

      I think you are in trouble . In these kind of cases, you cant do much ! .. Just hope that the other party returns back your money

      1. saif says:

        Thank god, i got my money,, the branch itself transferred money from stranger ac. To my frnds ac. Now he got the money, but i have to personally visit the branch to give a written application and xerox copy of id proof,,, but the branch is 200 km from my city amd i didnt mind it,
        a thanks also for manish for replying my comment

        1. Great to hear that !

  81. Rama says:

    This is a Case related to a cheque deposit in 2004 May the 19th. If somebody can guide, will be grateful.
    I deposited two cheques of Indian Bank related to ICICI bonds in SBH along with a pay in slips for amounts of Rs 14000 each. SBH promptly credited the amount of once cheque into my account ….. I did not bother to check from my end then ( A Mistake from my end). In 2014 when I was going thru my finances, I came across the same & checked with the Bank, I was horrified that only an amount of 14000/- was deposited , the other there is no trace. After a continued interaction with the bank, they informed me that the cheque was credited into account no 21687 instead of 26187, Sadly, the cheques I deposited had my correct account number. Looks like somebody at the bank did not cross check & credited the amount to the other account. Incidentally I came to know that the other party closed the account in Nov. 2005. I saw that the account had an amount of Rs 620 before the deposit of Rs 14000. The Bank Officers told me that the person had shifted out of the given address long time back ..
    Need guidance on how I should approach .( I am resigned to the fact that I may never see the amount again….).
    Thanks Very Much..

    1. This is the BANK issue and they are liable to pay you . Its not your mistake. I suggest follow up with the bank on this

      Manish

  82. NIshit says:

    Is it possible to get the contact details of the person to whom payment is transferred accidentally. As Bank is not ready to disclose his identity.

    1. In that case, its not possible

  83. Gautam says:

    Hello sir,
    One unknown person found my ATM card and he also get the OTP from me through phone call, and transferred many time amounts to their Mibikwik and Freecharge apps, and also purchased online. I have their mob no. and transaction nos. only, May i get my amount back. How i can trace that unknown person. Plz help me.

    1. Hi Gautam

      I think you dont have a direct way to find who the person is, other than doing a police complaint !

  84. JAYANTHI says:

    Dear Sir,

    A/c in IOB, Coimbatore, today Cash withdrawn for ICICI Bank ATM , i am not received the cash. but a/c debit the money. what proc next step

    1. Hi JAYANTHI

      Better talk to IOB on this . They will coordinate with ICICI ..

  85. Satya says:

    Very Nice article..thanks for sharing

  86. Ayda says:

    Good morning manish,
    I have case with transfer money through direct remittance. I have bank account in other country and i did sent money to my acoount bank of origin(my country) through online internet banking. I fill all the details of beneficiary,but i dont know maybe by mistake the bank name is incorrect. Other detail like account number and beneficiary name is right. And until now still money didnt come to my account bank of origin(beneficiary account bank). It means,the case if transfer with wrong bank name. How it will be? It will automatically money back to sender bank account or not(because of bank name wrong)?
    The more problem now is i cant contact costumer service in sender bank because i lost my credit card n check book too,but i just know the account detail(because i stil can use internet banking). And i cant go back to the sender bank because its at another country.
    What should i do…

    1. You can only get the exact status from bank only. There is no other option but to follow up with the bank on this issue

  87. Akshay says:

    I have accidentally transferred 40000 rupees to a wrong account, and now that person is not returning my money, Can I lodge an FIR ? Please suggest what should be the best thing to do

    1. You can surely lodge the FIR. The only option you have is directly contact the guy and ask him to refund . If he is not, take a legal recourse.

      Manish

  88. Dr Rajan says:

    Dee ar Manish,
    Thanks for the eye-opener article on online payment mistakes!
    A few years back while I was transferring funds to my wife’s a/c with ICICI bank (same bank as mine) a/c no. got wrongly punched in the last digit. It so happened that the amount got transferred to another customer of the same bank (& branch). It was Friday night and Saturday I could not contact the branch by phone. Monday morning sharp at 9 am I was at the branch to explain my folly, with all proof of my transfer thru online ICICI bank a/c. The bank took a written request from me and was kind enough to transfer the amount back to me (from the NRI’s a/c). Sometimes banks and customers are kind too. But one cannot bank on it forever!

    1. Hey Dr Rajan

      Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us. It was a great learning.

      Manish

  89. Samadhan says:

    Hi manish,
    Your article is very good and helpful for us.

    But i am having one issue.
    Yesturday i have deposited some amount in wrong acc no.
    Regarding that I have send email also i given application in state bank of india.
    That person who received cash he has withdrowl this amount from his a/c.
    My bank employee telling me that we will try to reverce this amount but we are not sure. So in this case what should i do?.
    Plz help me.

    1. Truly speaking they cant do much . THey cant reverse the amount .. You need to check with the person on other side only !

  90. DILLIP says:

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    Sub- Amount Credited to wrong Account No. (AXIS Bank to Bank Of Baroda)

    Sir,

    I am made an online *NEFT – **AXIRXXXXX0XXXXXXX* Transaction of 40000/- on
    dt 07.05.2014 to my father in low account no-1026XX000XXXXX / Bank of
    Baroda (Wrong account no) ,But due to my mistake i mention the wrong
    account no ,
    So kindly take my request and please arrange to refund the amount at
    earliest.

    I mention the account no-1026XX000XXXXX instead of 1062XX000XXXXX ,

    Please give the proper process to reverse the money.

    Thanx in advance.

    1. You can contact the bank to get the phone of the other party and talk to them

  91. vijikumar says:

    It’s really helpful,,, thanks a lot,,,,

  92. Alok says:

    What proof does beneficiary (who is getting the money) has ? if he returns money back to remitter by withdrawing cash ? let just suppose in future, what if the remitter comes back asking for money.?

    1. First thing is that the person who got the money chooses if he wants to return the money or not.

  93. Sumit shinde says:

    Nice article. Very helpful for online transfer of money through NEFT.

    1. Welcome .. Glad to know that Sumit shinde ..

  94. Sanjay Minni says:

    Frankly its very risk for the system to just reply on 1 parameter i.e. the a/c number. I feel the RBI should have intruduced a self contained some checksum as composite part of the account number itself to avoid such errors.

    I am sure this is practiced in credit card numbers etc where i see at times invalid numbers are detected during entry

    1. Hi Sanjay Minni

      Thanks for your sharing your valuable comment on this topic. Please keep sharing your views in future also

      Manish

  95. Bhavaani Mamidi says:

    I ordered some clothes online and had to return them. I sent the bank details and a week later I asked them the status and they replied saying the account is been credited please check the acc. I checked 2 of my active accounts and did not find the refund. Then I checked the account no I sent them, by mistake I sent them my old account details which I already closed a year ago. I emailed the same to the vendor but not sure how it is going to work? What if they say it is not their responsibility? Should I contact the bank directly? Please advise.

    1. I think its your mistake here. They have sent the money to account which you only gave to them, so they are not at fault . It might happen that your account number was assigned to someone else. in that case the other person might have got the money .

      1. Bhavaani Mamidi says:

        I checked with the bank. That account is still on my name but in closed status. Looks like the online shopping is fake. I purchased without a proper research as there are lot of complains on it. Not sure where to report in India. My bad!

        1. Please share the website name for others benefit so that others can save them !

          Manish

  96. Rishikesh says:

    This has happened twice with me. Where I wrongfully received money. In one instance, I told the bank, that I have received money. In another instance, after few days, the sender called me and narrated the whole story about the wrong transfer. I humbly said, to email me the transaction details, so that next day, another person call me and say that he / she has wrongfully send the money. I asked me what process he followed once he came to know about the wrong transaction. He said, he contacted his bank branch about the branch, and then went to receiver bank and took out the contact information. So, following this process, he was able to contact me. However, once he proved that he is the sender. I returned his money. The fun part is that, you woke up and money your account which is not yours.

    1. Thanks for sharing that Rishikesh

      from what I know banks cant pass on the info like this. I am sure the staff who is involved has no idea about this and bank also has not passed that strict warning to them . Anyways – thanks for sharing !

      Manish

  97. Ummar says:

    Dear Mr. Manish,

    Always I ask to person to make snap from their mobile on the first page of their passbook where the account number is in displays, in case of public sector bank accounts, snap of their statement or check in case of private sector banks where we found account number. After receive I will write the number on a paper then I will type on the bank website, twice and thrice I will check the number from my paper as well as what I was received from the MMS. Always I fallow this before clicking add the beneficiary button.

    Regards,
    Ummar

    1. Good , this is a full proof way of securing yourself 🙂

  98. Ramesh says:

    Thanks for sharing.

    I was always wondering what would happen is such a case….
    Ironical as it may sound the remitter is at the “receiving end” of a sour deal if the transfer happens to the wrong account!

    I have always tested it by first transferring Re 1 to the receiving account holder , get the confirmation from him/her regarding the receipt of this amount (Re 1) and then go on to transfer the reminder of the amount. This small technique always works.

    Rules should change, but there is no harm for us in being extra careful and add follow what Manish has mentioned in this article.

    1. Thanks for sharing your view on this

  99. Ujjwal says:

    Thanks for the wonderful article.
    I was thinking, if verification by name is a system overhead then atleast they should allow the person transferring money to verify the name. Whenever we add the payee to our account for transfer it should always return the exact name of the payee which will be a verification point before transferring the money. This way I’ll be sure where I’m transferring the money.
    Btw is it possible to take legal course if the person is not returning incorrectly transferred money ?

    1. Ujjwal

      Its not so easy to implement this . Other banks are involved here and you need to build the whole system.

      Regarding legal action – you can always file a case, but then what will you achieve. How will you prove that you never owed any money to that person. Assume you transferred money to my account accidently, and now I am not returning it . I can always tell court that you had taken the money from me long back and now you have returned it (you only transferred the money) . What will you say to court in this case ? How will you prove that ?

      Manish

      1. Ujjwal says:

        Thanks for the response. I do understand it will be very difficult to go the legal path. But if the whole system can implement so many different methods and ways for money transfers between banks of different cities, states & countries then if mandated by the governing body, it should not be difficult. Any process which is not mandated is seen as an overhead and cost by private companies. Recently we have seen multiple cases of mandates being put by government which are being implemented inspite of a complex process.

        1. Yes, I am not saying that something like that is impossible , but if its still not there, I am sure there would be a strong reason for it . We might expect it in future

  100. Col KK RAJAN says:

    Absolutely, Prevention is better than Cure. Take all necessary steps to prevent any mistake, instead running around after committing the mistake. One can also take the help of a reliable person to dictate you the account number digit by digit while typing the account number. Best of Luck

    1. THanks for sharing your views

  101. Col KK RAJAN says:

    A very educative article. Though I have used NEFT on a few occasions, I have not made any mistake of wrongly transferring the amounts. I generally copy the Account Number on a piece of paper and match it with the one I have typed on the Screen. Before that I get the Account Number confirmed from the Beneficiary over and over. In one case I have even asked the Beneficiary to email me the Pass Book page where the account number and other details are printed. One can also ask the Beneficiary to send a scanned copy of a Cheque leaf, which has all the information required for NEFT

    1. Thanks for sharing that. Its a good idea and fullproof solution

  102. Mahendra Pednekar says:

    Sir, as always very informative. However, note that they verify the name of the account holder when receiving ECS instructions from other banks and charge us bouncing charge if the sequence of the name is not matching with that on the account from where money is to be taken.

    In case of NEFT/RTGS too, they can do the same thing. End of day, a mismatch in the beneficiary name and account number should be cause of concern, if it gets cleared without validation. Non-verification when receiving the money is a vulnerability.

    1. Can you give more info on this Mahendra ?

  103. rajan says:

    If you find out soon enough that the online transfer has been done to a wrong account then it would be good to try and freeze the payment by informing the bank. I suppose banks do have a lead time of 5-6 hours before the neft transaction is credited to the beneficiary account. So just call up the bank and freeze the payment. Havent tried this as I always follow trick #2 for any neft transfers but i think this will work.
    Anyways this is only a fire fightng approach, best way is to altoghether prevent it.

    1. Good point Rajan

      However not 5-6 hours, most of the times its just 1-2 hours as NEFT works in batches and 2 hours is an average time it takes, But still I am not sure if banks can just block the money like that, you will have to check it once, even I am not sure .

      Also note that if its same bank transfer, then mostly it happens real time 🙂 , like ICICI -> ICICI

      Manish

  104. jwalantsoneji says:

    Very effective, necessary post.. thanks!

  105. tsashok says:

    Transfer Rs 1 first and test the transaction incase of big amounts – BEST METHOD TO AVOID FAULT TRANSACTIONS.. Nice article..

    1. Yea .. most of the people do that !

  106. Shankar says:

    Hi Manish,
    Good article. I use this little verification whenever I initiate first transaction to new account. I send some odd amount like Rs. 59 and then ask the recipient how much they received, once they confirmed then I will send the full amount. But of course, this can work only with known parties not with merchants.

    1. Yea .. true .. I do the same thing if the amount is very big . Its better to confirm once ..

      Thanks for sharing !

  107. Rajesh S says:

    I always do STPE2 with new Beneficiary added to my bank account. This adds delay of 3-4 hours but its always safe.

    1. Yea . its a good practice 🙂

  108. Sreedhar says:

    Very informative article.

    Let me add my recent experience.

    When I supposed to transfer money abroad, they were expecting IBAN. I seeked the details from one of my friend who already done the same kind of transaction. He shared the information through email.

    Asusual, without enquiring much I tried by replacing my account number in place of his account number without realizing he is having account in different branch of the same bank.

    Luckily, I have got enough time to recheck and correct it. So what I would like to convey is, when we entering the details for adding payee make sure you understand the need of them.

    Thank you again….Happy new year!!!!

    1. Yea .. that makes sense .. One has to check the account number for a good amount of time and only then do some transaction !

  109. Jiarbi says:

    Hi Manish,
    A very good article indeed. Good comments and added info by others as well. I have a query though: Has any one faced a problem when a/c #s are not written without leading zero(s), because I vaguely remember once (few years back) I gave correct a/c # without leading zero (or is it with zero, I am not sure) and there was some problem ( either the bank site refused to transfer the money or the amount was returned back from the beneficiary bank). Since currently different banks use different # of digits in the a/c, is it mandatory to use leading zero(s)? Any info?

    Thanks and regards,
    Jiarbi

    1. What do you mean by leading zero ? I mean to ask when a bank gives you an account number, they give you X digits , use exactly the same thing everything .. Nothing less, nothing more .. If you are using the account which is there in your communication with bank, it will be accepted !

      1. Jiarbi says:

        Dear Manish,
        The problem(?) is the # of digits for an a/c is not same by all banks (I think RBI has standardized it as 16 digits, I am not sure though). For ex, if u r using SBI, and add a beneficiary a/c (thro’ online) say 234xxxxxxxx and later check it, the bank shows it as 00000234xxxxxxxx. For other banks I am not sure how it is. I think presently all banking s/w must be adding these leading zeros automatically, so the best thing is to give exact a/c # as u suggested and let the bank take care of the rest. My only query as u can see from my earlier response was if anyone in the forum has faced any such issue.
        Thanks and regards,
        Jiarbi

        1. hmm.. I am not sure on this . My ICICI account number is 12 digits and from last 10 yrs I am using the exact 12 digits everywhere and even in all the communications with bank, I always see 12 digits, however with some other PSU banks, I think its 16 digits.

          ANyways , I feel you should only use the exact number given by the bank without worrying about the trailing ZERO’s .

          Manish

  110. Diptakshya Banerjee says:

    Very Nice & Informative Article!!!!

  111. Dileep says:

    Dear Manish!! Very good piece of information. Also very good suggestions given.
    Am sure that every one who has read this article will be extra careful when they do online transfers the next time. All the very best.

  112. sukhbir singh thind says:

    Mistakes still happen bcos most of the time the money transfer takes place in a hurry.ex to broker for trades, office closing time ,u r in a different city and have less time, requirement is urgent (hospital bill) etc.

    1. Yea .. it can happen !

  113. Narayan says:

    The bank could display the name and photograph of the beneficiary once the account number entered.

    1. I believe thats not possible at all . How can a bank give you so critical info .. ?

  114. Naveen P says:

    To save cost on original study material., Iam trasfering money to many unknown persons to get pdfs/xerox copies. Am I putting my bank account at risk?

    1. No you are not . Just by transferring money to someone , there is no risk to you !

  115. vikas vaibhav says:

    It’s a very useful information for net banking users.

  116. Sriram says:

    Thanks Manish. Very useful article. i liked the Rs.1 transfer idea.

    Regards,
    Sriram.

  117. srinivas says:

    Hi manish,

    I was working in a corporate finance division in a pvt company. and we had couple of cases where the amount was transferred to the wrong person. In such instances, the banks take a one time indemnity bond from the corporate and then reverse the amount from the wrong beneficiary and credit it back to the remitter.

    I had this experience with HDFC bank and they were very co-operative in such instances.

    regards,
    Srinivas

    1. I am not clear if this is the right thing to do .

  118. sekhar_sgs says:

    Hi Manish,
    I had a similar experience in my last company.

    I had to transfer some money to my colleague in Bangalore, and I got and added the bank account no. with last 1 digit incorrectly.
    Even the amount was transferred.

    I messaged my colleague to confirm the receipt & he says he didn’t receive any !!
    Thankfully, as it was just 1 digit which I missed, the incorrect account holder also is another colleague in out office (all are salary accounts); hence we could trace back, talk and get it resolved.

    From then on, I make it a point to do a test transfer.
    Better be safe than sorry !

    You guys are doing a great job of putting so much valuable content on ‘jago investor’. God bless you all.

    1. Thanks for sharing that real life experience Shekhar !

  119. Ashvin says:

    Dear Manish, very very useful article specially persons like me who do many online transactions. I always use Track#2 – transfer Rs. 100 first and transfer balance after getting confirmation. Also, I write account number on a paper and then check account number digit by digit and striking out the digits which are matched.

    Keep posting good articles.

    Regards,
    Ashvin

  120. Niranjan says:

    Thanks for the topic which is most important for us. Thats why a proverb is there “WORK NOT CHECKED IS NOT DONE”

    1. Yea .. correct ! nice quote

  121. nitin m bhanji says:

    Very good article.

  122. Vijay says:

    Hi Manish,
    Thanks a lot for this eye opening article.
    I will be double conscious whenever i transfer any amount to third party.

    Thanks .
    VIjay.

  123. Prabakaran says:

    Thanks Manish, Nice article on safety tips.

    I always transfer Rs 100 through IMPS, which would reflect immediately thru SMS/Balance check in ATMs. And get confirmation from the receiver then I’ll make the balance amount through IMPS (If less than 50k) NEFT more than 50 k.

    Regarding wrong account transfers, one of my friend transferred fund thru NEFT to invalid account number. And that got rejected and fund was returned.
    But the sad part was destination bank sent the cheque instead reverse direct transfer to account. The Receiving Bank received the cheque and lost it(we got POD copy from courier to confirm source bank received cheque).

    The source bank was keep on saying that cheque not received. Destination bank was saying , we sent cheque job done. Also that cheque was not en-cashed.

    Finally i asked my friend to raise compliance with RBI ombudsman saying the entire story.

    At-last destination bank re-issued the cheque by cancelling old cheque and he got his money back.
    It took more than six months to get back his money.

    I knew the pain of my friend in following up with Source, destination bank, courier and RBI. Explaining the entire story every-time. No one really care about the customer.

    It is better to take extra care before doing transfer/any such transaction than regretting later.

    1. Thanks for sharing that real life experience . I never knew that bank might send the cheque to reverse the transaction . It does not make a lot of sense to do that ! . But anyways !

      1. Prabakaran says:

        Yeah Manish, that was a strange experience for us and it took more than 6 months to get back the money.

        From that day onwards, we were taking extra care(like CTRL+F, IMPS/NEFT with least money) while sending the payment for the first time.

  124. Ravi Modi says:

    Good article Manish. Besides correct account details, one must also be careful about amount being transferred. I was also accidentally about to transmit One Lakh extra while making online payment. I was making online TDS payment through NSDL website & I had to transfer Rs. 13000 but by mistake I typed Rs, 130000 (extra zero) & clicked on submit button. But Luckily my account didn’t have that much balance due do which the payment was refused. I don’t know how would I have got back the amount from Govt Department & how would they have adjusted against future payments.

    Ravi Modi

    1. Very True Ravi

      Amount is another thing which has to be checked, but I consider it as a secondary issue if you are transferring it to someone you know already . Because in this case, you know who got the money , and most probably have some relation with the person and might get back the excess money in most of the cases . But yes, why to not spend some time and prevent it at first place 🙂

  125. Abhishek Garg says:

    Very informative article, i like it.

  126. C.P.Geevan says:

    Very useful. However, the suggestion to use CTRL-F doesn’t look ok. Copy “AC#” > paste that in box for AC no. —- not sure if all banks allows copy/paste into even in the AC# confirmation box. Many don’t. Secondly, even if it is allowed, we are again pasting the same in FIND box. How can that help? It would have been good if RBI mandated some way to ensure better system to verify the details of recipient or at least some banks offer options for verification. May be RBI should promote a portal like income tax dept where we can enter acc no, IFSC code, etc and verify the name of AC holder.

    1. Hi Geevan

      Seems like you misinterpreted what I said , I am not talking about copy pasting the account number in the box where you have to write account number, bank website does not allow that at all . I was talking about manually writing it (you have no option anyways) and then copy pasting it in find box, if it matches with what you wrote , then it will show the color , as you can see in the snapshot .

  127. Amit says:

    Hey Manish!
    Must to say an “eye opener.” It is very easy but hard to rely on electronic transaction these days.
    I run a tech blog, http://anotation.com and maintaining a page on facebook “https://www.facebook.com/anotation”.

    Can you allow me to share this post on my facebook page?

    1. Sure .. please do , I hope you want to share the link and not copy paste the content 🙂

      Manish

  128. Rohit Modi says:

    Great Article !!!
    we must make everybody aware abt this.

  129. Ramadoss S says:

    Happy New year . Excellent article on new year . Thank you very much

  130. Capt Naresh says:

    Very informative article..

  131. Gaurav says:

    Very useful information. Thank-you.

  132. Awesome article , I Must say buddy. Keep it up, I have forwarded this article to all my friends

  133. RAJEEV VARMA says:

    What is the rule position in case you pay a bill online to a wrong number. I was attempting to pay my electricity bill and needed quite a few attempts to do so. Erroneously I entered the wrong contact number and hit pay. Luckily the amount was not much. Is there any way to retrieve the money?

    1. I think its the same as online transfer . I dont think you can do much here !

      1. RAJEEV VARMA says:

        Thanks.

  134. Manish,
    Thanks for great article. I experienced wrong transfer. but fortunately it returned back to me since the non existence of beneficiary.
    Now i know the complete liability which is on the remitter side. Think about international transfer….thatd would be costliest affair.

    Wishing you and your family a very Happy, Healthy and wealthy New Year 2015.
    regs
    Karthik

    1. Thanks for sharing that Karthikraja !

      1. You are really good in Topic Finding with “must read tag”
        🙂

  135. Robert Lewis says:

    I feel RBI should change rules. When the remmitter clearly mentions the name of beneficiary and the amount goes to a wrong person due to error in a/c number such reversals should not require the Wrong A/c holder’s approval. RBI should give this a thought.

    1. THanks for sharing your views . If you read the circular I have attached in the article, you will understand why RBI has mentioned that

  136. Venkat says:

    Hi Manish,

    Really its knowledgeable.It clears all sorts of apprehensions which are lurking in our mind pertaining to online transfers.

  137. Elaya Kumar S says:

    As suggested it is better to read the digits from right to left as an additional precaution. I also use sending a small amount as a test measure. Nice and informative article. The contents of the RBI circular should be brought to the knowledge of every bank customer. Thanks.

  138. AJ says:

    I use the trick #2. Transfer a small amount and they the rest. Why can’t the banks use check digits to ensure wrong account numbers are handled. Even PAN uses check digit to ensure correctness

    1. You can read RBI circular fully . It mentions the reason !

      1. AJ says:

        Masking is what been implemented by ICICI already and to some extent ensures safety. But the problem lies if banks give out account numbers in serial order. Mine could be 10001 and yours 10010. Someone may still make a mistake. Instead of just suggesting RBI should enforce something like check digits 🙂

  139. jayesh says:

    Hi Manish!
    As usual, a very informative article indeed.
    Thanks for sharing.

  140. cbalaji_83 says:

    Really useful information. The tricks provided will definitely help in eliminating human errors while doing transfers. Thank you Manish.

  141. satish says:

    Very well put as always……Your efforts to keep us informed on even the mundane is indeed commendable.
    Thanks

  142. Ramesh says:

    It is a good article, and in today’s ‘everything urgent’ situation, anybody can mistake.
    What I do is I break the 12 or 13 digit a/c number in to group of 4 nos, like credit card number, and verify before entering into the ban website screen.

    1. Great, its a good technique !

  143. J K MATHUR says:

    An extremely useful and comprehensive treatise. Congratulations. Keep it up. I am surprised that the RBI has not been careful enough while drafting the guidelines on this subject. Whenever a debit is raised by the bank in the normal course of banking, the bank official carefully checks the essential details like the name and account number as well the signatures. Should it not be made mandatory for the concerned bank to check both the name and the account number, as is done by SBI ?

    1. Read the circular and you will know why its not mandatory !

  144. astrosunil says:

    I assumed, the matching of Name, Account number, Bank branch i.e IFSC code – These 3 happens when we are adding a payee first time. I assume bank sends us OTP to confirm payee after this match is successful. Once payee is added, for every transaction we are sure that money is sent to right person. there is no need to check IFSC code for every transaction you do as you mentioned in article above. Is my understanding correct ?

    1. No , that does not happen the first time . THe OTP is just sent to take confirmation, that you are the same person who is adding the beneficiary , because its send on registered mobile number. the OTP is in no way a confirmation that bank has checked all those 3 things and now finally confirming it with you .

      YOu can surely write a wrong IFSC code, but why would you do that, IFSC code is mainly the confirmation on your side that you know the person you are adding, at times, when you add IFSC, it shows the branch where the account is , and hence you must confirm that the system is showing the same branch which is on your side !

      Manish

      1. astrosunil says:

        Then this should be the way going forward, the bank should check all 3 are matching & then only send OTP to person, otherwise don’t send OTP. They can take time as one day or so that this doesn’t break down system or something. I think its just a database check by the software. For those mistakes as extra zero – we can make software pop up amount in words “Are you sure you want to transfer thirty thousand” – we can come to know by reading & can stop the transaction from progressing.

        1. Anjan says:

          I doubt a popup is necessary. Most banks already have an intermediate confirmation page with a confirm button which you have to click to finalize the transaction. If one makes a mistake in typing account no or transfer amount and then blindly ignores that confirmation page too, who is to blame for their stupidity?

        2. Hi Sunil

          I know its a great wish being a customer as it minimizes error , but why cant we confirm everything from our side, but then if you read the RBI circular , its not possible to do so much from bank side , because given the volumes it would become impossible to support the whole transactions. I feel there is nothing unfair in asking customers to make sure everything is correct and only then enable the transactions .

          Manish

  145. astrosunil says:

    Great article team, thanks a lot for this.
    I usually transfer Rs 100 for payee , call & confirm if its credited in his account , after ensuring i go ahead with bulk transfer. I think this is a best practice we can follow.

    1. Good to know that Sunil .. Many people are actually using that !

  146. Prasant says:

    Thank you for the information.
    But I want to know ,that sometimes it happens that by mistake of bank officials’ mistake big amounts gets credited to the wrong beneficiary ( as big as millions of rupees),in that case also they go by all this procedures? and if they do so,what happens when the beneficiary take out part of money or he denies to agree for reversal.Because in past it had come to news (3-4 years before) that one teacher in kolkata got suddenly credited to his account 100 crores,but he was honest and he himself had brought it to notice of bank manager.But it may not be the case always.

    1. Good questions .. Most of the times a big mistake happens because of a technical mistake of bank , Means the money was suppose to go to account A , but because of bank technical (software) mistake it goes to account B , in which case the reversal also happens almost instantly . If not, and the person takes the money, then even bank cant do much !

    2. Anjan says:

      If I ever got credited a 100 crore rupees by mistake in my bank account, I too would rush to the bank and try and get it reversed. First, I wouldn’t know what to do with that much money anyway. Second, anyone having that kind of cash would also have the means to track me down and get his money back by any means necessary & I’d not want to be at the receiving end lol.

  147. Bhupendra Gobade says:

    Hi,

    I have been already implementing your Tip No. 2 for every new beneficiary I am adding. Once it is verified, its done.

    By the way nice article.

  148. Dr Arun Mohan says:

    Hi
    My aunt had recieved Rs. 30000 from an unknown source. She reported the same to the bank officials.

    After sometime the amount got reverted automatically without her permission.

    The story was that the PPF organization had by mistake transfered it to her account. The bank took advantage of my aunt being uneducated and retransfered the amount. We still dont know whether they really transfered the amount to the right organization (PPF) or this is all part of some money laundering program.

    1. Arun

      There are two kind of mistakes from bank side which can happen , If its not a bank mistake (user transfered the money to some account) , then bank cant reverse it like this and if they have done that, you can sue the bank . But if its a system error , which also happens at times, then its a technical mistake and not a human one, in which case, the bank can transfer the money automatically without the user permission . I think the later thing happened in your example !

      Thanks for sharing that with all of us !

      Manish

  149. Raj kumar says:

    Thank you manish.very much informative.As u suggest i have always followed the second rule of transferring a tiny amount first.

    1. Thanks for sharing that Raj ! …

  150. Rekha Sherbet says:

    Very informative article. Thanks for it.

    1. Glad to hear that .. Thanks for reading it !

  151. Pandri Tumkur says:

    Very relevant topic and an excellent coverage. It is best to exercise cautions as explained in the article rather than seek reversal.

    1. Yes .. When it comes to money .. precaution is necessary !

  152. Mithun says:

    Hi Manish,

    Nice article. I have started following INR. 100 first policy for any new account transfer if I have any doubt about account numbers.

    I faced the same problem when my friend transferred amount to incorrect account number instead of mine. He had to face similar issue for getting amount reversed.

    Thanks,
    Mithun Desai

    1. Yea .. Glad to know that you already have a first hand experience of something like that !

  153. chander says:

    On a 2nd reading of the RBI circular — it appears that it is MAINLY for across-the counter NEFT/RTGS etc.

    But paragraph 5 (ii) clearly says (for online transaction by the customer), entering the A/c no 2 or 3 times — each time the previous entry being masked (like Password change). This is clear — but looks like an “option” for the banks to implement or not!!
    (looks like a soft boss!).

    Still the “instantaneous beneficiary” is the culprit !!!
    Take care of this (SBI method explained earlier), all problems get solved!

    1. Yes .. I also believe that if you are giving the account number, only you can be blamed for any loss in future !

  154. chander says:

    Very Useful Article.
    Usually the beneficiary needs to be added first. There is also a 24 hr cooling off period before any transfer.
    In SBI transfers, I find the names of the beneficiaries appear before you make an online transfer; and you can only select one. You don’t need enter any further details in SBI.

    I think the problem is with the “instantaneous transfer banks” as I could see form the screen shots shown in the article. This itself is evidence that the facilities are introduced “thoughtlessly” — or “foolproof-ly”. (e.g. why enter IFSC etc, when not used)

    If the RBI circular does not protect the customers — who else can do it. Looks like it is time someone looks at such problems.
    I recollect having seen an article where the ranking of Internet Banking Services of Indian Banks put SBI on top!

    1. Thanks for sharing your views on this topic ..

    2. Saravanan A says:

      This cooling of period is to prevent someone hacking the password to prevent the transfer.
      This does not solve erroneous transfer. Name which appears is the name we had given while adding beneficiary.

  155. Ranjith says:

    It appears you have started your new year with a fantastic article, Manish. I am suprised this issue was not addressed earlier, because nowadays everyone uses online transactions. I have been doing a test transfer of 100rs and confirming that before proceeding to final amount.

    I want to point out that one reason why people might enter wrong numbers is because of the way the internet pages of online transactions are designed. Since it is a secure page, most bank pages disable right click and even copy-paste options. You are required to enter each value correctly: account number,credit card numbers, amounts etc. New age banks have really long account numbers, 11-15 digits in some case, so it is obvious people might err while entering such numbers. The remitter has to definitely verify every parameter before transferring to a new account.

    Thanks for the article. And Happy New Year !

    1. Yes, but the disabling of copy paste is exactly for this reason that the whole blame game shifts to the customers (you only typed it) , Bank does not know if you are looking at your email , or someone is telling you account number of phone or you are just remembering it from your memory . So from bank angle, it makes sense to let user type it by themselves

      Manish

  156. Veer Bhadra Rao says:

    Thanks Manish, for the nice article. Normally I make a test transfer with a small amount and then carry on only after receiving confirmation of receipt. Better be safe than sorry!

    1. Great. . I suggest that as one of my options ..

  157. Piyush Bhatnagar says:

    BTW – it may be worthwhile to use IMPS service as you can check in real-time if the money got transferred to right account. I guess an article which details about IMPS will be beneficial.

    1. Thanks for sharing that Piyush . I appreciate your suggestion, but I dont see how its still solving the issue , If I am using IMPS , the money still gets transferred , what is the recourse available ?

      Also , we are mainly learning the precautions one should take while doing online transfer .

      You can read about IMPS on my article – https://www.jagoinvestor.com/2012/10/imps-online-money-transfer-using-mobile.html

      Manish

  158. Piyush Bhatnagar says:

    Good tips Manish, esp. the CTRL+F one. One thing to note that even sharing the contact details of the receiving party is discretionary as Banks are contractually bound to not to share PII and any other information about their account holders to any “unofficial” third party. I had similar experience with ICICI, the manager did help me to get the contact details of the person as the destination account was also ICICI. However this may not work always.
    As you said, prevention is better than cure surely in this case.

    1. Correct ,the manager was able to share details with you because the other party had ICICI bank account only. If it was someone else who didnt have the account with ICICI , then they cant ask the other bank to provide it 🙂

    2. Anjan says:

      I think what the manager did was a criminal offence. Under no circumstances should the bank divulge any information of account holders to 3rd parties without a court order or subpoena. Such information can so often be used for malicious purposes.

  159. RAJENDRA MEHTA says:

    Nice and very informative article. However, I have a doubt in my mind. What happens when someone has requested the bank to transfer the money by NEFT or RTGS and the bank clerk by mistake types wrong account no. through its software. At least in such a case is the bank responsible fully or not?

    (RAJENDRA MEHTA)

    1. Do you spell the account number or give it in writing to bank ? I have myself filled NEFT form 2-3 times and I remember that I write the account number myself and sign it, which proves that I gave right account number . If now the bank person makes a mistake, you dont have to suffer, its the bank job to reverse the transaction and if they cant, they have to compensate you. The only flipside is that you might have to run around the bank and have to follow up on this, but justice is guaranteed !

      Manish

  160. Srinivas says:

    Setting up payee in online account and checking the number by some trial amount is a sure way to avoid trouble afterwords.

    Bank cannot reverse a transaction without the consent of account holder, is logical. Put yourself in the place of the beneficiary and think. I donot want bank to touch my money without my consent.

    Informative.

    1. Definately .

      And more than anything , no one knows who is speaking truth and who is not . So you can assume things based on some one telling you something !

      1. Anjan says:

        Exactly. Someone can send me money in advance for a service and once I’ve provided the service can complain to the bank that it was all a mistake. The bank is definitely right in not touching the beneficiary’s money without consent.

        Manish, can you please write a piece on credit card chargebacks? I heard it often gets misused for the wrong reasons. I would like to know how to be on the safe side.

        1. Any incidence ? Can you give me more pointers on this ?

          1. Anjan says:

            Well I personally don’t have any experience but one of my friends is a seller on ebay and he has experienced that when a customer is not happy with a product, despite the correct item being sent, they often file chargebacks with the credit card company without going through the normal ebay dispute resolution channels because they are too damn slow.

            This obviously means the customer gets to keep the product and the seller’s pocket is emptied at the same time. I would like to avoid these kind of scenarios and know what precautions I can take on my part because I just don’t know how banks handle chargeback requests.

            1. Thanks for sharing that .. this is really weird .. This way one can order anything from ebay and keep it without paying 🙂 ..

  161. Rupesh Kumar says:

    Hi Manish,

    Awesome article. I am following the same (transfer INR:1 first) to all my transfer.

    Thanks,
    Rupesh Kumar

  162. Aravind says:

    Its an eye opener, Thanks Manish!

  163. rajendra paliwal says:

    very good. many thanks. I think RBI should change the rule- compulsory for bank to match name and account number both.

    1. Its not possible technically . Read the RBI circular and you will understand why Its not possible . The volume of transactions are so high that if both things are checked it might break or slow the whole system .. From what I understood !

      1. rajendra says:

        ok but what I an saying is that receiving bank should check the name also before credit is finally passed on to beneficiary. whenever a credit is coming through transfer each bank should check the beneficiary name also. it is an exercise at each bank level.
        Even otherwise I think technology should be upgraded considering the hassles to account holder. otherwise it looks like we are not safe enough in software.

        1. Yes, ideally they should and RBI has also instructed banks that they should do this as a good practice, but its not mandatory . I am not clear if this is a technological limitation or not . If you are transferring money from bank A to bank B , I am not sure if bank A can get the name from bank B or not , may be they cant !

          1. rajendra says:

            many thanks but what I am saying is Bank B should check every incoming credit and if name is not matching it should not pass credit to party. I think one need to think on that line.

            1. Siva says:

              Technically the problem is if you start comparing the name, most of the transaction will fail because the name you entered in your bank site and name of the account holder should exactly match. Even a empty space is matter here. You can write lot of logic here, but it will not fool proof. For computer K. Siva and K.Siva and Siva.K is different. Hope you understand. Am not from banking industry and am from technology. Trick2 is the best one.

  164. Sushil says:

    Nice Article Manish…………….I myself generally use trick 2 as suggested by you. I generally transfer a sum of Rs 100/- if beneficiary is added first time in my online account. After the confirmation of Transfer of 100/- to right person..i transfer remaining amount. It is very much principle of my life that i have made.

    Secondly i want to share an intresting incident. 4-5 years back i was using Tata Indicom Postpaid connection for which i was paying bills online. One fine day at the night hours i came to remember that today was the last day to pay bill else fine will be charged . At that time only few minutes was left as it was 11.40-11.50 PM in the night. So i logged onto payment portal and in a hurry i paid an amount of Rs 30000/- though my bill was 3000/-. One extra zero was inserted in a hurry . i did not notice this mistake for next one week because i never checked my account. After i come to know, i contacted the tata indicom to reverse the extra payment. They said that they have no such mechanism to refund the excess paid bill . it took me nearly 2 months to get my refund . SO i want to say that extra alertness is needed while paying any amount online to anyone.

    1. Thanks for sharing that incident with us Sushil .. This is a real life issue which can happen with most of us, unless we have 10X money in account than the intended amount we want to transfer 🙂

    2. Anjan says:

      Usually in such cases they would just adjust the extra amount in subsequent billing cycles. They probably would have bumped you up to a privileged customer and given you all sorts of freebies for the next 12 months had you not asked for the refund hehe 😀

    3. krishan says:

      Shushil,

      for the utility bills, we can opt for auto-payment for the bill amount. So no hassle for extra or less payment and this will be on fixed date. So worry about late payment. Just keep an eye on monthly transaction.
      You can opt for a different bank account for these utility payments, so there is no extra money into that for any other kind of fraud as well.

  165. sharath Mumbai says:

    Very useful information. Thank you.
    In such cases, would the bank share the contact details of the beneficiary with us? Or they would contact them directly? If the beneficiary cannot be contacted by the bank or us, then forgetting our money is the only way?

    1. No , they cant share any details . Its just not allowed as per law . You just have to rely on bank communicating with beneficiary ! ..

  166. jitendra says:

    very nice and useful article

  167. Sahil says:

    Very nice article Manish.
    Keep rocking and have a very prosperous new year ahead 🙂

    Thanks
    Sahil

    1. Thanks Sahil .. happy new year to you too !

  168. subhash says:

    Very true mind changing attitude for online transactions

    1. Thanks Subhash ! .. welcome !

  169. Vasu Madasu says:

    Nice Article! As explained, we need to spend one extra minute for verifying!

    1. Yes .. if that extra one minute can save us from so much trouble , then definitely yes !

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