Can I get back money I transferred to the wrong bank?

I mistakenly transferred 20 million VND to another bank, even though the account number and recipient name were correct. So will I lose that money? (Anh Quoc, Ho Chi Minh City)

On September 13, I transferred nearly 20 million from Agribank to another bank account. When the other side reported that they had not received the money, I discovered that I had transferred the wrong bank name (instead of transferring to China Trust Bank, I transferred to China Construction Bank HCM). I would like to ask if I transferred the correct account number, correct name but the wrong bank name, will I lose that amount of money? If I get it back, how long will it take?

Reply:

In most cases of incorrect transactions, customers do not lose the transferred amount but have to wait for a long verification time, which can be as fast as one day but usually takes 7-10 days. In addition, incorrect transactions still incur fees as usual.

Wrong account number or wrong beneficiary name

In this case, whether transferring money at the counter or via Internet Banking, the transaction is unsuccessful because the system defaults that both information must match. If transferring money within the same system, just enter the account number and the beneficiary's name will appear for the sender to check the information.

However, when transferring between banks in the usual way, you may not be prompted for the beneficiary name after entering the account number. Therefore, if you enter the wrong beneficiary name, the destination bank will send an internal message to the remitting bank and this unit will continue to pay the money to your account. However, this process may take a few days due to verification. In some cases, it may take 7-10 days or more.

In principle, account numbers are unique across the entire banking system, so most banks will also check the beneficiary's name information as a basis for conducting transactions.

There is now a way to quickly transfer money between banks via the 24/7 system via card number (instead of account number) that can minimize errors in entering the wrong recipient name. As soon as the card number is entered, the system returns the cardholder's name and the customer does not need to enter the bank name or branch name.

Correct account number, recipient name but wrong bank/branch

On September 13, a customer in Ho Chi Minh City transferred nearly 20 million from Agribank to several other bank accounts. After a few days, the account owner informed that he had not received the money, the customer checked again and discovered that he had transferred the correct account number and recipient name, but mistakenly transferred from China Trust Bank toChina Construction BankIn this type of case, the payment centers at banks all confirm that customers will not lose money but will have to wait for the parties to verify and complete the refund procedures.

Another common mistake is the wrong bank branch name. To transfer 4 million VND from Hanoi to her son, a student in Nam Dinh, Ms. Nhiem (Hanoi) spent nearly a week and paid transfer fees twice. 4 days after Ms. Nhiem transferred the money for the first time at the counter, the bank staff informed her that the money was returned because she had mistakenly written the branch name as Hung Vuong (Phu Tho) instead of Nam Dinh. In this case, although no money was lost, it was time-consuming and the bank still charged fees as usual.

In fact, when transferring money via Internet Banking, according to the deputy general director of a joint stock bank, if transferring via a regular account number, it is necessary to have the correct account number and sender name, but the branch name does not have to be correct. Accordingly, if you do not remember the exact branch name, you can still enter it to the Transaction Office because in reality, the payment system at each bank is not divided into branches but only divided into payment centers in two regions.

Correct account number, beneficiary, bank but account has problem

Some customers have encountered this situation when transferring money to a friend but did not know that the beneficiary's account was locked. If the beneficiary's account is locked (closed), the money will be returned to the sender after a few days.

However, if the recipient's account is simply frozen (for some reason), the money will be frozen at the recipient's bank and the beneficiary will have to go through the procedures with the bank to unfreeze the account and receive the money.

According to VNE