Sent money to the wrong account? How to try to get it back

If you sent money to the wrong account, contact your bank immediately - speed matters more than anything else. The bank is not usually liable for a mistake you made in the account details, but it must make reasonable efforts to recover the money, the receiving bank must cooperate, and much of the money reported quickly does come back.

This guide covers genuine mistakes: a mistyped account number, an out-of-date saved payee, a sort-code slip. If you were deceived into paying a fraudster, that is a scam, and different - often stronger - rules apply: see what to do if your bank refuses to refund a scam.

Key takeaways

• Report immediately. Recovery works best in the first hours and days, before the money moves or is spent.
• If the recipient does not dispute it, industry practice returns most mistaken payments within about 20 working days.
• Your bank must make reasonable efforts to recover the money and must tell you what happened, but it cannot simply take money back from someone who refuses.
• Confirmation of Payee name checks are relevant: a warning you were shown - or one the bank failed to show - can matter in a complaint.
• If the banks handle recovery slowly or badly, that handling is itself something you can complain about, and the Financial Ombudsman Service is free.

First: which situation are you in?

Situation	What it is	Main route
You mistyped details or picked the wrong payee	Mistaken payment	Recovery process via your bank (this guide)
You were tricked into paying a fraudster	APP scam	2024 reimbursement rules
Money left your account without you doing anything	Unauthorised transaction	Refund rules for unauthorised payments

The distinction matters because the legal starting points are different. For a genuine mistake with the unique identifier - the account number and sort code - the law says the payment is treated as correctly executed if it matched the details you gave. That is why the route here is recovery and cooperation, not automatic refund.

What the rules actually require

Under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, when you give the wrong unique identifier:

• your bank is not liable for non-execution or defective execution - the payment went where you told it to go
• but it must make reasonable efforts to recover the funds
• the receiving bank must cooperate, including sharing information your bank needs
• if recovery fails, your bank must, if you ask in writing, give you the information it can so you can pursue legal action against the recipient

On top of the regulations, UK banks operate an industry process for mistaken payments: your bank contacts the receiving bank quickly, the funds are typically protected while the recipient is asked, and if there is no dispute you would normally see the money back within about 20 working days of reporting. If the recipient disputes it or the money is gone, the process slows down and may end with the banks unable to do more.

Sources: Payment Services Regulations 2017, regulation 90 (incorrect unique identifiers) and Financial Ombudsman Service guidance on payment problems. Last checked: 04.07.2026.

What to do, in order

1. Call your bank now. Give the payment details and say clearly it was a mistaken payment. Note the time of your call and any reference.
2. Ask three questions: Has the receiving bank been contacted? Are the funds still in the account? What are the next steps and dates?
3. Follow up in writing the same day - a short message through the app or secure messaging creates the record.
4. Chase on the deadlines. If nothing has happened after a few days, ask specifically what the receiving bank has said.
5. If the recipient refuses, ask your bank in writing for the information it can lawfully provide so you can consider action against the recipient. A person who knowingly keeps money paid by mistake is not entitled to it - civil recovery (and in some cases a criminal complaint of retaining a wrongful credit) is possible, though it is effort and cost you will want to weigh against the amount.

What determines whether you get it back

• Speed of reporting. Money still sitting in the account is recoverable; money spent is a chase.
• Whether the recipient consents. Most people return money that clearly is not theirs when their bank asks.
• Confirmation of Payee. If you set up the payee and the name did not match, your bank likely warned you - overriding that warning weakens your position. But if the bank should have run the check and did not, or the warning was confusing, say so.
• The amount and the account. Larger sums and business accounts sometimes get faster traction.

When the banks' handling becomes the complaint

You cannot usually complain your way into being refunded for your own typo. You can complain - with a realistic prospect - when:

• your bank delayed starting the recovery process after you reported
• nobody told you what was happening for weeks
• the receiving bank sat on the request
• you were given wrong information about the process or your options
• a Confirmation of Payee check that should have flagged the mismatch was missing or misleading

For those failures, ask the bank to compensate the loss its delay caused (money that could have been recovered if it had acted promptly) and to recognise distress and inconvenience from poor handling.

When and how to escalate

If the bank sends a final response you disagree with, or eight weeks pass without one, you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The Financial Ombudsman Service is free, independent, and you keep any compensation it awards. You generally have six months from the final response - check the current time limits.

For context, our analysis of published Ombudsman decisions shows banking and payment complaints are mixed, so the handling timeline matters more than a general fairness argument.

You can complain about your own bank, the receiving bank, or both - the receiving bank owes cooperation, and its delays count too.

How HeyRefund can help

Wrong-account cases are timeline cases: when you paid, when you reported, what each bank did and when. HeyRefund helps you build that dated record, spot where the handling fell short, and turn it into a clear complaint you can send yourself.

Reporting, recovering and complaining are all free. HeyRefund just helps you keep the pressure organised.