Payment to a wrong bunq account

Virgil-Yellow-Unicorn

I did a payment to a friend who’s also in my contacts list. As I typed the first letters of his name a “standard bunq account” was suggested. I selected the account and did the transfer.
The problem is that the person doesn’t have a bunq account.
How do I get my money back?

JeroenE

Virgil Either you payed to a intermediate account of bunq and then the money will be returned in a few days. Or else you can contact Private Matters to ask if they will contact the owner of the account and ask if they would send you the money back.

Sander

Virgil In case you transferred money to the wrong person accidentally there's not much bunq can do; you made the transfer, and it can't be reversed. The other party must be willing to return the funds to you. I'm not sure whether bunq will ask that person to return the money for you, but you can always try. 😁

Roel-Turquoise-Panda

Virgil In the Netherlands (at least) its not true that the person who received your funds incorrectly/by mistake should be “willing” to return the funds.

There are laws regarding incorrectly received money (or goods for that matter). It’s called an undue payment (“onverschuldigde betaling” geregeld in Art 6:203 BW) and states that:

The person who has given another person a good without a legal basis is entitled to recover it from the recipient as unduly paid.
If the undue payment concerns a sum of money, the claim for the return of an equal amount.

Although you should reach out to bunq to make sure they reach out to ask your money back or provide you with the details to do it yourself.

Virgil-Yellow-Unicorn

There is no person with this account. Actually there is no account. The person has another account with another bank and in the transfer details says only “bunq standard account” and no IBAN is showing.

JeroenE

Roel You can always go to court, but if you don't know who has your money that is a bit pointless. As far as I know banks are not obliged to give personale details of a bank account to anybody who asks for them. If they are a lot of marktplaats/ebay fraud would stop just becaue it woudl be to easy to find the person who took your money.

Roel-Turquoise-Panda

Jeroen 🏳️‍🌈 Banks should support you in case of an undue payment.

Most of the time your bank will contact the other bank and ask them to contact there client (which can take quite some time, up to 21 days). If contact via banks didn’t work they will provide the contact information to do this yourself.

Although I am with you that having the right to get your money back isn’t the same as getting it back.

Most people won’t go to court for relative small payments (this combined with an straw man account is the reason that most fraud cases never go to court). But this doesn’t mean that you don’t have this right 😉

JeroenE

Roel I know you can ask banks to ask their client, that's why I said to contact Private Matters (especially since it's a bunq account where the money went to).

You learn something new everyday. So bunq will give my information without my autorisation to everyone who claims their payment into my account was undue? What happens if they have lied? Is bunq then liable for fines because they gave away my personal information without autorisation?

New-Lilac-Eagle-1591523721

Hello I make the transfer by mistake! Can you help me how to getting back my money? Thanks

Bernd-Cyan-Penguin

Jozsef Sie sollten Kontakt mit dem privaten Support aufnehmen. Hier im öffentlichen Forum kann niemand in Ihre Daten schauen.
[Profil] -> Einstellungen ⚙️ -> Ganz nach unten blättern und den Hilfeeintrag anklicken.

New-Blue-Bear-3075183413

I am at my wits end . have contacted bunq via support and all they say is that they will contact the person and ask them to refund me, this has not happened. I clearly do not know this person and have no idea how this person became a contact of mine. How did this persons IBAN number get into my contacts! This person only shares same name as my friend whom I was supposed to pay.

Jakob-Y

Jacqueline It's certainly important to check the destionation account before sending over any money. Whether for internal bunq transfers or for transfers to other banks, making a bank transfer is generally a lot like handing over cash, so if you need it back you need to ask the person that you sent the money to. Of course, if it has been a mistake then you have the law on your side, so you or an attorney of yours can contact the bank to retrieve contact information and then order them to send back the money. It's not the bank's responsibility or privilege to do that, though.