Sent Money to the Wrong Account? How to Get It Back

"I typed one digit wrong and ₹48,000 has gone to a stranger's account." If this is you, the one-line fix is: report it to your own bank within the hour with the UTR number and ask it to raise a recovery request with the beneficiary bank, because the receiver's consent is usually needed and the chance of recovery falls as the money gets spent. This guide covers bank transfers by NEFT, RTGS, IMPS and branch remittance. For UPI-specific steps, see UPI paid to the wrong person.

The honest picture first: if the account number you entered does not exist, the money comes back on its own under RBI rules. If it belongs to a real person, recovery depends on that person's cooperation, the speed of your report and, in some cases, legal action.

Two very different situations

What to do, step by step

In the first hour

1. Confirm the mistake. Compare the account number and IFSC in the transaction details with the correct ones. Note the UTR (Unique Transaction Reference) number.
2. Call your bank's official customer care (number from the app or website) and report a "funds transferred to wrong account" case. Ask for a complaint reference number.
3. Follow up in writing through net banking, the app's service request section or email, using the template below. Written complaints create the timeline you will need later.

Within the first one or two days

4. Visit your home branch if possible. Ask the branch to send a formal request to the beneficiary bank's branch, asking it to contact its customer and seek consent to return the money.
5. Ask whether the beneficiary bank can mark a hold. Banks are cautious about this without consent or an official order, but an early, documented request improves the odds that the money is still there.
6. If you know the beneficiary bank branch, write to it as well, quoting the UTR and your bank's complaint number. Some banks will pass a sealed letter to their customer.

If it is still unresolved

7. Ask your bank for the outcome in writing: whether the beneficiary bank contacted its customer and what the customer said.
8. Escalate to your bank's grievance redressal or nodal officer if your bank did not act promptly or ignored your complaint.
9. Consider legal routes if the receiver refuses: a legal notice, a police complaint and a civil recovery suit. Retaining money you know was credited by mistake can amount to dishonest misappropriation of property under Section 314 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (which replaced Section 403 of the IPC). Get advice from a lawyer for larger amounts.

Your rights and the bank's duties

• Responsibility for details is yours. RBI's payment system rules put the onus of providing correct beneficiary details on the remitter, and credits are applied on the account number. That is why a bank will not refund you from its own pocket for a typing error.
• The bank must still help. It has to register and acknowledge your complaint, contact the beneficiary bank and tell you the result. Unreasonable delay or refusal to act is a deficiency in service you can take to the RBI Ombudsman.
• Uncredited transfers must come back on time. Under RBI's failed-transaction TAT circular, an IMPS transfer that is not credited must be reversed by T+1 (the next calendar day), with ₹100 per day compensation after that. In NEFT, the beneficiary bank must credit or return the money within two hours of batch settlement, or pay penal interest at the repo rate plus 2% (7.50% a year with repo at 5.50% in October 2026).
• Name look-up is now available. RBI required all banks in RTGS and NEFT to offer a free facility, by 1 April 2025, that fetches the beneficiary's account name from the account number and IFSC before you send. Using it is the single best protection against this problem.

If the bank you sent money from is also refusing to help, our guide on what to do when the bank is not resolving your complaint explains the escalation ladder.

Worked example: two typing mistakes

Mistake 1: an account number that does not exist. On 5 October you send ₹48,000 by IMPS to an account number with a missing digit. The beneficiary bank cannot credit it.

• Deadline for reversal: T+1 = 6 October
• Money actually returned: 9 October
• Delay beyond T+1: 7, 8 and 9 October = 3 days
• Compensation owed: 3 × ₹100 = ₹300, in addition to the ₹48,000

Mistake 2: a valid stranger's account. You send ₹48,000 by NEFT to a valid account with two digits swapped. It is credited. Your bank contacts the beneficiary bank the next morning. The receiver agrees to return it but has already spent part of it and offers ₹12,000 a month.

• Repayment period: ₹48,000 ÷ ₹12,000 = 4 months
• Get the agreement in writing, with dates, before accepting instalments.

If the misdirected payment was a loan EMI, pay the lender from other funds on time anyway; a missed EMI brings bounce and penal charges and a credit-score hit that cost more than the delay in recovery. Our EMI calculator shows the instalment you need to cover.

The difference between the two outcomes is not the amount; it is whether the money was credited. A ₹1 test transfer to any new beneficiary would have caught both mistakes for one rupee.

Where to complain

Under the Reserve Bank – Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026 (in force from 1 July 2026), the Ombudsman can look at whether your bank and the beneficiary bank handled your request properly. It cannot order a stranger to return money; that is a matter for the police or civil courts.

If you were tricked into sending money (for example, a fake "sent by mistake" message asking you to return funds), this is fraud, not a wrong transfer. Call 1930, file on cybercrime.gov.in and read our guides on UPI scams and cyber fraud money recovery.

Ready-to-copy complaint message

Subject: Funds transferred to wrong account by mistake – UTR [number] – request for recovery

Dear Sir/Madam,

On [date] at [time], I transferred ₹[amount] from my account [last 4 digits]
by [NEFT/IMPS/RTGS] to account number [wrong number], IFSC [code],
by mistake. The intended account was [correct number], IFSC [code].
UTR: [number].

Please:
1. Immediately contact the beneficiary bank and request that it seek its
   customer's consent to return the amount;
2. Request the beneficiary bank to take whatever precautionary steps it
   can under its policy until the matter is resolved; and
3. Inform me in writing of the beneficiary bank's response.

If the account number is invalid, please confirm the reversal date and
credit compensation for any delay beyond the RBI turnaround time.

[Name], [registered mobile], [account last 4 digits]

What not to do

• Do not contact the receiver through numbers or links you find online, or pay anyone who offers to "trace the account" for a fee. Banks do not share another customer's details, and recovery agents of this kind are often scammers.
• Do not threaten or harass the receiver if you do get their details; it can weaken your legal position.
• Do not send a second payment to the correct account until you have budgeted for the possibility that the first one is not recovered quickly.
• Do not accept a verbal promise of return. Get it in writing through the bank or with the receiver's signature.
• Do not wait. Every day increases the chance the money has been withdrawn.

Key takeaways

• If the account number does not exist, the money must come back; IMPS reversals are due by T+1 with ₹100 a day for delays.
• If it reached a valid account, the receiver's consent is usually needed; report within the hour to improve the odds.
• Your bank must register the complaint, contact the beneficiary bank and tell you the outcome.
• Refusal to return money you know is not yours can be dishonest misappropriation under Section 314 of the BNS.
• Use the NEFT/RTGS name look-up and a ₹1 test transfer for every new payee.