Transferring money usually happens automatically when we make our everyday payments in life. But occasionally we need to set a transfer manually, and using a wire transfer is one common way to do so, especially for sending money internationally.
However, there are occasions where we may want that transfer to be reversed – but is that possible? Can international wire transfer be reversed?
Sadly, in most instances an international wire transfer cannot be reversed.
It’s not always impossible, but it’s definitely hard to do.
We’ll look at why that is, along with the reasons for making a wire transfer reversal, along with the methods you can follow to have funds returned to your bank account.
Reversing an international wire transfer
Reversing an international transfer is like stopping any other transaction between banks, but with the added difficulty of international borders in between. While the cash is obviously not going across physical borders, but simply being wired, it is done through computer systems which makes it hard to stop the process once it has been initiated.
Plus, international transfers are fairly expensive for banks and financial institutions to action. Stopping them is a further expense – one for which they may not be reimbursed.
Why you may need to reverse an international wire transfer
You may need to reverse an international wire transfer for a number of reasons. It may be that you no longer need to pay the individual to whom you are sending funds.
Perhaps you’ve discovered you made an error, and are sending the funds to the wrong account. You may also have found a cheaper way of settling a bill and may want to back out of the transaction that you have put into motion. There are numerous reasons.
How to reverse an international wire transfer
The first thing you can do is contact the institution with which you have initiated the international wire transfer. Such a transaction will not be able to be reversed through pressing a few buttons in an app or on a website. However, in this instance, you simply tell them you want the transfer cancelled – not reversed. Your bank or service provider may be able to cancel the transaction easily if the transaction is early enough on in the process.
However, if the process is at the stage where the funds have been transferred to the recipient, you will not be able to cancel the transaction. From that point, you do need to seek a reversal, which sadly is only really possible if you ask the recipient to send the funds back to you.
The only time that an international wire transfer can be reversed is if there has been a mistake made that was not through fault of your own. These are rare as everything is mostly automated these days to rule out human error, but it can happen. Perhaps a duplication has taken place for instance. If you notice such an error has occurred, notified your bank and they will likely take care of it automatically.
Things to know about reversing an international wire transfer
Given that there only ever is one instance where you can reverse an international wire transfer without incurring any other costs, and that is when your service provider has made a mistake, you must be sure you want to be reimbursed before you seek for your funds to be returned to your account.
The costs involved in international transfers can be high, especially so on smaller transfers as a portion of the actual amount may get eaten up in fees. Therefore, before placing an international transfer, double check everything. Make sure that you have the account details correct and you are absolutely certain you want the money to be sent at all.
Can international wire transfer be reversed?
It may not be the answer that many are looking to see, but reversing an international transfer is especially difficult, if not impossible in some cases. In practice, if you seek a reversal of a transfer after its completion, all that truly can be done is asking for a refund from the recipient.
The problem with this is that you are likely to incur even more costs than the original transfer will already have cost you. International wire transfers can be expensive in comparison to the amounts that people are actually sending. Bearing that in mind, always be sure you are comfortable with the wire transfer before you even initiate it.
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