A customer says they have paid, but nothing has reached your account. Their screenshot says 'pending', or their bank showed a warning and they are not sure the money went.
In the UK, a normal bank transfer goes through Faster Payments, and Pay.UK, which runs it, says the money is usually available almost immediately, although it can sometimes take up to two hours. For payments made by mobile, internet or phone banking, Pay.UK says they must arrive by the end of the following business day at the latest. So if a transfer is missing for longer, something has stopped it. Ask the customer exactly what their app says, because the wording tells you which cause to look at:
- A name check warning such as 'It's not a match' or 'It's a close match' before they paid: see cause one.
- 'Pending', 'held' or a message asking them to confirm the payment or call the bank: see cause two.
- The money has left their account but never reached yours: check the details they used (cause three) and how it was sent (cause four).
- The app refused the payment or said it is over a limit: see cause five.
Cause 1: The Confirmation of Payee name check didn't match
When someone pays a new payee, their bank asks your bank whether the name they typed matches your account. Pay.UK describes Confirmation of Payee as an account name-checking service designed to help reduce misdirected payments. It checks the name and whether the account is personal or business.
NatWest lists the results a payer can see: 'It's a match', 'It's a close match', 'It's not a match' and 'Unavailable/unable to check'. A close match means the name or account type doesn't exactly match what was entered, and the bank shows the name it holds. A no match tells the payer to contact you to confirm the correct details. Many careful customers stop at that point, so the payment was never made. Others carry on, and HSBC's help is clear that if you pay without a full match your money could go to the wrong account and you may not get it back.
A common trigger on the seller's side is a mismatch between the name you gave and the name on the account: a trading name instead of the registered company name, a nickname, or a business account the customer has entered as personal.
- Give customers the account name exactly as your bank holds it, not your shop name.
- Tell them the account type. HSBC suggests telling anyone paying you whether it is a personal or business account when you give them your details.
- If a customer saw 'not a match', ask them to check what they typed rather than ignoring the warning, and confirm the details with them by a channel they already trust.
Cause 2: Their bank is holding the payment for a fraud check
A first payment to a payee the customer has never paid before is exactly the kind of payment banks check most closely. Monzo's help notes that if the receiving bank needs to perform additional checks, it can take up to one working day. On the sending side, the delay can be longer.
Since 30 October 2024, the Payment Services Regulations have let a payer's bank delay an outgoing sterling payment within the UK when it has reasonable grounds to suspect it was placed because of fraud or dishonesty by someone other than the payer. The bank can use the time to contact the payer and make enquiries. The delay must be no longer than necessary, and in any event cannot run past the end of the fourth business day after the payment order was received. The bank must tell the payer about the delay, the reasons for it and any information or action it needs from them, as soon as possible and no later than the end of the business day after the order.
In practice, the payment waits until the customer answers their bank. Nothing on your side releases it.
- Ask the customer to open their banking app and look for a message, notification or verification request about the payment.
- If they can't see one, they should contact their own bank using the number on the back of their card or in the app.
Cause 3: Wrong sort code or account number
If the money has left the customer's account and has not reached yours, compare the sort code and account number they used with your real details, digit by digit. One swapped digit can send the money to someone else.
Monzo's help article for a transfer that hasn't arrived starts with the same step: check that the recipient gave the correct account number and sort code. If the details were right and it still hasn't arrived after a day, Monzo shows a 'Tracking reference (FPID)' under 'Something wrong? Get help' in the app, which the customer can share with you so you can ask your bank to trace it.
One less common reason: a small number of accounts can't receive Faster Payments at all. Pay.UK says this affects less than 0.1% of UK accounts, such as some savings accounts, and its website has a sort code checker to confirm whether an account accepts them. If you have given customers a savings account by mistake, give them your current account instead.
Cause 4: It wasn't sent by Faster Payments
Not every UK transfer is instant. If the customer scheduled the payment for a later date, set up a standing order, or sent the money by CHAPS or Bacs, the timing is different.
- CHAPS: the Bank of England describes it as a same-day sterling system, usually open from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank and public holidays in England and Wales. Customer payments must be submitted by 5.40pm. A CHAPS payment made on a Friday evening will not move until the next working day.
- Bacs Direct Credit: Pay.UK says these payments can only be sent Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays, and a date that falls on a non-working day moves to the next working day. Bacs runs on a three-day cycle, and Pay.UK says at least 90% of Direct Credit payments are credited by 6am on the day they arrive.
- Standing orders and future-dated payments: these leave on the date set, not the day the customer tells you they 'paid'. Pay.UK says it can't guarantee the exact time a standing order reaches the account, but at least 90% are sent by 6am.
Cause 5: The customer hit a payment limit
Faster Payments allows up to £1m per transaction, but Pay.UK notes that individual banks may impose lower limits. Lloyds Bank, for example, says the Faster Payments limit in its app and internet banking is up to £25,000 a day for most accounts, applies to each account and resets at 11.59pm each day. Future-dated payments count towards it.
On a large invoice, their bank may refuse the payment, or they may have split it and only part has arrived. Check the amounts against the invoice; for a large sum they may need to pay over more than one day or ask their bank about CHAPS.
If the money went to the wrong account
If the customer paid the wrong account by mistake, they need to contact their own bank, not yours. Your bank can't see or reverse another bank's payment.
Banks use a process called Credit Payment Recovery to ask the receiving bank to return a payment sent in error. HSBC says the sooner you act the better, that it should start acting within 2 working days, and that if the recipient doesn't dispute the claim, the money should come back within 20 working days. If it is disputed, HSBC tells you the outcome of its investigation within 20 working days, and you can complain to the free Financial Ombudsman Service if you are unhappy. Barclays adds that if you know who received the money, the quickest route is to ask them to return it.
A mistake and a scam are handled differently. If the customer was tricked into paying, for example by a fake email that changed your bank details, they should tell their bank it is a scam. Under the Payment Systems Regulator's reimbursement rules, which started on 7 October 2024, victims of authorised push payment scams made by Faster Payments can be reimbursed, with a maximum of £85,000 per claim when the rules started, and the Bank of England set the same maximum for CHAPS.
Prevent it next time
Most missing transfers come back to the details you send and how you send them.
- Send your bank details in writing, with the account name exactly as your bank holds it and whether it is a personal or business account.
- Never change bank details by email alone. Tell customers you will never do that, so a fake 'new details' email stands out.
- Ask customers to use your invoice or order number as the payment reference so you can match the payment when it lands.
- Tell first-time payers their bank may hold the payment for checks and that answering the bank's questions releases it.
- For large invoices, warn customers about daily limits before they try to pay.
- Ask for the Faster Payments reference or a screenshot that shows the date, amount, sort code and account number, not just the word 'paid'.
Tired of chasing transfers?
If bank transfers keep stalling, one alternative is to let customers pay by card. A free OneSol page lists your products, and on Pro customers can pay by card through your own Stripe, PayPal or Square account, with the money going straight to you and no cut taken by OneSol.