A friend of mine recently accidentally sent a payment via Twint to the wrong number. Unfortunately, the recipient isn’t responding, and his bank hasn’t been very helpful in resolving the issue. Does anyone have experience with getting such payments back?
Note: Amount is really significant.
Thanks for valuable input.
Regards
If their bank won’t help, you’re out of luck.
You can send them a money request via TWINT. Or call them. But that’s all you can try.
I think you will have to recover via bank or police.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the recipient doesn’t respond as it can appear to be a scam. There are similar scams where people ‘accidentally’ transfer money and then ask for it back. Only the original transfer was fake and will be reversed by the bank.
Has your friend gone in person to the banks involved? That may help.
Otherwise go to Finma
In recent weeks I got a message while logging in at UBS precisely about this. Bank is liable when they make a mistake, if I make a mistake while using the website or twint, it’s 100% my problem. A week later, I received a letter from Migros Bank with more or less the same message. That explains why the bank is not helping much.
A general description from Swiss Banking Ombudsman of cases like this.
Most of times the sender bank requests a refund to the recipient bank. The recipient bank contacts the customer and get the consent to return the money. The sender bank shall at least request the money back,if the other bank or the person who got the credit don’t answer it’s another story. Anyway, the sender bank shall make the request to get the money back.
If the recipient bank or person who got the money do not answer, things get complicated. First, “privacy laws” protect the contact info of the person receiving the money. This is why Phil_MCR mentions the police, it’s the only way to get the person contact info. Then, a lawyer shall write a nice letter explaining the consequences of not returning that money.
Whenever I sent money via Twint. I add the contact into the address book and then ask them to send me a text message to verify to avoid sending to a wrong number.
I’m surprised someone would send a ‘really significant’ amount without double-checking. Hopefully it doesn’t end up as a very expensive lesson.
I’ve only used TWINT person-to-person when they are standing next to me and we both get instant confirmation.
I’m trying to envisage a situation where I would blindly send a payment to an individual via TWINT without some sort of secondary confirmation of ID.
But you can be standing next to a person and still type in the wrong number. I’m talking about avoiding mistakes in the number, not proximity.
Not really as you start the transaction by them sending you the request for money.
You answer the request by paying the money to the person who sent the request - them.
If you don’t receive the request, you don’t send the money.
I never use Twint unless the person is in my contact list or I know them personally and certainly not for significant sums of money.
If it’s somebody I know who isn’t in my contacts I always verify the number before sending any money.
Twint is very safe and convenient, I don’t get these suspicions.
It all depends on the environment.
If a payment is done right now in the phone to buy more drinks in a lively Fastnacht, there are higher chances of making a mistake compared to being comfortably at home with a huge computer screen that allows to display big numbers. At the same time, sellers in markets usually have a QR code to scan, twint shows the seller’s name that can be immediately verified.
So, nothing wrong with twint beyond the rather small phone screens. The issue is using twint while not being in an environment that contributes to focus on doing a good job.
I have never used TWINT
I dont trust any phone app
I have seen too many stories of TWINT scams so I prefer to be diligent.
Exactly.
I’m sure there are scams involving Twint but we never had any problem. However, we’re using Twint for relatively small amounts.
I always do a penny transfer whenever I have to fill in a new transfer details, if all works then I just reuse the transfer to send again but larger amount
The recipient’s bank has no role in this. They can’t take it upon themselves to simply go take money out of someone else’s account that simply will not happen!
Your friend’s bank is responsible for errors it makes and unfortunately your friend is responsible for errors they make. If you can’t sort it out with the recipient then you need to consult a lawyer as to what their options are. However the recipient may already have moved the money outside the jurisdiction of the state.
In most countries it is illegal to keep money transferred to you in error.
In many doing that means you are breaking the law.
It doesn’t matter what the terms and conditions of the transfer mechanism are.
Like everything else, I suspect Switzerland does it differently. Check.
Nope. Also classed as “unjust enrichment” and can be recovered by legal means. Suggest the OP tries the ombudsman, although if it’s just peanuts, is it worth it?