Did you transfer money into a wrong account, did you forget the reference number or did you pay too much? Please do the following:

What should I do if I transferred money into a wrong account?

Contact the company that sent the invoice and tell them what happened. At the same time, it’s a good idea to request more payment time for the bill to find out if you can get back the sum you paid into a wrong account.

Please also contact your bank‍. This way, your bank can find out who received your payment. If the recipient gives permission for it, their bank can return the money to the payer.

If the recipient of the erroneous payment refuses to pay the sum back, the payer may have to collect their money themselves, sometimes even through court ruling.

What to do if you paid too much?

Please contact the originator to resolve the situation. In general, originators return sums paid in excess or deduct them from the following invoice.

Should you use the reference number on the invoice?

The reference number on the invoice should always be used when paying. With the reference number, the originator can track unpaid invoices, detect the payment of a certain invoice, and find a received invoice quickly from their own systems.

If you do not use the reference when paying, the originator may not find your payment and may collect it.

Experts: OP’s Manager Katariina Säntti and Legal Counsel Kari Peltola.