Returned Payment

A returned payment is a transfer that reaches its destination and is sent back rather than credited. It is different from a payment that was declined at the outset: the money travelled, was rejected on arrival, and has to make the same journey in reverse before it is anywhere useful again. The usual causes are ordinary. The payer's name does not match the account holder, an account reference is missing or wrong, the receiving account cannot hold that currency, the destination is restricted, or the account has been closed or frozen since the payment was started. What follows is the part worth planning around. A return is a second transfer, so it takes as long as the first did and can attract its own charges along the way, which is why a returned deposit frequently comes back smaller than it left. It also does not arrive instantly on the client's side even after the firm has released it. The way to shorten all of this is at the sending end rather than the receiving one: an instrument in the account holder's own name, the reference exactly as the firm states it, and a currency the destination account can hold.