Can you deposit money into somebody else's bank account?

One of the easiest banking tasks in the world is depositing money. You can even deposit money into someone else’s bank account if you wish. Just take care when entering someone else’s bank details – if you accidentally transfer money to the wrong account, it may not always be easy to get it back.

How to send money to another bank account

The basic information you need to deposit money into a third-party’s bank account is:  

• Payee’s name
• Bank, building society or credit union (though this isn’t always necessary)
• BSB (or bank code, which is the branch identifier)
• Account number

You can’t look up someone else’s bank account information online, so the recipient will need to provide you with these details. Including the name of the financial institution isn’t always necessary, particularly with online banking, because the BSB will identify this for you.

You can deposit money into someone else’s account: 

• In person at a branch of the payee’s bank
• By using a deposit ATM from the payee’s bank
• Online via online banking or a payment app
• Via wire transfer (often used when sending money overseas)

You may want to include a transaction description, reference number or personal message with your deposit, so the recipient can easily identify who’s paid them the money and what it’s for.

Alternatively, you could use PayID to quickly make a digital transfer to someone’s bank account via the New Payments Platform, simply by using the payee’s mobile number, email address, ABN or Organisation Identifier.

Other apps and financial services may allow you to quickly transfer money between individuals, such as Osko and BeemIt.

What to do when you’ve sent money to the wrong account

It’s unfortunately easy to transfer money to the wrong bank account if you’re not careful. Simply making a typo when entering a bank account number could mean the money could be transferred to someone completely different. Or you could accidentally add an extra zero onto the end of the sum you plan to transfer, sending the recipient far more cash than you intended.

If this happens to you, don’t panic – you won’t be the first person to make this mistake, and banks have systems in place to help prevent these issues and to rectify any problems that do occur. For example, some banks will alert you if an account name does not match the BSB you have entered. This could potentially help you avoid clicking the last button to confirm the errant transfer.

If you have the contact details of the person you’ve accidentally transferred money to such as if you clicked the wrong name in your contact list), you can simply ask politely for them to transfer the money back to you.

If you don’t have the contact information for the account you’ve transferred money to, you’ll need to contact the bank and provide details of the transfer to get your money back. The sooner you can contact the bank, the better – according to ASIC, if you alert the bank within 10 business days, you should be able to get your money back in full. Any longer, and the bank will instead freeze the disputed money, and the recipient will then have 10 days to confirm whether the money belongs to them. If you take more than 7 months to contact the bank, neither the bank nor the recipient is under any obligation to return the money, unless they agree to.

What to do if your money is in an unauthorised transaction

If a scammer fraudulently accesses your bank account, it’s possible they could transfer your money without your consent. Try to contact our bank as soon as possible once you discover an unauthorised transaction. 

Depending on the scam, it may be possible to recover your cash, though this is not guaranteed. Also, you may not be eligible to get your money back if it’s determined you didn’t take reasonable steps to protect your cards, PIN codes or passwords.

Remember to always protect yourself online from scams and fraud. If necessary, you can report the scam and seek more help.

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