Bank transfer from Italy

[B17NNS]

A guy is sending me funds from Italy.

He's asking for the following...

IBAN CODE:
SWIFT - BIC CODE:

I'm assuming account and sort?

Which is which?

[897sma]

Contact your bank they will give you these for your account and their branch.

[mikef]

Nope, not sort code and account number - you'll need to contact your bank to get these. We don't use them for local UK stuff, but usually needed for international transfers.

[B17NNS]

Cheers m'dears :-)

It's for a not inconsiderable eBay sale where I wanted to avoid PayPal hassles.

Guy seems very genuine. I'm assuming the funds can't be taken back once cleared?

[McSam]

Take care with it. Funds can't be taken back by the sender, but can be reclaimed by the police if later found to be fraudulent. If it was entirely your proposal to use a direct transfer, then I would feel a little safer - if he asked for it, 95% of the time you want to stay away!

[B17NNS]

My suggestion entirely. Funds needed quickly elsewhere. Can't be waiting for PayPal.

[ColinM50]

McSam's talking rubbish, it's perfectly safe, well as safe as any bank transaction.

Your overseas chappie's dead right, if you want to make a transfer within europe or from country to country you need the IBAN and BIC/SWIFT numbers. You'll find these on your bank statement or cheque book or call your bank and they'll tell you them. The IBAN will start something like GBBARC then your account number added to your sort code to make one big long number, but as I said before, it'll be on your bank statemnet.

[B17NNS]

Much appreciated chaps.

Main concern was cash arrives in account, goods dispached, money goes back.

Shall call my branch in the morning

[ILoveMondeo]

B17NNS said:

Cheers m'dears :-)
I'm assuming the funds can't be taken back once cleared?

erm. yes they can.

Not if it's a genuine transaction, the chap in Italy cant have a bit of buyers remorse and change his mind, or play the "it didnt arrive" ebay game.

However if the buyer is used stolen account details and the transaction is fradulent, yes it can be reclaimed.

Probably a lot harder to do internationally that within the UK though, but I'd be nervous, depending on the sum of money involved, I doubt I'd risk more than a couple of hundred quid, regardless of how genuine the buyer seems.

something of higer value 100's or 1000's, no chance.

Western union?

[rich1231]

Transaction can be recalled, but you would be asked in writing to accept the recall.

[McSam]

ColinM50 said:

McSam's talking rubbish, it's perfectly safe, well as safe as any bank transaction.

Um.. really?

What I said is absolutely correct, and transfers - international or not - can and often will be reclaimed if later found to be made with ill-gotten funds or by illegal access to a third party's account. This does not require your consent, and is an extremely common eBay-based scam. But I also said that if I were the one pushing for bank transfer use, rather than my buyer, I would feel safer as fraud is far less likely.

None of that is rubbish. I wanted to alert the OP to the possibilities so that he could make the best assessment of what's been said between him and his buyer.


OP: given this situation I'd be pretty happy, if it was your idea and the buyer doesn't look like a Nigerian prince then go ahead. I have done direct transfers with previously unknown buyers before and had no trouble. You just need to judge each situation individually.

[OdramaSwimLaden]

ColinM50 said:

McSam's talking rubbish, it's perfectly safe, well as safe as any bank transaction.

Your overseas chappie's dead right, if you want to make a transfer within europe or from country to country you need the IBAN and BIC/SWIFT numbers. You'll find these on your bank statement or cheque book or call your bank and they'll tell you them. The IBAN will start something like GBBARC then your account number added to your sort code to make one big long number, but as I said before, it'll be on your bank statemnet.

No he's not he's spot on.

We've had two scenarios at work:

- We were paid from a third party in Spain and the account was being watched. Something dodgy was going on but never found out what. It was recalled next day and the first we knew about it was when accounts reconciled the accounts in the morning.

- We were accidently double paid $65000 and realising the mistake the customer requested the funds back. The bank called us and asked us if we wanted to return the funds. We say yes, of course, and funds were released. If we said no, they would have stayed in our account.