If you’re making a transfer to a personal bank account, entering the wrong reference isn’t usually a problem. In most cases, it won’t stop your money being delivered.
But wrong references can cause problems if you’re paying a company or business. Or it’s important that your money arrives with an accurate reference. In these cases, the fastest way to fix the problem is to cancel the transfer yourself, and set it up again using the correct reference.
Tip: If you’re paying a bill, a business, or you’ve been asked for a specific reference, please contact whoever you’re paying. They should be able to tell you if an incorrect reference is a problem. If it is, try cancelling your transfer.
If you do need to cancel your transfer
Whether or not you can do this depends on how far along your transfer is in our system. So before you get started, check the status of your transfer.
Log in to your Wise account
Go to Home to see your activity list
Find the transfer in question — it should be marked as pending
You can cancel your transfer if your transfer’s set up, your money’s on its way to us, or your money’s being processed.
You should still be able to cancel your transfer at these stages. We’ll send the money back to your bank account, and you can set up another transfer using the correct bank details.
Learn how to cancel your transfer
Contact your recipient if you don’t see the cancel button, or your transfer’s complete.
Our conversion process is fast — and sometimes it’s too late to cancel. Once it’s marked as complete, the money is out of Wise’s system and into the banking system. So if you don’t see the option to cancel:
Get in touch with the person or business you’re paying
Tell them about the wrong reference
Ask them to contact their bank and find out whether the money can still be delivered, or whether their bank will send it back to Wise.
Tip: If the bank sends your money back to us, we’ll get in touch with you via email. You can then choose to set up your transfer with the correct reference, or cancel your transfer and get a refund.