The customer who paid into the wrong account

The scenario

You chase an overdue invoice and the customer responds, with some indignation, that they paid it days ago — they can even quote a date and a reference. Yet your account shows nothing received. The likeliest explanation is that the payment was genuinely made, but to the wrong place: an old bank account of yours, a digit wrong in the details, or another supplier entirely. The customer believes, honestly, that they are square. You are now in the awkward position of chasing money that has actually left their hands, just not into yours.

What's really going on

A confident, specific claim of payment — with a date and a reference offered freely — usually means the customer did pay. The money has simply gone astray: to a superseded account of yours that is still on their file, to mistyped details, or, occasionally, to a fraudulent account after someone intercepted invoice details. From the customer's side the obligation feels discharged, which is why pushing them as if they have not paid lands so badly. The task is not to extract a second payment but to work out, jointly, where the first one went, and to get it redirected or refunded to the right account.

Your options

You can:

• Insist they pay again. Almost always wrong before you have traced anything — it implies bad faith and risks a double payment dispute.
• Ask for proof and trace it together. Request the remittance or receipt, check the account it went to, and compare against your details.
• Identify and fix the misdirection. Once you see where it landed, arrange recovery or redirection of that specific payment.

Tracing it cooperatively is the only sound first step — you cannot fairly ask for fresh money until you know what happened to the first lot.

Recommended approach

Treat the claim as credible and investigate alongside them. I believe you — can you send me the remittance with the account it went to, so we can work out where it landed? Compare the destination against your current bank details. If it went to an old account of yours, recovering it is straightforward; if the details were mistyped or sent to the wrong party, help them initiate a recall through their bank. Critically, check whether your invoice bank details were tampered with — a sudden 'change of account' notice is a common fraud, and a misdirected payment can be the first sign of it. Stay on the customer's side throughout: a misdirected payment is a shared problem to solve, and handling it helpfully preserves both the relationship and your chance of recovery. The Academy library covers protecting payment details against interception.

What to avoid

Do not demand a second payment before you have established where the first one went — that turns a fixable error into a bitter dispute and exposes you to a double-payment claim. Do not treat the customer as if they are lying when they offer a date and reference; confident specifics usually mean they really paid. And do not ignore the fraud angle — if the money went to an account you do not recognise, treat it as a possible scam, not just a typo.