How to Track Wire Transfers
- 1). Make yourself familiar with these terms; beneficiary bank, beneficiary information, intermediary bank, routing and transit number, swift coded, trace wire, confirmation number and value date. These are terms you need to understand when banking personnel refer to them.
- 2). Check with the beneficiary. Before you begin to track a wire because you think it was not received, check with the beneficiary: the person who is to receive the wire transfer. Be sure before they say they did not receive the wire transfer that it is after the value date. The value date is the date the incoming wire becomes available to the beneficiary and beneficiary bank.
- 3). Call the beneficiary bank if the value date has passed and the beneficiary says they have not received the wire transfer. Speak with a representative there who handles wire transfers. Ask if they received a notification advice of your payment. If they say they have not, give them your confirmation number and see if they can find your wire transfer.
- 4). Call your financial institution. If the beneficiary bank did not have a notification advice or was not able to locate the wire with your confirmation number, then ask your bank to send a trace wire. This should see whether the wire transfer made it to the bank and whether it was debited to the beneficiary's account.
Next the bank can see if the wire transfer is hung up at the intermediary bank.
If the bank can still not find it, it is time to research and make sure the information was entered right. It could have been user error or your part or the bank's.
If some numbers were switched, your bank can request a recall wire on your behalf to have the money returned to your account once it is found.
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