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Everything you need to know about getting your money back after a bank transfer scam: the PSR Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme, the deadlines, the costs, and how to escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service — without a solicitor.

Authorised push payment fraud

You were deceived into sending the money yourself, by bank transfer, to someone pretending to be your bank, the police, a genuine seller, a partner, or an investment manager. This is what this guide covers — it's the only category the Payment Systems Regulator's mandatory reimbursement rules apply to. Most people call it “APP fraud” for short.

An unauthorised transaction

Someone took money from your account without your knowledge or permission — a cloned card, a hacked account, a payment you never made or agreed to. Different rules apply here, under the Payment Services Regulations 2017: your bank must generally refund you promptly unless it can show you authorised the payment or were grossly negligent with your security details.

A dispute over goods or services

You paid a genuine business, but what arrived wasn't what was promised, or nothing arrived at all, and the seller isn't a scammer — just unhelpful. That's a consumer rights dispute, not fraud. If you paid by credit card and the item cost between £100 and £30,000, Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes your card provider jointly liable. Debit and credit card chargeback may also help.

Report it — to your bank and to Action Fraud

Use the number on your card or a statement, never one the scammer gave you. Reporting starts your bank’s clock.

Five working days for a straightforward case, up to 35 if it needs more time to investigate — but it has to tell you within the first five days if it’s taking longer.

Reimbursed, refused, or partial

If it’s not a full reimbursement, ask for the decision in writing as a “final response.”

Disagree? You can escalate

A free, independent referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service — no fee, ever.

The Ombudsman decides

It can direct reimbursement, interest, and compensation for distress — binding on the bank if you accept it.

Call your bank's fraud team.

Use the number on your card or a statement — never a number given to you during the scam. Ask them to try to recall the payment from the receiving bank immediately.

Report to Action Fraud.

Or Police Scotland on 101 if you’re in Scotland. Get a crime reference number — your bank and the Ombudsman will both expect to see it.

Screenshot every message and call.

Texts, emails, WhatsApps, call logs — especially anything showing who they claimed to be and what they told you to do.

Note exactly how you were contacted and deceived.

Cold call, text, dating app, social media? What did they claim? This maps directly onto what the bank has to assess.

Gather your payment confirmations.

The transfer confirmation screen, amount, date, time, sort code and account number the money went to.

Keep any warning you were shown — word for word.

If your bank’s app displayed a fraud warning before you paid, note exactly what it said and whether you read it. This will come up either way.

Reporting to your bank

Free. There is no fee to make a claim under the scheme.

Referring to the Financial Ombudsman Service

Free. It never charges a fee, either.

A claims management company

Typically 15–30% plus VAT of whatever they recover — on a £14,000 refund, that can be several thousand pounds gone before you see a penny. They can’t do anything under the scheme or the Ombudsman that you can’t do yourself for free.

“Recovery” or “asset retrieval” firms

If you’ve already lost money to a scam, you are statistically likely to be approached by another one offering to get it back for an upfront fee. No legitimate UK service asks for money up front to recover scammed funds.

Entirely by yourself

Free, and thousands of people do it. The risk is procedural — missing a deadline, sending the wrong kind of complaint, or not having the evidence in the format a bank or the Ombudsman expects.

Can you set aside an hour or two to write a clear claim, and follow up if the bank misses its deadline?

Paperwork and deadlines.

Are you comfortable keeping a dated record of every call, letter and screenshot from day one?

Can you stay factual and specific if your bank pushes back or cites gross negligence, rather than getting drawn into an argument?

Are you willing to look up a word you don’t recognise rather than guess what it means? The glossary further down this page is built for exactly that.

The exact amount, the date, and the account it left from.

How you were contacted, who they claimed to be, and what they told you to do.

When you reported it

The date you told your bank — promptness is one of the things assessed.

Screenshots, statements, correspondence, and your Action Fraud reference.

The PSR Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme, by name — not a vague appeal to fairness.

Full reimbursement within five working days, and a written final response if refused.

The clock runs from the payment date, not from when you get round to it — and delay itself can count against how promptly your response was judged to be.

Skipping Action Fraud

Banks and the Ombudsman both expect to see a crime reference number. Reporting takes minutes online.

Treating a refusal as final

A bank’s first answer is not the last word — it’s the trigger for an independent review, not the end of the process.

Losing the evidence trail

Deleting messages from the scammer, or not noting the exact wording of any warning your bank showed you before you paid.

Filing the wrong kind of complaint

An unauthorised transaction or a goods-and-services dispute needs a different route to APP fraud — sending the wrong one wastes the clock.

A bank can refuse if it can prove you acted with gross negligence — a high legal threshold. Ignoring a specific, clear warning is the kind of thing that can meet it; ordinary carelessness usually doesn’t.

If you were the one behaving fraudulently — for example, staging a loss — the scheme excludes you. This is rare, and not the same as being a genuine victim who made a mistake.

Banks can deduct up to £100 from a successful claim. Most do. Full recovery, even when you win, is usually £100 short of what you lost.

Payments outside the scheme

International transfers, card payments, cash, cheques, and anything before 7 October 2024 fall outside the mandatory rules — other, weaker routes may still apply.

Do I need a solicitor to claim back money lost to a scam?

No. Reporting the fraud to your bank and, if needed, referring the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service are both processes designed for you to use yourself, without legal representation. A solicitor is a separate, genuine option worth considering for unusually large or complex losses — not a requirement for a standard claim.

How long do I have to report a scam to my bank?

Thirteen months from the date of the last payment you made as part of the scam. If your bank refuses or partially reimburses you, you then have six months from its written final response to refer the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

What if my bank refuses my claim?

Ask for its decision in writing as a final response — that letter starts your six-month window to refer the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service, a free and independent body. If the bank hasn’t issued a final response within eight weeks of your complaint, you can refer the case anyway.

Does the scheme cover every kind of payment?

No. It covers Faster Payments and CHAPS transfers from a UK account, sent on or after 7 October 2024. International transfers, card payments, cash and cheques fall outside it, though other, weaker routes may still apply to those.

How much can I get back?

The mandatory reimbursement cap is £85,000 per claim. Most banks also deduct a standard excess of up to £100 from a successful claim, so full recovery is usually £100 short of what you lost.

Can the bank refuse to reimburse me?

Only on one ground: gross negligence, which is a high bar — being persuaded by a convincing scam is not enough to meet it. The bank has to prove it, not you. A separate, rare exclusion applies if you were behaving fraudulently yourself.

What does Start My Claim charge?

One fixed fee of £99, paid once, for the Ombudsman Pack. That’s it — no percentage of your refund, ever. You keep 100% of whatever the bank or the Financial Ombudsman Service awards you. The bank complaint process and the Ombudsman referral are free either way, with or without us.

Is this guide financial advice?

No. It's general information about the PSR Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme and the Financial Ombudsman Service process, not financial advice about your individual circumstances. Start My Claim is self-service software, not a bank, the Financial Ombudsman Service, or a financial adviser.

Is this actually a claim you can bring?

Not every case of lost money is the same kind of claim, and the route that gets your money back depends on which one you're dealing with. Getting this right first matters — it decides which rules protect you.

This guide covers authorised push payment fraud — the rest of the page assumes that's what happened to you.

Are you still in time?

Two separate deadlines apply to a scam refund claim — miss either one and that route closes.

To report to your bank

From the date of the last payment you made as part of the scam.

To refer to the Ombudsman

From the date of the bank's final response.

No response? Go anyway

If the bank hasn't issued a final response, you don't have to keep waiting.

One more date worth knowing: the Payment Systems Regulator's mandatory reimbursement scheme only covers payments made

on or after 7 October 2024

, and only payments sent by Faster Payments or CHAPS — not international transfers, not card payments, not cash. Losses from before that date fall under a voluntary code that only nine banks signed up to (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, NatWest, RBS, Santander, Starling, TSB) — a weaker, discretionary remedy.

The most important section in this guide — the whole process at a glance.

Worked example — Priya's claim, start to finish

Priya was cold-called by someone claiming to be her bank's fraud team, using a spoofed number that matched the real one on the back of her card. She sent

to a "safe account" on 3 February 2026. The next day, mid-call, her banking app showed a written fraud warning before a second, larger transfer — she dismissed it and sent a further

She reported both payments to her bank two days later, got an Action Fraud crime reference, and kept the call log showing the spoofed number and the exact wording of the warning she'd dismissed. Using the full 35-working-day window, the bank's final response reimbursed the first payment in full, minus the standard £100 excess (£8,900) — but refused the second, citing gross negligence for dismissing a written warning.

Priya didn't accept the refusal. She referred the second payment to the Financial Ombudsman Service well inside her six-month deadline. The Ombudsman found that dismissing a warning while an impersonator was still actively deceiving her on the phone fell short of the high bar for gross negligence, and directed the bank to pay the remaining £5,200. Total recovered:

— the £100 excess was the only shortfall — resolved seven months after the first payment.

Speed matters here in a way it doesn't for most disputes — both because money can still be moved on, and because how promptly you acted is part of what the bank and the Ombudsman will look at.

What it actually costs

Reporting to your bank costs nothing. Referring to the Financial Ombudsman Service costs nothing. Neither charges a fee, ever — the whole process is designed so you don't need to pay anyone to use it. Start My Claim's £99 fee is for help building a stronger claim and evidence bundle, not a fee to claim, and not a cut of your refund.

Why you can do this yourself

Neither stage of this process requires a solicitor. A bank complaint under the PSR Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme is designed to be made by the customer directly — the bank has to assess it against the rules regardless of who wrote it. A referral to the Financial Ombudsman Service is a free complaints process, not a court hearing; there's no barrister, no formal legal submission, and no fee for either side.

What tends to separate a fast, favourable outcome from a slow, cautious one isn't legal training — it's clarity. A precise account, citing the rules by name, with the evidence organised, gets a faster answer than a vague one. That's a writing and organisation problem, not a legal one, and it's one most people can solve for themselves.

Is self-help right for you?

The previous section makes the case that you can do this yourself. This one is about fit, not capability — four honest questions worth asking before you decide how to go about it.

None of this is pass or fail

Most people who read this far manage all four just fine — most genuine, promptly-reported claims are made without any paid help at all. Three honest paths, depending on how it felt reading the list above:

Free, and thousands do it well. The risk is the procedural traps covered further down this page.

Alone, with Start My Claim.

You stay in control of every decision; the software helps build the documents in the format the Ombudsman expects, and helps you catch deadlines and mistakes before they cost you anything.

Worth genuinely considering if your loss is unusually large, your situation involves cross-border payments or several linked frauds, or you want independent financial guidance beyond the free Ombudsman route — that's a real cost-benefit call, not a failure to cope on your own.

Anatomy of a bank complaint

Banks see thousands of these. A vague account of "I was scammed" gets a slow, cautious answer. A precise one, citing the rules by name, gets a faster and more favourable one.

When the bank refuses — or goes quiet

A refusal, or a partial offer you don't accept, is not the end of the process — it's the point at which an independent service starts looking at your case instead of the bank marking its own homework.

Get the "final response" in writing.

This is the document that starts your six-month clock to refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service. If the bank hasn't sent one within eight weeks, you can refer anyway — under the regulator's own complaint-handling rules, its silence is itself grounds to escalate.

Don't treat a first refusal as the final word. It's the trigger for the next stage, not the end of the road.

Escalating to the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service is free and independent. It isn't part of the bank, and it isn't part of Start My Claim. It looks at the whole picture — not just whether the bank followed its own process correctly.

full or partial reimbursement, interest on the amount (currently 8% simple, the Ombudsman's standard reference rate), and compensation for distress and inconvenience where it's warranted.

Be realistic about timing.

Ombudsman caseloads mean a decision can take several months — an investigator typically reviews the file first, and either side can ask for a final decision from an Ombudsman if they disagree with the investigator's view. Your six-month deadline is to refer the case, not to have it resolved — refer early and let the process run.

The decision is binding on the bank — not on you.

If the Ombudsman finds in your favour and the bank must pay, that's final for them. If you're unhappy with the outcome, you aren't obliged to accept it, though options beyond the Ombudsman are limited.

Five mistakes that sink scam refund claims

Is it worth pursuing?

Reimbursement under the PSR scheme is the default outcome for most genuine authorised push payment fraud — but it isn't automatic, and it isn't unconditional. Four things worth knowing honestly before you start.

None of this means don't claim — most genuine, promptly-reported push payment fraud is reimbursed. It means go in with accurate expectations, not a guarantee.

Scam refunds, decoded

What it costs to do it with Start My Claim

Everything above works whether you use Start My Claim or not — the bank complaint and the Ombudsman referral are free either way. If you'd rather not build the letters and evidence bundle from scratch, the Ombudsman Pack does that part.

Ombudsman Pack, one-off

One fixed fee, paid once.

You keep 100% of any refund the bank or the Financial Ombudsman Service awards you

— we take £0 commission, always.

The scam refund process, step by step

The PSR Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme, explained

Escalating to the Financial Ombudsman Service

Free tool: Bank Response Decoder