Ten minutes before your first proposal save you a week
The first payout is best configured while there is no rush. What to settle, and which of your two CCIs goes in the form.
Read more →Living between two countries
The chain breaks at the link you aren't watching
With an intermediary in the middle, a payment can stall over the name or bounce over the account type. They are two different failures, fixed in two different places.
There are two ways a payment with an intermediary stops, and they are worth telling apart. One leaves it stalled halfway. The other sends it back to the start several days later. They get fixed in different places.
Two failures, two symptoms
| What happens | Symptom | Usual cause |
|---|---|---|
| Hold | The amount stalls and stays identified | The beneficiary name does not match the account holder |
| Rejection | The money returns to the source days later | The Colombian account details match no product |
The name is checked at three points
Whoever pays you, the intermediate profile, and the destination account all have to point to the same person, with the same ID. The differences that stall things are always small: a missing surname, an accent, a name abbreviated on one profile. What happens while the operation is stalled is covered in why an account goes under review.
The Colombian destination is assembled from pieces
The last leg enters the local system, and there is no single identifier there: it needs account number, type, institution, and the holder's ID document.
The account type gives no warning
Ticking savings when it is checking is accepted without protest. The withdrawal travels the full route and gets rejected on arrival, so the correction surfaces once the money has already come back. The breakdown is in the four details of a Colombian destination.
The price of the route, with several layers
Each leg can apply its own conversion and that price rides inside the rate, not as a fee. With two or three layers the total appears on no screen: it shows up by comparing how much left the source and how much landed in your account. It is in the mistakes that cost you money when sending money home.
If you would rather shorten the chain, a euro destination in your name removes a layer and hands back the timing of the conversion. At BNKA it is the swap inside the app and, after it, the withdrawal to your Colombian account. The corridor is in Colombia and the pair in EUR/COP.
Worth stating plainly: BNKA is a technology platform. Financial services are provided by regulated partner institutions, and the terms in force for any given operation live in the app and in the terms and conditions.
What you decide and what you don't
- You decide how you write your name at each point, how carefully you verify the destination details, and how many layers the money crosses.
- You don't decide the criteria each leg uses to check the beneficiary, nor those the destination bank uses to accept or reject.
- We can't tell you this one: the tax and foreign-exchange treatment of income from abroad depends on the Colombian rules in force and on your situation. That gets resolved with your accountant and the official source in front of you.
Checklist before your first payment
- Your name is written identically at all three points in the chain.
- The ID document tied to each profile is the same one.
- You checked the account type on the statement, not from memory.
- You entered the institution's official name, which sometimes differs from the commercial one.
- You noted how much left the source so you can compare it with what arrived.
The wider picture of getting paid from abroad is in the Latino freelancer getting paid in euros.
This is not financial, legal, tax, or investment advice.
Questions on this topic
How do I tell a hold from a rejection?
By where the money sits. A hold leaves the operation stalled while someone checks something, usually details of the sender or the beneficiary, and the amount stays identified and waiting. A rejection returns the money to the source, which tends to happen at the end of the route when the destination bank does not recognize the details.
Does the account type matter even when it comes through an intermediary?
Yes. The last leg still enters the Colombian system, and there the number, type, institution, and ID document are checked. Ticking savings when it is checking throws no error as you type, and the rejection arrives days later.
Can I withdraw to someone else's account?
No. The holder has to be the same across the whole chain. A destination in someone else's name usually ends up held or returned, and with an intermediary in the middle it has to be corrected in two places. At BNKA we apply the same rule.
Does my instant payment key work?
For collections inside Colombia, yes. For a withdrawal coming from abroad, no: that leg asks for the full account details, and the key does not replace them.
Keep reading
Four fields worth checking before you need them
A first payout from Colombia asks for more details than most people have at hand. Where each one lives, and which one is accepted wrong without…
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The worst time to set up payments is the day you get paid
Your first proposal gets accepted and your profile is half filled in. What to settle beforehand, because afterwards the corrections arrive too late.
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