How does Wells Fargo can detect my right account if I have multiple accounts when I am transferring money?

Question

I have 4 different bank accounts with 4 different banks. I wanted to transfer money from my account in Wells Fargo to my account in some other bank ONLINE. But I don't see any option to add my other bank's account number and routing number in wells fargo website. I can add the recipient by first name, last name and email or phone number. My question is, how does wells fargo know what is my right bank account among the 3 other bank accounts, by just using my phone number or email? I feel it too confusing.

Answer 1

With SurePay, the recipient has to register in order to receive funds. They will select where the money is deposited. If you are both the sender and the receiver, I don't know if the system will get confused or not - If it will work at all though, you'll ultimately need to enter the information for the receiving account.

The point of sure pay is to avoid the receiving party needing to give the sender their account information. The banking system still gets the account information explicitly from both sides.

EDIT: This post also provides relevant and more detailed information: How does Wells Fargo use my phone number to find my Bank of America account?

Answer 2

SurePay is not designed to send money from one person to himself. It is designed to transfer money from one person to someone else.

What SurePay does, is allow you to link an account to a name/email/phone number. Then, when someone else, who's also linked an account to a name/email/phone number, selects your name/email/phone number to send money to, the money is transferred.

(your account#/ABA #) -> (your email) <-> (their email) <- (their account#/aba #)

This doesn't buy you anything when transferring money to another of your own accounts. I won't say it's impossible to use SurePay to do so, but it's definitely not designed to do so, and may not be permitted.

If you could use it for that purpose, you would have to separately register your two accounts, using a separate email for each, and then use the first email to send to the second email; each will have been tied to a different account, so you'll know which is which.

My suggestion would be to follow Wells Fargo's instructions here:

Can I transfer funds to or from my accounts at another institution?

You can transfer money between your Wells Fargo checking and savings accounts and accounts you may have at other U.S. financial institutions. Wells Fargo gives you greater flexibility, convenience, and control to transfer funds where and when you need it. Sign on to Wells Fargo Online and click the Transfers tab to learn more about transferring funds to your account at another financial institution.

As that should give you the official answer, at least.