The three cases you are probably in
A joint account you are both named on. If the account has both names on it, and one of them matches the name on your Wise account, you can pay from it. Wise confirms this in 
its help centre. Wise may ask for a bank statement showing both names, and the transfer stays paused until Wise approves it. At Starling, 
either holder of a joint account can make payments from it.
A partner's or a parent's account you are not named on. This is the case that gets paused. Even if the person paying is your husband or your mother, and you have their full permission, the name on the payment is not yours. Wise will pause the transfer and refund the money to the account it came from. Revolut only lets you add money from a linked account if 
the name on that account is exactly the same as the name on your Revolut.
Wise's UK customer agreement says the account or card you pay with must be in your name. If you live outside the UK, check the agreement for your country. Wise says it has to follow strict rules as a regulated company. The money is not going where you meant it to, but it does go back to the account it came from.
A business account. Wise cannot accept a payment from a business bank account if you only have a personal Wise account. You need a Wise Business account, and the name on the bank account must match the business name registered with Wise. Without one, Wise cannot process the payment, and you cancel the transfer to get the money back.
What actually happens if you try anyway
Wise pauses the transfer and asks you to cancel it. When you do, the money goes back to the account it came from. That takes a few working days if it was a bank transfer and up to about two weeks if it was a card. The recipient does not see the money at all in this time.
The route through your own account
Ask the person to transfer the money to your own account first. Wait for it to arrive. Then send from your own account, in your own name. This meets Wise's rule that the name on the bank account must match the name on your Wise account.
There is a limit. Wise's UK customer agreement says you use Wise for yourself, not on behalf of another person. This is our reading, not Wise's words: if the money has become yours to send, you are sending for yourself. If you are only passing it on for someone else, this route does not fit that rule, so ask Wise before you send.
The route does not stop every check. Wise can still ask you to prove where the money came from. It can accept a bank statement that shows the full amount, where the money came from, and your name, so ask the person to use a clear reference when they pay you. If Wise cannot get or verify information about you or your transfer, its UK customer agreement lets it close, suspend or limit your account.
If the reason you were using the other account in the first place was a card that keeps getting declined, that is a different problem. Try a bank transfer from your own account instead of a card payment, or write to the provider from inside the app before you send again.
If you have cancelled the transfer and want to know where the refund is, transfer help has the piece on cancelled transfers. More pages on family money and your own savings are under between systems.
Corrections
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said Wise's customer agreement without naming a country. The agreement it links is Wise's UK one, and other countries have their own, so the page now says this.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page told you that you had not done anything wrong if you paid from someone else's account. Wise's UK customer agreement says the account or card you pay with must be in your name, so that line is gone and the page now says this.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page gave the own-name rule without naming a provider and said there was one exception. The rule on this page is Wise's, and Wise gives two exceptions, a joint account and a business account with Wise Business.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page gave the route through your own account without its limit. Wise's UK customer agreement says you use Wise for yourself, not on behalf of another person, and the page now says this.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said the route through your own account clears the check every time, in one step instead of two weeks of ID paperwork, with two extra hops and no fuss, and that it works for everything except a joint account. We found no source for these, and it is one extra step, so they are gone, and the page now says Wise can still ask where the money came from.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said a third-party payment can trigger a source-of-funds review, that you should expect a request for payslips or the sender's ID, and that nobody warns you about it. Wise's pages do not link that check to a third-party payment, so the page now says only what Wise's help page and UK customer agreement say.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said Revolut blocks any outside account with a different name, that a joint account works at Revolut and at any bank, and that a regular bank does the same because only a named signatory can make a payment. Revolut's rule covers linked accounts, and we found no source for the rest, so the page now says only that.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said a joint-account statement is asked for once and that it is then done, that a joint account is the everyday case, that Starling treats a joint holder as an owner, and that every provider spots the mismatch as soon as the money arrives and sends a message. Wise's and Starling's own pages say less, so the page now follows them.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said a sole-trader account is treated as a third-party payment, that the business name must match you as the sender, and that UK rules were the reason for the pause. Wise's pages do not say these, so the page now uses Wise's wording.