Instant credit transfer

Sometimes it may be necessary to transfer money immediately. When this happens, you can use an instant credit transfer.

What is an instant credit transfer?

An instant credit transfer is a payment that allows money to be credited to the beneficiary's account in less than ten seconds. It can be executed at any time, every day of the year, 24 hours a day.

It is particularly useful for urgent payments and those that require payment at the time of delivery of goods or services, such as on-demand online services (e.g. watching a film), transactions between individuals (e.g. transferring ownership when buying a used car), or purchases in shops. This is especially true when the transaction amount exceeds the limits allowed by payment cards, whereas transfer by credit transfer is permitted.

Costs

According to European regulations, the fees you pay for an instant credit transfer cannot exceed those charged for a traditional bank transfer.

Risks

Unlike ordinary transfers, instant credit transfers are by their nature immediate and irrevocable the moment they are executed.

Therefore, it is essential to verify the identity of the person to whom you send the money, particularly with instant credit transfers. It is your responsibility to ensure you want to send money to a particular recipient and to enter the correct account details, namely the IBAN. If you enter a non-existent IBAN, no harm is done: the bank will not send the money to anyone. However, if you enter an incorrect but existing IBAN, or if you enter the correct IBAN but fall victim to fraud, the bank will execute the payment to the 'wrong' person.

In all these cases, precisely because the execution of an instant transfer is immediate, it is very difficult - if not impossible - for the customer to recover the amount, which immediately becomes available to the recipient.

From October 2025, banks and Poste Italiane will be required to offer their customers a verification service to check the correspondence between the beneficiary's name and IBAN. From 2027, this obligation will extend to other payment service providers, such as Payment Institutions (PIs) and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs). This measure can protect us from errors but not always from frauds, which still require our utmost vigilance.

Safeguards

Instant credit transfers are subject to the same safeguards as ordinary transfers, including Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).

Another protective feature is the existence of limits on the amounts that can be transferred via instant credit transfer. You can always set personalised limits - both daily and per transaction - which can be modified at any time. This means that even if someone gains access to your account and initiates a transfer, the amount taken will be limited.

If you notice payment orders you have not authorised, you may always dispute them and request a refund from your intermediary: this is your right, protected by law, provided you have acted diligently (for example, by not falling for common and simple scams).

If a provider fails to carry out the name-IBAN verification procedure as legally required (from 9 October 2025 for banks and Poste Italiane), it will be held responsible for executing a transfer to the wrong beneficiary and must immediately refund you, restoring your account as if the transaction had never taken place.

Finally, should you consider that the conduct of your intermediary has been irregular or unfair, you may submit a written dispute to them, to which they must respond within 15 days. If the response is late or unsatisfactory, you may escalate the matter by submitting a complaint to Banca d'Italia and file a complaint with the Banking and Financial Ombudsman (ABF). The latter complaint involves a modest fee of 20 euros, refundable if the outcome is favourable, and does not require legal representation. It can be particularly useful for disputes involving modest sums, where the costs and duration of ordinary legal proceedings would be disproportionate. The resolution times are very swift. After an ABF ruling, it remains possible to appeal to an ordinary court.