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Credit transfers can be ordered at the branch of payment service providers by completing and signing the respective form.

Most payment service providers allow credit transfers to be ordered over the phone and through their websites.

Credit transfers are distinguished from ‘Multibanco transfers’ carried out in an ATM on the Multibanco network with a payment card. Transfers made through the Multibanco network are considered card-based transactions.

Data needed to make a transfer

To make a SEPA credit transfer, payer customers must provide their payment service provider with the following data:

Their data (name or denomination and/or IBAN of their payment account);
The amount of the credit transfer;
The IBAN of the beneficiary’s payment account;
The name of the beneficiary, if available;
The submission information, if applicable (for example, a description of the operation).

The beneficiary must provide the payer with their name or denomination and the IBAN of their payment account. The IBAN makes it possible to identify and validate a payment account in the SEPA area and can contain up to 34 characters.

In the Portuguese case, the IBAN has 25 characters and starts with PT50, followed by the 21 digits that correspond to the bank identification number (NIB): the first 4 relate to the payment service provider code where the account is domiciled, followed by 4 digits for additional information on the provider, 11 digits corresponding to the account number and 2 control digits.

Time limits for the reception of the transfer order

The legally established time limits are recorded in business days, i.e. days on which payment service providers are open to carry out payment transactions, and count from the moment the order is received by the payment service provider.

If the transfer order is made on a non-business day, or after the time set by the payment service provider to consider the order as received on a business day, the order is deemed to be received on the following business day.

To this effect, the following are considered to be non-business days: Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays and bank holidays provided for in the sector's Collective Bargaining Agreement. The bank holidays that do not coincide with national holidays are Carnival Tuesday and 24 December.

A transfer order that has been refused by the payment service provider because it does not meet all the conditions previously agreed with the payer shall be deemed not to have been received.

Time limits for carrying out the transaction

For transfers between accounts of the same payment service provider (intra-bank transfers), the beneficiary’s account must be credited on the day of receipt of the order and the funds made available immediately.

For SEPA transfers between payment accounts based in different payment service providers (interbank transfers), the funds must be credited to the beneficiary’s payment service provider account by the end of the business day following the receipt of the order. In these cases, the beneficiary’s payment account must be credited immediately and the funds made available on the same day. This time limit is applicable to:

Domestic interbank transfers (where both payment service providers are established in national territory);
Cross-border intra-Community transfers (between payment service providers located in the Member States of the European Union).

In the case of interbank transfers ordered in paper form, the time limit can be extended by one more business day.

In the case of SEPA transfers between payment accounts based in different payment service providers (interbank transfers), there are two exceptions to the credit rule and the availability of funds in the beneficiary’s account on the first business day following the receipt of the order: Easter Monday and 26 December.

On these days, the credit and funds can only be made available on the following business day, once TARGET2 is closed. TARGET2 is the Eurosystem settlement system in which payment transactions between payment service providers are processed.

Other TARGET2 holidays, like other TARGET2 closing days (Saturdays and Sundays), have no impact on the credit and availability of funds in user payment accounts, since they coincide with national public holidays or bank holidays.

In non-SEPA intra-Community transfers made in the currencies of non-euro area Member States, the same time limits for interbank transfers in euro shall apply, unless otherwise agreed. In any case, the beneficiary’s account must be credited within a maximum of four working days.

For the remaining transfers, no rules regarding the execution deadlines are defined. The information on the time limits practiced by each payment service provider can be consulted in the respective price list, which must be made available for consultation by customers in all branches and places of public service.

Price of transfers

The payer and the beneficiary may only be charged the costs invoiced by the respective payment service provider.

As a rule, the price of credit transfers is freely defined by the providers.

The providers are obliged to appropriately advertise the price of credit transfers so as to ensure that the interested parties are given prior knowledge to be able to evaluate the conditions offered in the market.

The price charged for interbank transfers is usually lower when the payer provides the beneficiary’s IBAN since the transactions can be processed through automated data transmission systems without additional intervention.

As long as the customer communicates the IBAN of the beneficiary’s payment account, charges for cross-border bank transfers made in euros, Swedish kronor or Romanian lei, and within the European Economic Area, may not be higher than those charged by the payment service provider for equivalent domestic bank transfers (in the same amount and in the same currency, made through the same channel, with the same characteristics and the same type).

Therefore, where charges for equivalent domestic transactions are not provided, the collection of charges associated with the execution of cross-border credit transfers is not permitted.

Payments Transfers

CONSULT HERE ALL SERVICES

Como ordenar

Data needed to make a transfer

Time limits for the reception of the transfer order

Time limits for carrying out the transaction

Price of transfers