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Comment by radiator | Hacker News Reader

SEPA payments are not free between different banks in all countries. There can be charges of 4€ within the same country, even for small amounts.

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Instant SEPA is free for me with my Austrian Erste Bank account but €1.50 with my easyBank account.

Interestingly, Erste have it off by default in the mobile app so I always have to turn it on for each transfer.

Non-free transfers between those banks can take about 1 hour but if too late in the day then 1 business day.

At least in Germany they usually are free for personal accounts (if not your contract is likely shit, choose a better bank).

SEPA instant might cost extra or not be available but both of that will change soon due to new EU regulations.

In Germany, competition seems to work in this case, so it is free. I believe SEPA dictates that an intercommunity transfer may not be more expensive than a transfer within the same country. So if a bank in country X charges you 4€ to receive money from another bank in the same country X, it may also charge you 4€ for receiving money from Germany.

I've been paying like 0.9eur fixed fee. However often they are free. I don't know what exactly the logic is with the fees. Anyway I wouldn't see it as a suitable method for small retail payments.

Perhaps you need to update your contract or something, SEPA for eur-to-eur wires are free in most of banks.

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