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Comment by moffkalast | Hacker News Reader

SEPA would be a decent solution with instant QR code generation and app payments, but the transfer fees are ludicrous for daily use (~1-2€ per wire). Or maybe it's just my bank being greedy fucks as usual.

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Yes. In some eastern EU countries instant SEPA payments with QR are already super popular because you don't pay fees and you don't need special terminal/gateway.

It is your bank, I don't pay for transfers.

Instant SEPA is free - see Instant Payments Regulation (IPR) — Regulation (EU) 2024/886.

Hmm does instant SEPA differ in some way from the regular kind? I just checked and my bank still lists 0.4-1.1€ per external transfer. It's the national bank so I presume they're not likely to be in breach of EU regulations.

Mine did too a year ago or so still (N26). Now they are free due to it being mandatory in EU.

Only mandatory in Eurozone countries, sadly. It won't be until 2027 (July at the latest?) where it will be mandatory for all EU countries.

I never paid for SEPA transfers. Some countries are weird. I am not sure if it is still the case, but Germans had to pay a transfer fee when they used an ATM from another bank. In The Netherlands, you can use ATMs from any Dutch bank without extra cost. In fact, you can also use ATMs of German banks without additional cost. So, a having a Dutch debit card in Germany was/is(?) cheaper than a German debit card in Germany.

Huh, I thought the EU had mandated for instant SEPA transfers to be free. Maybe it’s just national. What country are you in?

Of course there is no mandate to offer anything for free. They just need to be offered for the same price as other methods.

But most people have a bank account for a fixed price and some even for free. So individual transfers are considered free, even if the correct term would be "already paid".

Fair enough, been so long since we had paid transfers here, I forgot it used to be a thing.

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