We tested immediate payments in practice. Does it really only take a few seconds?

Until recently, immediate payments were a matter of course between the same banks. Now 4 banks have arrived – SLSP, VUB, Tatra banka and Raiffeisen, with agreement. Money transfers will be immediate between these banks. This novelty came into force today and we decided to test the sending of money between Tatra banka and VÚB banka.

We tested immediate payments between Tatra banka and VUB

We used an account at Tatra banka and VUB to test fast payments, which were launched only today. These are current student accounts. We noticed that after sending the money from Tatra banka to the VUB account, the payment passed immediately and the other party had the money in their account practically within a few seconds. However, a worse situation occurred after the test of money transfer from VUB to Tatra banka.

We have sent the payment and will probably arrive in your second account within the next business day. However, it should be borne in mind that the novelty is only in operation on the first day and these imperfections are likely to be rectified soon. We have noticed that the due date has been added to the Tatra banka application marked “As soon as possible”. However, it also appeared after entering the account of the beneficiary, which does not belong to the mentioned banks, which concluded an agreement with each other. For example, Slovenská sporiteľňa’s users have already made almost 17,000 payments in the morning.

The news is available to everyone

We will mention that immediate payments are available to all clients, whether individuals or companies and even without increased costs. Tatra banka’s website further claims that entering such a payment is as easy as in the case of SEPA payments. Just provide the same information as for regular payments:

• Beneficiary’s account in IBAN format
• the amount of the payment,
• Beneficiary’s account name for immediate payments abroad.

For more information on the start of immediate payments, read our article, which deals with this topic in detail. We also received comments from specific banks and asked others if they were going to introduce something similar in the near future as well.