“Prevents you from fully benefiting from the service

Last January the European regulations on immediate transfers. These operations, which are carried out in a matter of seconds at any day and time of the year, must have the same cost as ordinary transfers in the bank with which they are carried out, so in practice they are mostly free. According to Regulation (EU) 2024/886, all entities were required to offer immediate transfers before October 9, 2025.

In principle, all banks have adapted without problems to the regulations, since as almost none charge commissions for ordinary transfers when they are done on-linenor do they do so when it comes to immediate transfers.

However, the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has denounced after carrying out a study that “many entities are applying unjustifiably low limits, which prevents users from fully benefiting from this service.” Although European regulations establish a legal limit of up to 100,000 euros per operationsome banks only allow you to transfer 700 or 1,000 euros.

“They are especially The conditions established by Caja de Ingenieros are strikingwhich limits the amount of immediate transfers to a maximum of 700 euros per operation”, assured the OCU, which specified that it is “a common practice”.

“Those very low limits that many entities impose in the end They force consumers to split the amountsor resort to ordinary transfers, which can take up to two days to execute – for example if they are ordered after the cut-off time established by the bank -“, he explained.

For this reason, this organization requested last June to Bank of Spain to clarify the limits that banking entities must apply to guarantee that immediate transfers are as accessible as traditional ones.

“Measures must be taken”

The response of the banking regulator has been positive for the interests of consumers: they are going to analyze the data from the study and carry out a monitoring to ensure compliance with the European Regulation.

“This is a positive stepby recognizing the problem and expressing the intention to promote immediate transfers, but concrete measures must be taken against these unjustified and arbitrary limits that harm consumers,” the OCU has insisted.

To achieve this, concludes the group that represents consumers, “technical criteria must be established on the maximum limits that entities can set for immediate transfers, so that they are not disproportionate or discourage their use.” In addition, the limits imposed by banking entities “They must be transparent, modifiable by the user, and are justified by real security reasons, and not by commercial restrictions.

“If the client can order an ordinary transfer for an amount, also You should be able to make an immediate transfer for the same amount“, says the OCU.

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