SEPA Instant
Ranked 12 of 12 payment systems by recommenders
Free, instant euro bank transfers that work well from a banking app. Caveat: few people pay with it in stores or online, and not all EU banks support it.
Free, instant euro bank transfers that work well from a banking app. Caveat: few people pay with it in stores or online, and not all EU banks support it.
9 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 89%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Free, instant bank transfers
“P2P payments, specifically SEPA Instant bank transfers, have already been instant and free for several years now”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment” “We need instant, free SEPA transfers around the clock.”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard” “now we have instant EU-wide SEPA transfers for free”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun” Smooth scan-and-confirm payment flow
“It shocks me how well it works sometimes. Literally press pay and move eyeballs to notifications and it's there already.”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard” “A payment flow of 'scan code, confirm in banking app' is hard to beat and we're 95% there.”
Comment from 27 Jan 2026 in “France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.” Practical for person-to-person payments
“P2P payments, specifically SEPA Instant bank transfers, have already been instant and free for several years now”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment” “why not just use SEPA instant transfers?”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment” “SEPA Instant Payments also solves that.”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Goodbye Visa and Mastercard: 130M Europeans switching to sovereign payment”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Rarely used in stores or online
“It's great for many things, but effectively nobody pays using it in stores or even online.”
Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks” “It’s great for many things, but effectively nobody pays using it in stores or even online.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks” Not all EU banks support it
“I use it regularly, sadly not all EU banks support it”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun”
Other payment systems people recommend
The four most recommended other payment systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pix | 65 | 14 | 82% | 11 | — | Approved |
| UPI (Unified Payments Interface) | 58 | 12 | 83% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GNU Taler | 37 | 26 | 59% | 12 | — | — |
| x402 | 35 | 8 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| SEPA InstantThis page | 8 | 1 | 89% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It’s great for many things, but effectively nobody pays using it in stores or even online.”
“It's great for many things, but effectively nobody pays using it in stores or even online.”
“SEPA Instant Payments also solves that.”
“why not just use SEPA instant transfers?”
“P2P payments, specifically SEPA Instant bank transfers, have already been instant and free for several years now”
“It shocks me how well it works sometimes. Literally press pay and move eyeballs to notifications and it's there already.”
“We need instant, free SEPA transfers around the clock.”
“It didn't work for the amount we needed (over 15k).”
“I use it regularly, sadly not all EU banks support it”
“now we have instant EU-wide SEPA transfers for free”
“A payment flow of 'scan code, confirm in banking app' is hard to beat and we're 95% there.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.