Instant payment

Where’s my money? It’s already there!

With instant payments, you can send and receive money in real time – round the clock, including at the weekend and on public holidays. Sums of money are available within seconds so you have flexible access to your finances at all times.

Instant payments: send and receive in real time

    • 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year
    • Transfers in real time – money sent and received in just seconds
    • Amounts available immediately in your account
    • Notifications of instant payments available via push message

Send instant payments

PostFinance doesn’t currently have a service for triggering instant payments in e-finance or the PostFinance App. You have three alternatives – two of which are free of charge – to choose from:

  • Same day payment
  • Express payment
  • TWINT for transfers to private individuals

Find out more under “Here’s how it works”

Receive instant payments

With instant payments, you can receive transfers in a matter of seconds – round the clock, including at the weekend and on public holidays. The money is credited directly to your PostFinance account and available instantly. No additional settings or actions are necessary to receive instant payments.

Our quick alternatives to instant payments

Description
Features
Procedure
Costs
Same day payment
  • On banking days, payments can be triggered with the current date from midnight at 12:01 a.m. until midday at 11:59 a.m. Generally speaking, the transfer is credited the same day or the next banking day at the latest. The recipient receives the money quickly .
  • This option is available for many currencies and for any amount.
Select the current banking day as the execution date in e-finance or the PostFinance App during the payment process. Once sent, the payment can no longer be modified or reversed.
free of charge
Express payment
  • When it’s urgent, and you want to ensure your payment is given high priority and leaves our bank really quickly, an express payment is an appropriate choice. The recipient receives the money particularly quickly .
  • Express payments are bound by the following acceptance cut-off times: 1 p.m. for credit in foreign currency / 4 p.m. for credit in CHF in bank accounts / 6 p.m. for credit in PostFinance accounts
  • This option is available for many currencies and for any amount.
During the payment process, select the option “Instant execution / express” in e-finance or the PostFinance App. Once sent, the payment can no longer be modified or reversed.
CHF 5 per payment (will be collectively charged to your account at the end of the month)
TWINT
  • Send money to friends and acquaintances in real time with TWINT. To do this, all you need is the PostFinance TWINT App and the recipient’s mobile number.
  • Generally speaking, the limit for sending money depends on your available account balance, or is no greater than CHF 5,000 per calendar month. A maximum of CHF 4,000 can be sent per transaction.
Download the PostFinance TWINT App directly from the App Store or Google Play.
free of charge

Receiving instant payments

  1. Payment triggered: someone else sends money to your IBAN via instant payment.
  2. Real-time credit: the amount is credited to your PostFinance account in a matter of seconds – round the clock, including at the weekend or on public holidays.
  3. Receive notification: you see the payment right away in e-finance or the PostFinance App. On request, you can also activate push notifications, which proactively inform you about the receipt of instant payments.

  • Instant payments are transfers made in CHF as national payments, processed by banks and PostFinance 24/7, every day and within a few seconds – i.e. in real time. The debit to the paying party’s account is immediate and almost simultaneous with the receipt of the credit in the beneficiary party’s account. PostFinance is also able to credit instant payments to foreign currency accounts.

    Instant payments are an option for up to CHF 20,000 per transaction.

  • Conventional transfers generally take one business day and are restricted to fixed processing times. Instant payments are transferred from one account to another within seconds, 24/7.

  • Both the sender’s bank and the recipient’s bank must support instant payments. It has been mandatory since August 2024 for the biggest Swiss banks, such as PostFinance, to accept real-time payments. The other banks will follow by 2026. In Switzerland, there is no obligation for banks to send instant payments.

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