Iban Money Transfer With Credit Cards

An IBAN number is a unique code used to identify a specific bank account for the purpose of cross-border payments.

Knowing your beneficiary's IBAN is what you need to make sure your transnational payment arrives safely at its destination.

If you have any doubt and instruct an international payment with the wrong IBAN, this payment will be rejected by the beneficiary bank.

Your bank will also charge you a fee to retrieve it.

Pinpointing the correct IBAN can save you both time and money in the long run.

There's more to IBAN numbers than just this alone, so here's how it works.

What is an IBAN?

An International Bank Account Number, better known as an IBAN Number, is an international numbering system used to recognize bank accounts in relation to cross-border payments.

Before it was created different standards for bank account identification across countries were confusing and the source of many errors for transactions.

For countries that have applied IBAN, transaction errors have been reduced to under 0.1% of the total number of transfers.

To give a little background on where the International Bank Account Number originates, it was initially implemented by the European Committee for Banking Standards (ECB) to overcome these international payment difficulties.

Originally, the system was developed to facilitate the processing of cross-border money transfers within the EU.

As it gradually gets adopted by banks beyond the EU, it was made an international standard under ISO 13616:1997.

Currently, the scheme has been employed by most European countries and several other countries around the world, namely in the Middle East and the Caribbean.

A full list of these countries is provided at the end of this article.

Another 25 countries are currently conducting partial/experimental use of the IBAN system.

Many major countries do not use the IBAN system, including the USA, Canada, Australia, China, Japan.

However, all these countries recognize the system and process IBAN payments.

How do you recognize an IBAN number?

It is a series of up to 34 characters, including both letters and numbers.

The International Bank Account Number is not the same as the bank account number.

Actually, it includes the bank account number, plus some more characters that identify the country and bank you're sending money to.

The IBAN number contains:

Two-letter country identification code
Two check digits
Up to 30 characters for the Basic Bank Account Number (known as BBAN). The BBAN format is decided by each country to cater to its national standard for domestic payments.

Let's have a look at what an International Bank Account Number looks like at:

A French IBAN Number format

French IBAN Bank number Format

A UK IBAN Number format

UK bank code format

What's the difference between SWIFT/BIC codes & IBAN Numbers?

SWIFT/BIC and IBAN are all internationally acknowledged banking standards used for cross-border payments.

However, there are some key differences between those international transfer systems:

The SWIFT system was created before any initial attempts to homogenize international banking transfer through IBAN. Today, SWIFT is the largest international payment system worldwide.
The most significant difference lies in what they identify. Each IBAN pinpoints an individual account in a given bank in a given country. Each SWIFT/BIC code identifies a bank or a financial institution in an international transaction. Both information actually complements each other when a cross-border payment is made to a country participating in the International Bank Account Number system: proper routing of the transaction will be subject to providing correct SWIFT/BIC code and IBAN in the payment details.
Unlike BIC/SWIFT code, IBAN codes aren't assigned by a central organization. They are directly issued by the banks according to a format described in the IBAN Register.
SWIFT/BIC codes contain a mix of numbers and letters, and they are always 8 or 11 characters.
As a result, the SWIFT/BIC code is always required to process a transaction and the International Bank Account Number information is provided to locate the beneficiary bank account in countries participating to the International Bank Account Number system.

When it comes to international payments, SWIFT and BIC are used interchangeably.

For more information on BIC and SWIFT codes, read this article.

How to check the IBAN Number of your Beneficiary

If you have any doubt about the correctness of your beneficiary's IBAN, take a few seconds to check this information.

This will be a good use of your time as any payment instructions made using the wrong IBAN will cause the payment to be delayed and rejected.

You can also expect your bank to charge a fee for the inaccurate payment.

In case you only have part of your beneficiary's IBAN, you may want to find out the missing pieces by using an IBAN calculator.

We have tried this tool on multiple occasions, and it was reliable in providing the correct International Bank Account Number.

However, we cannot guarantee it is always reliable so use it at your own risk.

Obviously, the best way to check your beneficiary's International Bank Account Number is to go to the source and ask the beneficiary himself.

A good habit is to double-check the information.

Believe it or not, it is pretty common for beneficiaries to provide their payment details with an invalid IBAN.

To do so, you can use an IBAN checker that will help you flag any potential errors.

And by the way, if you are looking for your own International Bank Account Number, you can locate it by signing into your online banking and checking your account details.

Most of the banks also show it on your monthly bank statement.

List of IBAN Numbers by Country

When is an IBAN Number required?

IBAN is needed when you make a cross-border payment and the bank of your beneficiary is located in a country participating in the International Bank Account Number system.

When instructing the payment, it must be entered in the field reserved for the beneficiary's account number, without spaces.

In addition to the IBAN number, you will need at the very least the following information to instruct the payment to your beneficiary:

The account name
SWIFT/BIC code

Depending on your bank you may be requested additional information such as the beneficiary's bank name, the bank address, and the beneficiary's address.

For more details about international payment, check our guide providing all the important information.

Need to do business locally with a real IBAN number without a bank account? Check out our local currency account options.