Bank transfers are blocked on all banks for several days

If customers want to send money within a few days, they have to think ahead.

This is a time best marked in your calendar. Within days, most bank transfers will be blocked for a period of four days. If you are waiting for payment or if you need to send money, it is better to anticipate and do it in advance or be warned that the amount will arrive with some delay. No one, or almost no one, can escape this obstacle.

This is not a new thing, far from it, but the general public is often unaware of it: it is not always possible to reach its recipient within the usual 24 hours. Every year, the system that manages money transfers shuts down for a few days, always on the same date. And all countries with the euro are worried because it is a common system for 20 states of a common currency.

If this only happens on one day at a time – New Year’s Day, Labor Day and Christmas -, the Easter period is the main one affected, where the inability to transfer is the longest. This year from Friday 29 March to Monday 1^er

Up to and including April 2024, no transfers can be made between the two banks. The money will come into the account from Tuesday, April 2. More precisely, it is all transfers made after 4:30pm on Thursday March 28 that will not arrive until next week, the Banque de France details.

This concerns you if you transfer to an institution other than your own, for example from your BNP account to a CIC, Banque Populaire, Société Générale or other account. On the other hand, any transfer between two accounts of the same bank can be received within normal time limits. Thus, it will be perfectly possible to top up your current account thanks to a payment from your Livret A, just like paying someone from the same banking network.

If you are really pressed for time, you can always use instant transfer. It will also operate on Sundays throughout the period. Paid in some institutions, free in others, they allow you to bypass the traditional system and the money arrives within the day as long as the account is located in a Eurozone country. According to the latest data from INSEE (which is from 2018), at least 9 million transfers are made every day in France.