Instant Payment Notifications by e-mail
The time has come! All banks have to support SEPA Instant Payments. On top of that, most banks nowadays also offer ‘Instant Payment Notifications’ (push messages for incoming payments) on your phone. That is a fine thing when you use Usecue POS, because it puts a payment confirmation on your screen within seconds. But what if you want several people to be able to use Usecue POS at the same time? Then you want those notifications on more than one phone.
Fortunately that is possible! Some banks offer to send these notifications by e-mail. You do of course have to switch on e-mail notifications first (if you have not already). You can then have that e-mail arrive with several people at once via IMAP. This method gives you Instant Payment Notifications on one or more phones of your choice, without having to install the banking app on those phones as well (your employees’ phones, for instance). Handy, right?
Are you with a bank that cannot send messages by e-mail, but only through ‘app notifications’? Then you can install an app such as Notification Forward. I have tested this Android app and it works fine.
Using such a forwarding app is of course a security risk. Can the maker of the app be trusted? Because by default the maker of an app like that can see all your notifications (and therefore read your text messages too). You can limit the permissions, for example by not giving the app access to text messages and by switching off notifications for SMS. That is safer, because 2FA codes are often sent by text message. Do you still find it all a bit scary, while you do want to receive Instant Payment Notifications on several phones? Then switch to a bank that can send these messages by e-mail, such as ASN.
Finally, you should know that not all parties and banks offer Instant Payment Notifications. Usecue POS originates from the Netherlands, so the overview below covers the Dutch market. Parties that offer payment links and also send payment notifications include:
| Provider | Notification | Amount | Max | Number | Validity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rabobank | app | €5000 | €750 | ∞ | 2 months |
| ING | app | €5000 | ∞ | ∞ | 1 month |
| Knab | app + e-mail | €500? | €500 | 50x | 1 week |
| ASN | app + e-mail | €3000 | €950 | 30x | ∞? |
| ABNAMRO | app | €2500 | €950 | 30x | 2 weeks |
| Tikkie | app | €2500 | €950 | 30x | 2 weeks |
‘Amount’ is the maximum sum of payments per link. ‘Max’ is the maximum amount per payment. ‘Number’ is the maximum number of payments per link. Question marks are uncertain values. The sign ‘∞’ means unlimited.
