What are instant scheduled payments?

An instant scheduled payment is an automatic payment that can be sent within seconds — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This feature makes sure your regular payments, like rent or bills, arrive exactly when they are due, even on weekends or holidays.

Setting up an instant scheduled payment is very similar to a regular scheduled payment. When you create a new one, you’ll have the option to choose instant as the transfer type. Before you finish, make sure the payment amount fits within your personal instant transfer limit. While the app will let you set up the schedule even if your limits are currently too low, the payment will fail it goes over your limit on the day that it is sent.

Detailed instructions on how to set up, edit, or delete a scheduled payment. (new tab)

If an instant scheduled payment fails, it’s almost always because your instant transfer limit was reached on the day of the payment. This usually happens for one of two reasons:

1. You lowered your daily or per-transaction limit to an amount less than the payment
2. You made other instant payments on the same day and went over your limit

If an instant scheduled payment fails, it won’t be retried automatically. You’ll need to adjust your limits and then make that specific payment manually. The recurring schedule will continue as normal on the next scheduled date.

If you prefer, you can switch an instant scheduled payment back to a regular (non-instant) one to avoid any issues with transfer limits. Here’s how:

1. Log in to the N26 app
2. From the Home tab, select ‘Scheduled’
3. Select the schedule payment you want to edit
4. Select ‘Edit’ next to ‘Transaction Details’
5. Select the dropdown labeled ‘Select transfer type’, change from instant to standard, and then select ‘Confirm’
6. Select ‘Continue’, then ‘Save changes’
7. Confirm with your PIN