Sending money with WorldFirst

You can make free and instant payments to other WorldFirst customers.

In your World Account,

• Click “Payments” in the top navigation and select “Send & withdraw”
• Select “Single payee” and “World Account”. Enter the payee’s World Account receiving ID, including the prefix “WF”
• Enter the optional payment reference and click “Next” button
• Choose your preferred payment currency, enter the payment amount, and click “Next”
• To safeguard your account, payments can only be confirmed via two-factor authentication (2FA). Please review all your payment details and select “Submit”
• A confirmation screen will show that the payment has been made, and you can view payment details under your “Statements” tab in the main navigation

Funds received into receiving accounts are pooled into your balance of such currency. You can make conversions across your different balances by selecting the currency and amount that you want to “sell” and the currency that you want to “buy”.

We currently support 92 payout currencies: AED, AUD, BGN, BHD, BWP, CAD, CHF, CNH, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, IDR, ILS, INR, JPY, KES, KRW, LKR, MAD, MUR, MXN, MYR, NOK, NZD, PHP, PKR, PLN, QAR, RON, SAR, SEK, SGD, THB, TRY, USD, VND, ZAR, ALL, BND, AOA, ARS, BAM, NPR, BMD, BOB, TWD, BSD, CRC, DJF, DOP, FJD, GEL, GNF, GTQ, HTG, KHR, LAK, LBP, MNT, MVR, NIO, PGK, PYG, SBD, SCR, SRD, TOP, TZS, UGX, XAF, UYU, XPF, RSD, AMD, BIF, CDF, CVE, GYD, KGS, LRD, LSL, LYD, GHS, NGN, IQD, JOD, OMR, KZT, ZMW

The speed at which your payments are made depends on several factors, such as the currency of your outgoing payments, the payee’s bank and country, and the size of the transaction.

The following currency and country combinations are usually processed within one business day:

• EUR to Europe
• GBP to the UK
• USD to USA
• SGD to Singapore
• HKD/USD to Hong Kong
• AUD to Australia
• NZD to New Zealand

For currency/country combinations other than the above list, please allow 1-2 additional business days. However, in some cases it may happen that the beneficiary’s bank needs an extra business day to credit the amount to the beneficiary’s account. For specific currency timelines, please contact us.

When you enter a payee on the portal, you will be asked to enter relevant information, depending on the currency of the payment and the country of the beneficiary. Here are some examples:

• Europe – IBAN and SWIFT
• Australia – account number and SWIFT or BSB code
• New Zealand – account number, and 6-digit bank code and SWIFT
• US – account number, and ABA routing number or SWIFT
• UK – account number and sort code or SWIFT and IBAN
• India – account number, SWIFT and IFSC number, reason for transfer
• China – account number, SWIFT
• Mexico – account number, 18 digit Clable and SWIFT
• Singapore – account number and SWIFT
• Japan – account number and SWIFT
• UAE – IBAN and SWIFT

Because we are making the payment on your behalf, the transfer will appear in the payee’s account with either your name/company, WorldFirst, or one of WorldFirst’s payment partners.

If you have scheduled a payment in the future, you may cancel it at any point before your scheduled payment date.

You’ll need to cancel your payment at least one day before the date it was scheduled to be sent.
To do this, follow these simple steps:

In your World Account,

• Click “Payments” in the top navigation
• On Payments page, select “Transaction management”
• Select “Pending payments”
• Select on the payment with status “Pending”
• Click “Cancel” under “Actions”

If the account number, name, address, or payment reference you entered are incorrect and the payment has not yet been processed by us, you can still cancel your payment.

If the payment has already been processed by us, we may be able to request a change from the beneficiary’s bank, although in some cases we may have to wait for the funds to be returned before we can process the payment again.

This depends on the currency, bank, destination and payment method. For more information, please contact our customer service.

If the payment has been sent to the wrong bank (because your beneficiary has entered the wrong SWIFT, BIC or national bank code), the only option is to wait for the money to be refunded or to request the payment to the wrong destination.

When you make payments, you can select up to 25 payees at once if the payees were already added and verified. If you have more than 25 payees, you can upload an excel file indicating the payees’ friendly names and payment amounts. You can make up to 200 payments in the same currency at once.

If those payees were not already in the system, you can also add them in batches by uploading an Excel sheet. For detailed steps, please refer to our ‘Making Multiple Payments‘ guide.

We’ll make the payment to your payee on the date you have selected at the point of booking your payment. Your payee might not be able to access funds straight away as their bank might take some time to clear these for them.

Yes. To make a same-day outgoing payment in EUR, USD or GBP, you will need to have your cleared funds with us by the times given below (in local UK time)

• EUR payments: 13:00
• GBP payments: 14:00
• USD payments: 14:00

If we receive your funds after these times, we will still try our best to make your payment for you on the same day, although will not be able to guarantee this. If you miss these cut off times, please account for the payment to be made on the next business day.

Automatic transfers are rules that you can set on your World Account portal to schedule payments.

For example, you can set up an automatic transfer to pay a specific payee every month, or you could set up a rule to withdraw funds from your World Account to your external bank account when your World Account balance gets to a certain amount.

In your World Account,

• Click “Payments” on the top navigation
• Click “Automatic transfers” on the Payments page

Please refer to our ‘Make Automatic Payments‘ guide for detailed steps to make automatic transfer.

When you view your payments on the portal, you can also see their status.

When you view your payments on the portal, you can also see their status.

In your World Account,

• Click “Payments” on the top navigation
• Click “Transaction management” on the Payments page
• Click “Pending payments” to see all payments due to be sent from your World Account

Yes. There are many ways to schedule a future payment.

If you want to schedule a single payment for a future date, make a payment and select a future date. The date you set will be when the payment must be made.

If you’d like to schedule multiple recurring payments, head to the “Automatic payments” section. Here you can set payments on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, and you can also choose a fixed amount that you want to pay each time.

You can also schedule a payment of your whole balance in a currency when a minimum amount has been reached. If the minimum amount hasn’t been reached on the payment date, the payment won’t be issued and will be checked again on the next payment date.

This is not a common situation. If your funds don’t arrive within the expected time, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can set up an investigation with our bank. We’ll keep you updated throughout.

We can also initiate a non-receipt investigation (trace) if funds haven’t reached the payee in the expected time.

To help in the first instance, here are some of the most common reasons for fund delays:

• Further information request: our banks and/or their banking partners may request more information on a payment. Once they’re happy with the additional detail, the funds will be released
• Incorrect details: before launching a trace on your payment, it’s a good idea to check the payment details with your payee. If any details aren’t right, correcting them is often the best first step
• Value date: some currencies won’t arrive with the payee on the same day as we make the payment. Your account manager can give you more information about this

It’s also good to know that for most of our payments, you can request a copy of the outbound payment message sent to your beneficiary’s (payee) bank. This will contain all their details that you confirmed for the payment.

These details will give the beneficiary’s bank an opportunity to verify the payment against their own records.

For further help or support, please contact us.

WorldFirst can initiate a payment recall on a “best endeavour” basis, if you need funds returned. Get in touch with your account manager to see what’s possible.

Please note, your payee may need to authorise the return of the payment, so it’s essential to let them know their role for this happen.

If you’ve provided the wrong account number, name, address or payment reference and you let us know before the payment is processed on our side, we may be able to change the details for you.

In cases where we’ve already processed the payment, we may be able to issue an amendment request to the payee bank. In some instances, though, we may have to wait for the funds to be returned in order to reprocess the payment.

The course of action will be determined by the currency, bank or destination, so we recommend speaking with your account manager to find out more.

If a payment has been made to the wrong bank (i.e. your beneficiary provided the wrong SWIFT BIC or sort code), our only options are to wait for a return of the funds or to recall the payment from the wrong destination.