Payroll-coded transfer: set up direct deposit without switching banks

Payroll-coded transfer: set up direct deposit without switching banks

A recurring transfer marked as "payroll" from online banking is enough for a second bank to consider the direct deposit requirement met. That is the conclusion drawn from the hands-on experience shared here: the order is placed from the originating bank, with the right description, and the receiving bank does not question who is paying. The key lies in the interbank code that travels with the transaction.

The procedure is simpler than the banks' opacity suggests. In the recurring transfers menu at CaixaBank, there is a dropdown called "ORDER TYPE" with an explicit option: "PAYROLL". With that box checked, the transaction goes out with the standardized reference and the destination bank processes it as an ordinary salary credit. There is nothing to fake and no one to deceive: the sending bank makes a category available to the customer that, in practice, works like a stamp.

What exactly reaches the destination bank

The detail matters because it dismantles the theory that the receiver detects the fraud. The second bank's statement shows fields such as "Reference: NOMINA", "Concept / Description: GENERAL NOMINAS SEPA" and an amount with a value date. Nothing else. The bank receiving the money does not check whether the sender is a company, a self-employed worker or the account holder themselves. What it sees is a transfer with a specific label.

The reasonable doubt —that the same tax ID appears at both ends— is resolved with the same logic: the receiving bank does not cross-check that information to validate the payroll. The system works on trust in the label, not on documentary verification. The author of this piece has tried it with Banca Cívica and Caja España without incident, and the template used by a branch office confirms it: it can be done with any bank or savings bank.

The catch: not all banks offer the option

This is where the problem starts. At ING, one of the most widely used online banks, that box does not appear in the transfer flow. Anyone who has their salary paid in there and wants to simulate a direct deposit at another institution hits an apparent dead end. The suggested alternative is to notify the bank, though there is no confirmation that this works.

The result is an uneven map: the possibility depends on the originating bank, not the destination one. And that turns a trivial task into a lottery depending on where your main account is held. The lingering question is whether that asymmetry responds to technical criteria or simply to the fact that no one has requested the antiestéticature where it is missing.

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The "payroll" label is not a payroll. It is a code that the system accepts as such. And while some banks offer it in a dropdown and others never mention it, setting up a direct deposit still depends on which bank holds your account, not on what you earn.