A bank transfer is a payment moved directly between bank accounts, either domestically (Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS, SEPA) or internationally (SWIFT, SEPA Instant). Bank transfers usually have lower fees than card payments but require accurate beneficiary details and a clear reference to be matched on receipt. They can be one-off or set up as standing orders or direct debits for recurring amounts.
Travel payments glossary
Bank transfer
A payment made directly between bank accounts rather than over a card scheme.
Why it matters in travel
Travel deposits, balances and supplier payments often move by bank transfer because the amounts justify the lower fees, but a transfer arriving without a clear reference is a reconciliation problem. Bookings can sit unpaid in the booking system while the money is sitting in the bank account waiting to be identified.
An unidentified bank transfer in a travel finance team’s account is real money that cannot yet be allocated to a booking. The customer has paid, the operator has received, but the booking system still shows unpaid. A few hours of finance time later, the match is made — or the customer has called to ask why the booking has not progressed.
The travel businesses that handle bank transfers well automate the match against the booking-level ledger, including in the cases where the reference is missing or wrong. The businesses that depend on customer reference discipline carry a steady stream of unmatched payments that finance has to handle individually.
How felloh helps
felloh matches incoming bank transfers to bookings automatically wherever possible — even when references are missing or incorrect — so finance teams stop chasing references and operations stop holding bookings unnecessarily.
Where this shows up in finance operations.
Bank transfer touches more than one workflow at felloh. Start with the pages most travel teams reach for next.
- Financial Operations
Reconciliation, settlement, refunds and protected-funds workflows on one booking-aware ledger.
Explore - Automate Reconciliation
Bulk settlements unpacked to fees, refunds and chargebacks; bank transfers matched without references to chase.
Explore - Know Your Cash Position
See received, protected, committed and available cash by booking — without rebuilding the picture from exports.
Explore
More on travel finance operations.
Real-world context from the felloh team and customers, written for travel finance and operations.
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InsightsReconciliation: What it is and why your Travel Business needs it
Why travel operators see a gap between sales records and the bank balance — and the basics of reconciling payments back to bookings.
Read article -
UpdatesCard Payment and Bank Transaction Reconciliation Made Easy for Travel pros
With felloh we make reconciliation of card payments and bank transactions simple.
Read article
Connect the dots.
See how payments, settlement, refunds and reporting evidence connect around every booking.