PayID vs BSB and SWIFT: What to Give Someone Sending You Money From Overseas

What PayID actually is

PayID is a feature of Australia's New Payments Platform (NPP) — domestic infrastructure that lets Australian bank accounts send and receive near-instant payments using a mobile number, email address or ABN instead of a BSB and account number. The Reserve Bank of Australia's own page on the NPP describes it as infrastructure "to enable households, businesses and government agencies to make simply addressed payments" between accounts (fetched from rba.gov.au, as at September 2026) — the description is specifically about payments moving between Australian bank accounts.

Australia's peak payments body, Australian Payments Plus, is more explicit about where the domestic/international line sits. Its own site describes a separate "International Payments Service (IPS)" that "delivers faster payments, more detailed payment information and better financial crime control on the domestic leg of inbound international payments" (fetched from nppa.com.au, as at September 2026) — in other words, once money from overseas has already arrived through the international banking system, the NPP infrastructure (which is what PayID sits on) can speed up the last, domestic step of getting it into your account. It isn't the entry point for the international leg itself.

Why an overseas sender can't just use your PayID

A PayID has to be looked up against the Australian NPP directory to resolve to a bank account — that lookup only works from within the Australian banking system. An overseas bank's international wire transfer form is built around the SWIFT network instead, which identifies the receiving bank by its SWIFT/BIC code and the account by account number (and, for Australia, the BSB). There's no field on a standard international wire form for a PayID, because the two systems aren't connected to each other for that purpose.

This is different from a specialist money-transfer provider offering to pay a PayID into your account as one of its delivery options — some providers can do that, because the money has already reached them in Australia and they're then making a domestic NPP payment on the final leg, which is the exact distinction the AP+ description above is making. That's not the same as an overseas bank being able to route directly to a PayID.

What to give an overseas sender instead

For a bank-to-bank international wire, give the sender:

1. Your full name exactly as it appears on the account.
2. Your BSB (a six-digit code identifying your specific bank and branch).
3. Your account number.
4. Your bank's SWIFT/BIC code — this identifies the bank itself internationally and is different from your BSB. Commonwealth Bank's own international transfers page confirms this combination directly: "Receive money from overseas straight into your CBA AUD or Foreign Currency Account... by simply quoting our CommBank BIC/SWIFT code, 6 digit BSB, 8 digit account number and some personal details" (fetched from commbank.com.au, as at September 2026).

Australia doesn't use IBANs (International Bank Account Numbers), which some overseas banks' forms expect as standard. If a sender's bank form insists on an IBAN and won't accept a blank field, the usual workaround is entering the BSB and account number concatenated together where the IBAN field would go — but confirm this with the sender's own bank, since how it's entered varies by bank.

If you're sending through a specialist provider instead

If the sender is using a money-transfer specialist rather than wiring from their own bank, the provider usually only needs your BSB and account number, because the provider holds its own Australian account and completes the final domestic leg itself rather than routing the whole payment through SWIFT. Some providers additionally support delivering to a PayID as a convenience on that final domestic leg — but this is provider-specific, so check what your sender's chosen provider actually supports rather than assuming it works the same way for every provider.

Either way, the underlying account details (BSB and account number, or a supported PayID) are what the provider is asking for — it's a different question from what an overseas bank's own international wire form needs.

Double-check before the money is sent

Before the sender confirms the transfer, read the details back to them exactly as they've entered them — a transposed digit in a BSB or account number is one of the more time-consuming problems to fix once a transfer is already in progress, because a completed payment generally has to be traced and potentially returned through the same banking chain it travelled through. Confirming the details in writing before the transfer is sent costs nothing and avoids that entirely.

Can someone overseas send money to my PayID directly?

Not through a standard international bank wire — PayID resolves against Australia's domestic New Payments Platform directory, which an overseas bank's wire form can't reach. Give the sender your BSB, account number and your bank's SWIFT/BIC code instead.

What's the difference between a BSB and a SWIFT code?

A BSB (Bank-State-Branch) identifies a specific bank and branch within Australia and is only used for domestic Australian transfers. A SWIFT/BIC code identifies a bank internationally and is what an overseas sender's bank needs to route a payment to Australia.

Does Australia use IBANs?

No. If an overseas sender's bank form requires an IBAN and won't accept the field blank, ask that bank how it wants an Australian BSB and account number entered instead — conventions vary by sending bank.

Can a money-transfer app pay directly into my PayID?

Some can, as an optional delivery method on the final domestic leg of the transfer, once the money has already reached the provider's own Australian account — but this varies by provider, so check with whichever service the sender is using rather than assuming it's universal.

Is it safe to give someone my BSB and account number?

Yes — a BSB and account number alone only allow money to be paid into your account, not withdrawn from it. This is the same information printed on your own bank statements and is standard to share for receiving a transfer.