Bank customers must familiarise themselves with two new numbers if they want to benefit from lower transaction charges for cross-border credit transfers in euro within the EU, the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) has said.

From last Tuesday, July 1st, retail cross-border credit transfers in euro must be charged at the same rate as equivalent domestic transactions in accordance with EU Cross-Border Payments Regulations.

The regulations apply to cross-border payments up to €12,500. From January 2006 this limit will be increased to €50,000.

The new regulations - and hence lower transaction charges - do not apply to cheques, as the use of cheques and bank drafts is being discouraged by the EU in favour of credit transfers, which are much simpler, according to IPSO.

Mr Stewart MacKinnon, chief executive of IPSO, said customers will have to become familiar with their International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and Bank Identifier Code (BIC) to avoid additional charges.

All accountholders should be informed of their own IBAN and BIC on future account statements.

If accountholders have these numbers and the transferred amount is below €12,500, it should be "almost as easy to send funds to Munich as to Mullingar - and the costs should be the same", said Mr MacKinnon.

For personal transactions, if you want to make a cross-border credit transfer you will have to obtain the IBAN and BIC from the payee - the person to whom you want to send the money.

Conversely, someone in another EU country who wants to send you a euro cross-border credit transfer may ask you for your IBAN and BIC.

An IBAN is essentially a longer version of customers' branch sort code and standard bank account number rolled into one, with a country code, part of the Bank Identifier Code (BIC) and other digits preceding it. Irish IBANs are 22-digits long.

Mr MacKinnon compared the system to making an international phone call. "You need to know the international phone number of the recipient - including country code, area code and actual number. The same situation arises when you initiate a credit transfer," he said.

"If you dial a wrong number, it may cost a little, but the consequences of sending funds to a wrong account are more serious - so the numbering systems are much longer and more complex."