What you need
A foreign-currency account at your bank, and the payment details the exchange gives you when you open an account. Those details include an account number and a reference number that is yours personally.
The reference is how the exchange knows the payment is yours. Leave it out or get it wrong and the money will not land in your account automatically — it is returned, or spends a long time being traced through support.
Why it is cheaper than a card
A transfer has no percentage on the amount. With a card the exchange charges a percentage, and your bank converts local currency into euros at its own rate, which is not the official one.
For small amounts that difference can be smaller than the bank’s fee for a foreign-currency transfer — in which case a card is not necessarily more expensive. For larger amounts a transfer is almost always cheaper.
Where people go wrong
The first mistake is sending from someone else’s account. Exchanges generally reject a payment that does not come from an account in the account holder’s name, because the law requires it.
The second is sending in the wrong currency. SEPA is a system for euros; a transfer in dollars travels a different route, more slowly and at greater cost.
The third is expecting the money to arrive the same day. Transfers are processed on business days, so a payment sent on Friday afternoon arrives on Monday or Tuesday.
Before you send
Ask your bank whether it allows a foreign-currency transfer to a crypto exchange and how much it charges. Some banks in the region refuse such payments without warning, and you find out only when the money comes back.
We deliberately do not name specific banks — their rules change quietly, and a wrong claim here costs you a wasted trip to a branch.