How to pay a Polish utility bill from UK?

Hello, can you help. We have relatives in Poland who are struggling because of the lockdown. We want to help by paying some of the bills directly rather than sending money.

Is it possible to pay a Polish electricity bill or mortgage bill from the UK?

Yes if you have all the necessary info. Will take few days to clear though

Thanks, can you please give me a clue of what all the necessary information is (I have to ask is this is given to me) - currently have just been give very long number ma (about 24 digits). I would expect to need more? For a UK bank I would expect to need: bank sort code, bank account number, utility account number / reference, amount to pay, due date.

That would be the bank account number of the utility provider. You should put PL, the country code for Poland, in front of it when making the transfer. That's the IBAN, the international bank account number. Depending on your bank's software you may need the swift/bic code as well. You can look it up here:

transferwise.com/gb/swift-codes/

You also need the name of the utility provider eg Innogy or PGNIG or whatever company they are.

Ideally you should get the number of the 'Faktura' (the bill) and use that as your reference when making the transfer but if you don't have that you should use the customer's utility account number. It's really better to have the Faktura number though.

No one else has said it so I will..... (since you don't speak Polish and might not be up to the minute on Polish norms and expectations)

It's a good idea to make it as clear as possible (as many times as possible) that this is a temporary one time kind of situation. It's far too easy to fall into a situation where a Polish family decides that "rich" relatives in some other country will simply pay all their bills in perpetuity... and stopping such payments can generate a _lot_ of ill will on all sides.

Just sayin'....

Understood, thank you.