POLi was a fixture of Australian online checkouts for more than a decade, which is why its disappearance still sends people searching for a substitute. It closed to Australian customers on 30 September 2023, and the practical successors are not a single product but a small set of tools: PayID and Osko for instant bank transfers, PayTo for approved account debits, Neosurf-style prepaid vouchers for card-free spending, and ordinary cards and wallets where a merchant accepts them. Each solves a slightly different problem, and none behaves exactly as POLi did.
What POLi did and why it is gone
POLi let a shopper pay a merchant straight from internet banking without a card and without opening an account with POLi itself. At checkout the customer chose POLi, picked their bank, and the service logged into that bank's online portal on their behalf to make a transfer for the purchase amount. In its later versions this was done by an automated session using the customer's own banking credentials, which is the feature that made it convenient and also the feature that drew the most criticism.
POLi Payments was owned by Australia Post through its SecurePay subsidiary, which acquired the business in December 2014. In July 2023 Australia Post announced that the Australian operation would close at the end of that September, and partner services such as money-transfer providers told customers to switch before the last days of the month. The closure notices gave no detailed reason, but the background is clear. Several major banks had warned for years that handing online banking credentials to an intermediary could breach their terms, and some said it could affect fraud guarantees. Payments made through the service could not be reversed by the bank, and there was no chargeback right of the kind attached to card payments.
POLi was also strongly associated with deposits to offshore gambling sites, which is relevant to anyone landing on this page from a search about casino deposits. Its absence has therefore left a particular gap: people who valued an instant, card-free bank payment now need to understand which modern rails come closest, and what they give up in comparison.
PayID and Osko: the nearest equivalent
For most people, the closest thing to the old POLi experience is a PayID payment sent over Osko. These names are often blurred together, so it helps to separate them. The New Payments Platform, launched in 2018, is the underlying infrastructure that moves money between Australian institutions around the clock, including weekends and public holidays, with settlement completed in real time. Osko is the payment service that runs on that infrastructure and gives the fast-transfer experience. PayID is simply an addressing layer: a mobile number, email address or, for businesses, an ABN that stands in for a BSB and account number.
That distinction matters because PayID does not make a payment faster by itself. The speed comes from the Osko-enabled accounts at both ends. What PayID adds is a safety check. When the payer enters the PayID, their banking app displays the registered name before they confirm, which gives a chance to spot a wrong recipient before the money leaves. Each PayID is unique, can be registered with only one bank, and links to one eligible account, although a single account can hold several PayIDs.
Payments between participating banks usually arrive in under a minute once confirmed. That is a typical result rather than a guarantee. Banks apply their own fraud screening and transaction monitoring, and a first payment to a new payee can be held for a period as a security measure; one major bank describes a hold of up to 24 hours in that situation. The large banks publish no PayID fee for sending or receiving, but daily limits and any account-level charges are set by each institution.
The key behavioural change from POLi is that the customer, not a third party, initiates the transfer. The payer opens their own banking app, copies the PayID or reference supplied by the merchant, and approves the payment there. Nobody else ever sees their banking login.
How the old and new approaches compare
The table below sets POLi's model against the main replacements on the points that most affect everyday use. It describes how each method is built, not how any individual merchant has configured it.
| Feature | POLi (closed in Australia) | PayID with Osko | PayTo |
|---|
| Who sends the payment | POLi, using the customer's online banking session | The customer, inside their own banking app | The merchant, after the customer approves an agreement |
| Banking credentials shared | Yes, entered into an intermediary's flow | No | No |
| Speed | Near instant on supported banks | Typically under a minute, around the clock | Real time, around the clock |
| Recipient check | Limited | Registered name shown before confirming | Account and funds checked when the agreement is set up and at each payment |
| Reversal after sending | Not by the bank | Not generally possible | Agreement can be cancelled; completed payments are not simply recalled |
| Best suited to | One-off online purchases | One-off transfers to a merchant or person | Recurring or variable debits under a standing agreement |
Ordinary bank transfers and BPAY
Before instant rails existed, the default way to send money to a merchant was a standard bank transfer using a BSB and account number. That route still works, and it remains the fallback whenever a merchant lists account details rather than a PayID. The main weakness is speed and certainty. Older-style transfers can be held for processing, and the payer has no on-screen confirmation of the account name, so a mistyped digit is easier to miss. If the receiving account is Osko-enabled, though, the same BSB and account number may travel over the fast rail, which is why many transfers that look traditional arrive quickly anyway.
BPAY is a different tool built for paying bills. A payer enters a biller code and a customer reference, and the payment is credited to that biller. It suits utilities, rates and telecommunications, where a regular reference is issued, but it was never designed as a checkout method for retail or entertainment merchants. Its fast cousin, Osko by BPAY, is the same service that powers instant PayID payments, so the brand names overlap even though the everyday use does not.
PayTo: approved account debits
PayTo arrived in 2022 as another product built on the New Payments Platform, and it works on an entirely different principle from PayID. Instead of the customer pushing money out, a business creates a PayTo agreement, sometimes called a mandate, that sets out the amount, frequency and duration of debits. The agreement appears in the customer's internet or mobile banking app, and nothing is processed until the customer approves it. Payments can be one-off, ad hoc or recurring.
Once active, the customer keeps control. They can pause, change or cancel an agreement from the banking app, and the business is notified when that happens. The account is checked in real time when the agreement is created, and available funds are checked at each payment. By comparison with BECS direct debit, which relies on a paper or electronic form signed once and can take up to three business days to settle, PayTo uses live consent and runs around the clock.
For a person searching for a POLi alternative, PayTo is best understood as a subscription and recurring-billing tool that may also be offered as a pay-by-bank option at some checkouts. It is not a drop-in replacement for the single, deliberate transfer that POLi handled, and availability depends entirely on whether a merchant has been set up to use it through a sponsoring bank or payment provider.
Neosurf and other prepaid vouchers
Prepaid vouchers solve a different problem. Instead of connecting a bank account to a merchant, the customer buys a voucher in advance and spends it using the code printed on it. Neosurf is the best-known example in this category. Each voucher carries a PIN, which the official site describes as ten digits, and that PIN is entered at checkout on a participating website. No bank account, card or personal details are needed to pay with it, and vouchers can be used straight away with no activation step.
Vouchers are sold through local retailers or online, in a range of values and currencies. The company's own help material gives a typical span of roughly the equivalent of €10 to €150, but exact denominations vary by country and by retailer, and nothing here should be taken as a list of Australian voucher values. Opening a myNeosurf account is free for adults and takes minutes, and it lets a user store voucher value for later. Identity verification is required for higher limits and for refunds, and fees may apply when funds are taken out of the account. A refund of unused voucher value carries a 5 per cent fee on the amount refunded, and the bank account receiving it must be in the same name as the myNeosurf account.
The strengths of a voucher are privacy from the merchant, a built-in spending ceiling, and no link to the buyer's bank. The costs are also clear. Value sits on the voucher until it is spent, a lost or stolen PIN can be hard to recover from, and a voucher moves money in only one direction. A merchant can accept a PIN, but it cannot pay winnings or refunds back to one in the same way it can to a bank account, so a separate payout method is almost always required.
A remaining balance can be spent later or moved to another voucher, so a transaction smaller than the voucher's face value is technically possible. Whether a given merchant sets its own minimum is a separate matter that only that merchant's payment page can answer.
Cards, wallets and crypto
Debit and credit cards remain the broadest option because almost every merchant accepts them. They offer card-network dispute processes that bank-transfer rails lack, which is the main reason cards are often recommended over instant transfers for goods and services in general. They also carry limits specific to gambling: since June 2024, Australian licensed online wagering providers have been barred from accepting credit cards, a rule that does not govern ordinary retail purchases but is a reminder that card rules can differ by product.
Digital wallets such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay sit on top of cards or bank accounts and hide card numbers from the merchant. Their availability and eligibility vary by merchant category, and a wallet that funds a purchase from a credit card may inherit that card's restrictions. Wallet withdrawals and refunds typically return to the same wallet, which can be an advantage over vouchers.
Cryptocurrency is sometimes offered as a further alternative, but it works very differently from any of the Australian bank rails above. Values move with market prices between the time of purchase and the time of use, network fees apply, and a mistaken address generally cannot be corrected. It is not a like-for-like replacement for POLi, and it falls outside the consumer protections that apply to licensed Australian financial products.
Deposits versus withdrawals
A frequent mistake is to assume that a method which works for paying in will also work for getting money back out. The two directions are handled by different systems and often follow different rules. A merchant can accept a PIN from a voucher, but a payout needs a destination that can receive funds: a bank account, a wallet or a card. For this reason the best replacement for POLi on the deposit side is not always the best choice for withdrawals.
The table below summarises how the main methods behave in each direction at the level of mechanism.
| Method | Paying in | Receiving money back | Main caution |
|---|
| PayID with Osko | Customer sends from their banking app | Can be credited to a PayID or account if the merchant supports payouts that way | Irreversible once sent; check the displayed name |
| Standard bank transfer | BSB and account number supplied by the merchant | Depends on the merchant's payout setup | No name confirmation; slower in some cases |
| PayTo | Merchant debits after the customer approves an agreement | Depends on the merchant | Agreement terms must be read before approving |
| Neosurf voucher | PIN entered at checkout | Not a payout destination in practice | Value stays on the voucher until spent; refunds carry a fee |
| Cards | Card details entered at checkout | Returned to the card in some cases | Rules differ for gambling products |
| Wallets | Linked card or account is charged | Often returned to the same wallet | Eligibility varies by merchant type |
Another distinction is between the speed of a payment and the speed of an approval. A bank-to-bank transfer can be complete in under a minute, but any merchant-side checks, such as identity verification or a manual review of a withdrawal request, happen on top of that. No payment rail removes those steps, and no rail guarantees a result.
How the payment method can affect bonuses
Where a bonus is attached to a deposit, the payment method can matter as much as the amount. Promotion terms at online gambling sites commonly list particular payment methods that do not qualify, and prepaid vouchers and some wallets are frequent examples, because those methods are harder to trace or are used heavily by people seeking to game promotions.
Switching from a POLi-style bank payment to a different method can therefore change a bonus outcome even when the deposit amount is identical. If the terms of a promotion name qualifying payment methods, those terms are the only authority. A payment made by a method not on the list, even if it arrives instantly and in full, may leave the bonus unclaimed, and a request made after the fact is rarely successful.
Wagering requirements are a second consideration. They apply to the bonus and sometimes to the deposit as well, and they do not change with the payment rail. The lesson is simply that the speed advantages of PayID or PayTo do not carry over into promotional terms, which are written separately and should be read separately.
The legal setting for gambling payments
The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) prohibits offering certain online gambling services, including online casinos and online slot machines, to people in Australia, and it applies to offshore operators targeting the Australian market. The Australian Communications and Media Authority enforces the Act and asks internet service providers to block offending websites; the regulator reports that hundreds of illegal gambling and affiliate sites have been blocked since blocking began. The offence is directed at the people who provide or advertise the prohibited services rather than at the players, but the regulator is clear that Australians who use illegal gambling services are not protected by Australian law. If a provider withholds winnings or closes an account, there is no local regulator able to resolve the dispute.
This is distinct from licensed Australian wagering, such as sports betting and lotteries, which operates under state and territory licences and consumer rules, including the credit card restriction mentioned earlier. Paying through PayID, Osko, PayTo or a voucher has no bearing on that legal position. A familiar local payment method does not make a service lawful in Australia, and accepting Australian dollars does not either.
The same applies to the removal of POLi. Because the service was heavily associated with payments to offshore operators, its closure should not be read as evidence that any particular replacement is a sanctioned route for that kind of transaction. Payment providers and banks set their own policies, may decline transactions they consider high risk, and can close accounts or add friction to transfers. Anyone considering these methods for gambling should understand that the payment technology and the legality of the underlying service are separate questions, and that only the second determines whether consumer protection applies.
Scams and safe habits around instant payments
Because PayID and Osko payments cannot be recalled, scammers favour them. The usual patterns include fake invoices with altered payment details, impersonation of a bank or a business, and sites that imitate a payment page. A payer's best defence is the name-check step: if the name shown on screen does not match the business being paid, the payment should not proceed. A new payee is also the situation in which banks most often add a hold or an extra confirmation, and that friction is intended to protect the customer.
There are also still fake POLi buttons around. Since the service no longer operates in Australia, any page asking for online banking credentials in the name of POLi deserves immediate suspicion. A genuine PayID payment never needs a banking password to be typed into anything other than the customer's own bank app or website, and a bank will never ask a customer to confirm or disclose personal or banking information by email. Suspicious messages claiming to come from a bank can be forwarded to the bank's reporting address, and any payment already sent in error should be reported straight away, because speed is the only thing that helps.
For vouchers, the equivalent habit is protecting the PIN. A voucher code works like cash, and the company warns about refund scams that ask for the code or for fees in advance. Anyone who loses a PIN or suspects theft should contact the issuer at once through its official contact form.
Choosing among the alternatives
The right substitute depends on what the buyer valued about POLi in the first place. Different priorities point to different tools, and the final table lines them up against the situations in which each tends to fit.
| If the priority is | The closest fit | What to weigh |
|---|
| A fast, one-off payment from a bank account | PayID with Osko | Irreversible; daily limits set by the bank |
| Not sharing any bank details with the merchant | Neosurf-style voucher | One-way; withdrawals need another method |
| Recurring or variable payments under customer control | PayTo | Depends on merchant set-up |
| Dispute rights on a purchase | Debit or credit card | Rules vary by product, including gambling |
| A backup when no PayID is listed | BSB and account transfer | No name confirmation; check the digits |
For many people the practical answer is to hold two options: a PayID-ready bank account for quick transfers and a card or wallet for situations where dispute rights matter.
POLi's closure ended an era in which a third party stood between the customer and their bank. The methods that took its place keep authorisation inside the banking app, show the recipient's name before the money moves, and run around the clock. They are generally safer in design, and they are less forgiving of mistakes, because speed and finality now arrive together. Understanding that trade, and keeping payment questions separate from legal ones, is the sound way to approach any post-POLi checkout.
