When completing a transfer, what are the Description and Reference fields used for?

The Description field explains the payment's purpose. It can be filled out with up to 280 characters. Both the sender and the recipient can see this field.

The Reference field is a short description that can be used to provide a receipt or invoice number for your records. It is visible to the sender only.

As an example, if you were having a tradesperson do some work and they gave you two invoices for two different tasks, they might provide invoice numbers for each of these or a specific reference they would like to have so they can know the payment is from you. This would go into the Description field and show on your statement, and they would be able to see this on theirs as well. 

The invoice number may not help you tell them apart, so you might want to have a unique reference so you can tell the two payments to this tradesperson apart. This is where you can add something for you in the Reference field. If they were an electrician working in your kitchen and office, you might add the room name or the date the job was done to help you quickly differentiate between these in your statement or transaction listing. This cannot be seen by the person receiving the payment; only you, as the sender, can see what you enter in the Reference Field.