International Money Transfer Fee Calculator

By 
Matt Di Vincere (Chief Editor)
Last Edited Aug 09, 2022

Calculate the fees of an international money transfer with ease. Use the Money Transfer Fee Calculator below to see the approximated average of what UK banks charge for an international money transfer: banks vs our #1 rated company for online money transfers. Banks have high international bank transfer fees and charges, whereas OFX, our #1 online money transfer provider offers wholesale currency rates and no fees.

International Money Transfer Calculator: Compare Fees

Interbank Rate:
1.16
Interbank X Amount:
11,567.56
EUR
Bank Wire Fees:
15
GBP
OFX Wire Fees:
0
GBP
Bank Rate:
1.131
OFX Rate:
1.143
You Get With Bank:
11,296.10
EUR
You Get with OFX:
11,425.28
EUR

Further Comparison

We always recommend to conduct a comprehensive international money transfer comparison before making choices on money transfers, and please note that international transfer fee calculator uses approximated values (more on that on the disclaimers displayed below).

Disclaimers and such:

  1. Interbank rates used by this calculator were obtained through a third party service. This service can be delayed, inaccurate or unavailable and we do not assume responsibility if for some reason the current interbank rates are not correct.
  2. OFX rates were done through sampling the rates offered for an individual using the OFX system; we applied their fees (which are always $0) and the spreads to the current interbank rate. These are purely indicative rates and you would only know the actual bottom-line trade after you have signed up with them and received a quote from them. Neither MoneyTransferComparison nor OFX commits to transact at the rate displayed. With that being said, these rates should be around accurate.
  3. Bank rates and fees were done through extensive sampling and applying the fees and rates based on currency pairings to the current interbank rates. Your bank may have better or worse rates than the ones displayed. We recommend that while using this money transfer fee calculator you would log into your bank’s website and see how much currency you are getting for your currency from them.
  4. Hence, saving displayed is purely indicative.

 

Alternative Money Transfer & Currency Exchange Calculators

You can also calculate your money transfer fees on Wise (they also provide an easy to comparison to current bank rates). Wise is one of the cheapest services and most transparent and were the first (and one of very few companies) to run a money transfer calculator on their website displaying their rates at any time.

Read more about Wise here

 

Another smaller than Wise company but as transparent and straightforward about its rates/spreads is Currencyfair, an Ireland based P2P money transfer provider. You can view CurrencyFair’s fee through their money transfer calculator below.

Read more about CurrencyFair here

large amounts of money

Alternatively, if you are looking to check if you overpaid on an existing transaction through a money transfer fee calculator, view our own creating by click below

Money Transfer Calculator (Past Quotes)

 

International Money Transfer Fees Calculator: What Are the Fees?

When you transfer money abroad, you are likely paying higher international money transfer fees than you have imagined. This is why our calculator comes in so handy.

There are three types of fees you are paying on an international money transfer with a bank:

  1. Wire fees, also known as SWIFT fees (fixed fee per transaction)
  2. Commission (most banks boasts in 0% commission)
  3. Exchange rate markup or in other words, the difference between the real exchange rate and the one assigned to customers – and this is the bees knees right there with up to 5% difference, or 5% in hidden fees

 

Very Likely to Beat your Bank’s Fees (NO SWIFT FEES)

Large transfers & business payments: Currencies Direct

– No international money transfer wire fees

– Best exchange rates for large transfers

– Professional and courteous staff, bespoke helpful guidance

– Rated 96% by its past customers over its 20+ years of operation

Small personal transfers: Wise money transfer

– Transparent fee structure averaging below 0.5% per transfer

– Quick onboarding

– Great online system and app

– Transferring tens of billion each year

Notes for this calculator

  1. We do not guarantee any accuracy. We do not promise that companies that we recommend will necessarily be any cheaper than what you pay. We merely give you an indication of the markup you actually paid, together with an automated response on whether you paid too much based on the amount sent and currencies used.
  2. The “average markup” component is dynamic and will change based on every currency route and amount you will choose. The data which we used in order to come up with an average markup is a combination of data from thousands of referrals we sent through to money transfer providers over the years, together with data from the World Bank and statistics we collected about bank margins and money transfer providers’ markups. For legal reasons we cannot disclose the data in which this tool was based on.
  3. The international money transfer fee is calculated based on the last rate from each day. That means that if you made your transfer during the course of the day, the markup may be higher or smaller than the one we calculated. On average, currency pairs move 0.15% or less during the day, making a small impact on our calculation, but some days currencies may move at 1% or more. You have to take that into account when you use our calculator.
  4. If you insert your deal’s date in an invalid time when the currency markets are not working, there will be no output (“Sorry, no results” message should appear). If you received a quote during the weekend, put Friday as the value date to the deal for the calculator to be able to process it.

 

Money Transfer Fee Calculator [Current Quote or Past Transfer]

Did you get a good deal?

 

How Money Transfer Fees Are Calculated

There are three pillars to international money transfer fees (in addition to a fourth pillar, which is the recipient-side fees), as follows:

1. Flat International Wire Transfer Fees

The fixed cost of transferring money abroad via SWIFT. Will range anywhere from free to £25 or equivalent in bank fees, across the world.

2. Commission

A fee relative to the volume of the transfer. A 1% commission means that 1% of the money transferred abroad will be taken off to cover commission costs. Commission-based fees became uncommon in western countries, and most foreign exchange facilitators will pride themselves at having 0% commission.

3. Markups

The exchange rate markup (or “spread”), is what we calculate on our International Money Transfer Fee Calculator ™ appearing on the top of this page.

A margin, markup or spread is essentially the difference between the rate offered to clients and the real interbank rate*. You can view today’s foreign exchange rates with additional explanations here.

4. Recipient Fees

This is something we do not take this into account, because there are so many variables involved. Generally speaking most banks in most western countries do not charge recipient fees, but in theory they may be levied and be as high as 1-2%. Choosing the right payment method, using trenches and comprehensive knowledge of banking facilities in a certain country can help you avoid these.

 

* Interbank rates examples for today:

1 Pound is €1.1568 EUR | 10,000 Pound are €11,567.5601 EUR

1 Pound is $1.2255 USD | 10,000 Pounds are $12,254.7968 USD

1 Pound is A$1.8906 AUD | 10,000 Pounds are A$18,906.0878 AUD

1 Pound is ¥182.8943 JPY | 10,000 Pounds are ¥1,828,942.6439 JPY

 

Average markup concept

If you’re expecting to pay nothing at all for your overseas currency transfer, it is not going to happen. Even though all our recommended companies are are offering no wire transfer fee on their international money transfers, they are not able to provide clients with the current interbank exchange rate, or they will not turn any profit. The question is how much you’ll pay in proportion to the amount you are transferring, and designated services particularly excel in being the cheapest way for transferring large sum abroad or receiving from abroad.

To calculate the average markup indication on our calculator we used comprehensive data that we collected from our referred clients to money transfer providers, on an anonymous basis(we make money by referring readers to recommended money transfer companies, and with most providers we can get detailed reporting about the deals our referral clients have conducted and how much they paid in fees). We combined that with sampling and mystery shopping we did in-house with a variety of providers, together with information from the World Bank for smaller transfers.

It is not necessarily the most representative average fees, but we feel our guidance is firm. We have been running MoneyTransferComparison.com, one of the leading money transfer information portals online, for the past 4 years, and we take great pride in the international money transfer calculator.

Have fun.

But wait, I saw different rates in a different comparison site, or I’m just not sure if your maths is correct

Let us repeat what we’ve mentioned several times on this page – the rates/markups we are using throughout this calculator are rates that clients we have referred to SPECIFIC money transfer companies in SPECIFIC currency routes in SPECIFIC dates. As one of the world’s largest money transfer comparison sites we do have a lot of data and vast experience and expertise in the topic but it doesn’t mean that if we said something about a certain rate it’s true to each and every case. It is MERELY AN INDICATION.

With that being said, we do feel this money transfer fee calculator can help you understand whether you are being quoted fairly or not, beyond the direct wire transfer fees.

Other money transfer comparison sites may show real live feeds of the rates offered (or the international money transfer fees taken at any given time). We don’t go down this route because we feel that when we do that, it is bound to be imprecise. Additionally, these rates that they are presenting are negotiated specifically for their users, while we have different rates for our readers that we negotiated. What you could definitely do is get a quote from one company featured  on that competitor’s site and see if their quote matches with the information present on the website, and at the same time sign up with one of our top recommended companies and ask them for a quote, and just compare the two to see where you’re getting the best deal. Remember that there are no free international money transfers anywhere in the world.

 

Summary: international money transfer fees with banks and service providers

  1. Remember these simple rules in order to minimise your international money transfer fees!
  2. The international wire fees (the flat fees) is not all that meaningful for a very large transfer. What matters is the exchange rate.
  3. There is no such thing as a “no fee money transfer” because the exchange rate will never be exactly the official interbank rate. It will be either much worse, or slightly worse, that’s all.
  4. Compare money transfer fees by looking at the exchange rate provided to you by your banks vs commercial companies for fx transfers. Make that fee comparison in real-time to make sure it’s accurate.