François Briod
Guide
Jarrod Suda
Reviewer
Feb 3, 2025
Advertiser disclosure
It's commonly believed that your traditional bank is the most secure and optimal way to transfer funds internationally. This old advice no longer applies today, thanks to the advent of online international money transfer companies. You now have access to more options and lower or no fees.
But how do you know you're getting the best deal? In this guide, we walk through the many international money transfer organizations advertising themselves as "the cheapest", "the most convenient", or "easiest to use".
While each service has its merits, our comparison engine finds the best rates by trusted providers for you in real time. Try it out for yourself now and save money on your next transfer. 👇
🕵️♀️ Companies compared | 37 companies reviewed |
💰 Monito users | Saved over $75 million in fees |
🔍 Comparison engine | Trusted by over 15 million users |
🌎 Sending from US, EU, or UK? | |
🔒 Best for security | |
💸 Lowest overall fees | |
🏆 Most quality service | |
🌟 Highest customer reviews |
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Update for 2024, see the international money transfer companies with the best average fee rates in the world. Compare their services, customer reviews, and other capabilities.
Rank
Score
Company
Methods
Trustpilot
Markup
Fees
Website
2
9.4/10
Bank deposit, cash pick-up, VISA & MasterCard, ATMs, mobile wallet deposit (depending on country)
4.2/5
0% - 2%
$0.00
3
9.3/10
Bank deposit, cash pick-up, home delivery, mobile wallet deposit.
4.1/5
0.5% - 2%
$0.00 - $3.99
Wise is a world-class option for money transfers overseas, one we recommend especially for small- to medium-sized transfers. Wise uses mid-market exchange rates — never charging you an exchange rate mark-up.
Available in the EEA, UK, US, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, we recommend Wise, especially for small- to medium-sized transfers destined for foreign bank accounts. It's pricing is the most competitive for these transfers.
Revolut Money Transfer offers some of the best exchange rates in the world, especially for common currencies like the Euro. Revolut's smartphone app is secure, easy to use, and transparent in terms of fees and exchange rates.
Revolut's money transfer service can send money in 40+ currencies to 100+ countries. If you use the app to send money to another Revolut account holder, then you won't pay transfer fees — plus it'll be instant.
Remitly is consistently one of the cheapest overall international money transfer companies in the world. This list is updated to take into consideration all of our data up to 2024, so you will be certain to get a good deal from Remitly. The international money transfer company also has an excellent Monito score, proving its worth in terms of security, customer satisfaction, and speed.
Available in Europe, North America, Singapore, and Australia, we recommend Remitly, particularly for transfers destined for cash pickup, as its pricing is extremely good for these transfers.
Currencies Direct is an experienced, high-quality currency exchange service known for competitive exchange rates for large volume transfers.
Currencies Direct sets itself apart with its range of tools including forward, limit, and stop-loss orders, helping you to manage foreign exchange fluctuations and exchange rate risk. It's often a good choice for sending money to the USA.
Western Union is one of the oldest and most trusted international money transfer companies in the world. It offers its services in an impressive 200+ countries.
We recommend using Western Union's online services as they are often cheaper than using their in-person stores. It offers competitive rates when sending from the US, UK, and EU and when sending to Turkey, India, and Mexico.
TransferGo is known for consistently offering the cheapest rates on international money transfers, mainly to European countries. The platform provides a wide range of pay-in and pay-out options.
It is excellent for transfers from the UK to Poland and the United States. It also specializes in transfers from Turkey to Ukraine, Turkey to the EU, and Poland to the UK.
Paysend operates an impressive network of around 110 receiving countries. With consistently low and competitive fees and exchange rates, Paysend is highly specialised in sending instant debit card or prepaid card transfers.
Paysend typically offers low fees for transfers from Mexico or Colombia, as well as transfers from the United States to Canada.
OFX is widely recognized as one of the most reliable providers in the world. The platform enables customers to effectively manage foreign exchange risks through features like forward contracts, as well as limit and stop loss orders.
OFX offers competitive exchange rates, especially on transfers from Mexico and the United States. Furthermore, the company doesn't charge any fixed fees. Customers have also reviewed OFX highly for its exceptional customer support and high level of professionalism.
XE Money Transfer covers a vast scope, supporting 130 countries and around 100 currencies. Additionally, XE is backed by Euronet Worldwide, which gives customers the peace of mind that their money is in safe hands. Most transfers are completed within one working day. It is a much-loved platform with many glowing customer reviews.
XE is very competitive for international money transfers to India from the United States or the UK. It's also great for the popular UK to Poland corridor.
When it comes to the Trust & Credibility component of The Monito Score, Revolut, Wise, TransferGo, and Instarem are the strongest services for the following reasons:
While some providers earn a higher Trust & Credibility score than others, it's well worth keeping in mind that every service you encounter on Monito is completely trustworthy and meets, at minimum, a set of stringent trust and security criteria. These include top-notch security protocols such as segregated user accounts, 128-bit encryption, and HTTPS, as well as due authorisation by the relevant financial regulators.
Other money transfer services that rank well in the Trust & Credibility category, which didn't make the top three include Remitly (8.9/10), CurrencyFair (8.5/10), and Remessa Online (9.0/10).
Worthy mentions also go to Western Union (7.5/10), MoneyGram (7.6/10), and Ria (8.0/10) — which despite seeing their Trust & Credibility scored lowered as a result of non-transparent pricing — remain the largest, second-largest, and third-largest money transfer companies on the globe and are highly credible services as a result.
When it comes to the Service Quality score, Remitly, Wise, and TransferGo once again perform well and are joined by Western Union to form the top three services for this scoring category. For each service, the placement came down to the following factors respectively:
Other services to show their strength in this category include Paysend (8.0/10), Remessa Online (7.7/10), CurrencyFair (7.5/10), and PayPal (7.8/10), the latter of which we don't recommend for international money transfers due to the fees despite its convenient mobile transfer platform.
In the Fees & Exchange Rates category, Remitly, Western Union, Wise, and Global66 show themselves to be the best-priced money transfer services based on data from hundreds of thousands of searches on Monito's comparison engine:
The cheapest money transfer service can be very specific from region to region. Therefore extremely well-priced services specialising in individual corridors may not feature on our global results above.
For example, for transfers from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, SingX is very frequently the best-priced and most competitive service of all, even more so than Wise or Remitly. Similarly, for transfers from Switzerland, specialist services b-sharpe and Wise often offer the best pricing, while for transfers from the UK to Poland, TransferGo frequently comes out on top (although XE Money Transfer is very competitive on this corridor too.)
Also worthy of mention is WorldRemit, which is cheapest for 15% of available Monito searches for cash pick-ups but did not make it into the top three.
To get around this problem and make sure you're finding the best deal for your specific transfer corridor, we recommend running a search on Monito's real-time comparison engine.
By Customer Satisfaction, the best money transfer services on Monito are Revolut Money Transfer, Wise, and XE Money Transfer, which consistently impressed their customers by the following metrics:
Many services on Monito rank very highly with their customers, and some only just missed making it into the top three. These include TransferGo (9.6/10), Azimo (9.6/10), and Remitly (9.5/10).
Each money transfer specialist has its strengths and weaknesses, with some being better suited for transfers between certain countries while others shine at particular pay-in methods. Take a look at the breakdown below to discover the top providers for major use cases according to The Monito Score and data from hundreds of thousands of searches on Monito's real-time comparison engine.
Whether you want to send a traditional cash pick-up or an instant electronic transfer, rates will vary:
Rates vary widely depending on your country of origin and your recipient's country. International money transfer companies often specialize in a geographic area or country. Have a look at our data-backed recommendations for various country corridors.
In the worst case (with banks), your recipient may be charged a receiving fee! Not to worry, we only recommend transparent services that waive this kind of fee. As we go through the list, keep in mind that you will usually be charged these two fees for international money transfers:
Regardless of whether security, price, service quality, or other customers' opinions is the most important factor for you when looking for a money transfer service, there is plenty to compare to find the best deal to suit your individual needs.
On Monito's award-winning comparison engine, you'll not only be able to compare money transfer services by the cost, but you'll also be able to rank and select money transfer services by their Monito Score, aspects of their service (e.g. pay-in and pay-out methods), transfer time, and explore the transfer details, as highlighted below:
To get started, simply run a search on Monito's comparison engine and find the best service to suit your needs:
At Monito, our mission is to guide your money across borders by helping you to find the best service to send your money internationally. We’ve spent years independently comparing and reviewing transfer services across the globe. That's why we've launched the Monito Score, the culmination of hours of research by our money transfer experts, multiple tests of each, and leveraging millions of pricing data points from Monito’s comparison engine.
The Monito Score ranks money transfer companies objectively on twelve criteria in the following four categories to help you make informed decisions:
Taken together, these four categories combine to form The Monito Score, a score out of 10 awarded to each money transfer service that provides a detailed and nuanced overview of the quality of their service.
All services reviewed by Monito undergo a rigorous evaluation to assess the quality of their service.
When reviewing a money transfer service, our experts start by opening a user account to test out its functionalities, including the ease of registration and speed of transferring money. This provides a well-rounded overview of the platform's strengths and limitations. Next, we weigh this score against several other key criteria, including customer reviews, percentage of fees constituted by exchange rate margins, pay-in options, access to customer service, business and legal metrics such as volume transferred, appropriate authorization, and company size.
Finally, we run an analysis of hundreds of thousands of searches on Monito's comparison engine to determine how often the service in question is the cheapest and how often it was competitive against its rivals, giving a reliable overview of the service's pricing in relation to the market. As a final step, the review process is then repeated by a second reviewer to peer-review and cross-reference.
Reviews are written independently by Monito's editors and recommendations given are our own. Services you sign up with using our links may earn us a commission. Learn more.
🤝 Can I trust Monito's reviews?
Yes, you can absolutely trust our reviews. At Monito, we've been using verifiable data to make balanced, actionable user recommendations since 2013. Some of these recommendations come in the form of consumer guides and reports. Still, many of them also come in the form of in-depth consumer reviews powered on The Monito Score, a composite evaluation based on 12 criteria in four categories. As a result, Monito is a world leader in comparing international money transfers, exchange rates, and neobanks.
✍ How did you pick and test the best money transfer services?
When reviewing a money transfer service, our experts start by opening a user account to test out its functionalities, including the ease of registration and speed of transferring money. This provides a well-rounded overview of the platform's strengths and limitations. Next, we weigh this score against several other key criteria, including customer reviews, percentage of fees constituted by exchange rate margins, pay-in options, access to customer service, business and legal metrics such as volume transferred, appropriate authorization, and company size. Finally, we run an analysis of hundreds of thousands of searches on Monito's comparison engine to determine how often the service in question is the cheapest and how often it was competitive against its rivals, giving a reliable overview of the service's pricing concerning the market. As a final step, the review process is then repeated by a second reviewer to peer-review and cross-reference.
💸 Why are money transfer specialists recommended over banks and PayPal?
All in all, sending money internationally is significantly more expensive with the bank or PayPal than with a specialist money transfer service. This is because both the bank and PayPal frequently levy exchange rate margin fees upwards of 5% of the transfer value, where money transfer specialists levy margins below 1.5% for comparable corridors. Take a look at our in-depth guide to find out more.
💻 Which money transfer services were tested for this article?
To come up with a ranking of top money transfer services ranked by Monito Score, our reviewers tested and compared a total of 29 top-notch money transfer services, with many more to come. Among the services we tested were big-name digital players such as Wise (ex-TransferWise) and Remitly, large, traditional money transfer operators such as Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria, and even mobile transfer platforms such as PayPal and Skrill.
Learn more about how to send money internationally.
With our new Monito App, you can compare 100+ transfer providers and banks and get exclusive promotions, offers, and tips! ✨
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Our recommendations are built on rock-solid experience.
You’re probably all too familiar with the often outrageous cost of sending money abroad. After facing this frustration themselves back in 2013, Monito co-founders François, Laurent, and Pascal launched a real-time comparison engine to compare the best money transfer services worldwide.
Today, Monito’s award-winning comparisons, reviews, and guides (no longer just about money transfers but also digital accounts, travel cards, eSIMs, and travel insurance) are trusted by millions each year. Our recommendations are backed by our comparison data and dozens of expert tests, allowing you to confidently make the savviest decisions.
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