International Money Transfer Cost Comparison

About the International Money Transfer Cost Comparison

Banks, remittance services, wallets and freelancer platforms rarely charge only the fee they show: most also give you an exchange rate below the mid-market rate — the rate halfway between buying and selling — and keep the difference. Enter the amount, the two currencies and up to six quotes you were given (any two of the fee, the rate offered and the amount the recipient gets), and the comparison works out each quote’s hidden markup in per cent and in money, its total cost, what the recipient really gets and the effective rate, ranked cheapest first. It works for money you send and for money you receive and convert.

The mid-market rate comes from the European Central Bank’s reference rates, or you type a rate yourself. Provider prices are always the ones you type, never built in, so no ranking rests on stale or paid-for data. For India, the comparison can add GST on the currency conversion and the TCS your bank collects on remittances. A break-even view shows the amount at which a flat-fee option becomes cheaper than a percentage one.

Common uses

• Choosing between a bank wire, a remittance service and a card or wallet before sending money abroad.
• Checking what a freelancer or marketplace platform really keeps when it pays you out in your own currency.
• Showing a family member or a finance team, with numbers, why the “zero fee” offer is not the cheapest.
• Planning a large transfer: at which amount a flat fee beats a percentage fee.

How the cost is worked out

• Mid-market rate (M): units of the target currency per unit of the source currency, from the ECB’s euro reference rates (a cross rate for pairs without the euro) or typed by you.
• Recipient gets at mid-market: what you pay × M — the benchmark with no fee and no markup.
• Total cost = what you pay − (what the recipient gets ÷ M), in the source currency. It splits into the fee and the markup: the amount converted × (1 − rate offered ÷ M).
• Markup % = (1 − rate offered ÷ M) × 100. A quote that shows no fee but a 2% markup costs 2%.
• Effective rate = what the recipient gets ÷ what you pay: the one number that includes everything — in India mode the GST too, which you pay on top of rupees you convert and which comes out of rupees you receive.
• The ECB publishes reference rates once a working day for information; providers trade at live market rates, so compare quotes taken at about the same time, and type the rate yourself when you need one from that moment.

India: GST on currency conversion

Indian GST applies to the service of exchanging currency, on a value that rule 32(2)(b) of the CGST Rules, 2017 deems, at the supplier’s option: 1% of the gross amount of currency exchanged up to ₹1,00,000 (at least ₹250); ₹1,000 plus 0.5% of the part above ₹1,00,000 up to ₹10,00,000; ₹5,500 plus 0.1% of the part above ₹10,00,000, at most ₹60,000 (CGST Rules, rule 32). GST is charged on that value at the standard rate of 18% for financial services, which the GST Council’s rate changes did not alter (56th GST Council meeting). A supplier may instead use rule 32(2)(a), the difference from the RBI reference rate; one that converts outside India charges no Indian GST — untick GST for such a quote. Fees for the transfer itself may carry GST of their own: include it in the fee you enter.

India: TCS on money sent abroad

Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme the bank collects tax at source on the part of a tax year’s remittances above ₹10 lakh: 2% for education paid from your own money and for medical treatment, none for education paid from a loan from a financial institution, and 20% for other purposes such as investments and gifts; without a valid PAN the rate is higher (Income-tax Act, 2025, section 394, as the Finance Act, 2026 amended it; the RBI’s LRS FAQs give the scheme’s yearly limit of USD 250,000). TCS is not a cost: it is credited to your PAN, and you claim it in your return. The comparison shows it beside each quote and uses the TCS Calculator’s own rules.

Reading the break-even view

Pick two quotes. The view keeps each one’s fee (flat, or a percentage of the amount) and rate as they are, and finds the amount at which they cost the same: below it one is cheaper, above it the other. Real providers often change their rate or fee with the amount, so ask each one for a quote at the amount you will actually send.

Limitations

• Quotes change by the minute: the comparison is only as good as the quotes and the mid-market rate you enter.
• The ECB reference rates are published once a working day and cover about 30 currencies; for other pairs, type the mid-market rate.
• Costs the provider does not quote — a correspondent bank’s deduction on a SWIFT wire, the recipient’s own bank fee — are not known to the tool: add them to the fee if you know them.
• India mode applies only when one of the two currencies is the rupee, and works out the GST on the conversion as rule 32(2)(b) deems it.
• The PDF report writes a currency sign its font lacks as the currency’s code (₹ as INR), and provider names in scripts other than Latin, Greek and Cyrillic as question marks; the CSV keeps them as typed.

Privacy

Looks up live data online

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Use the ECB reference rate downloads the European Central Bank’s published rates from MySmartCoPilot; the amounts and quotes you type are never sent. Typing the mid-market rate yourself works offline.