When you send money abroad, the price is more than the fee on the screen: part of the cost hides in the exchange rate. This calculator adds both, shows the total as a share of the amount sent, and compares it with what other senders paid on average from the U.S. to the same country. It does not recommend or rate any company.
The two costs in every transfer
- The upfront fee, in dollars, shown before you pay.
- The exchange-rate markup. The mid-market rate is the middle of the buy and sell prices on currency markets. If a provider gives your recipient fewer units of the local currency per dollar than that rate, the difference is a cost, even when the fee is $0.
The calculator uses the World Bank's method: total cost = fee + exchange-rate loss, divided by the amount sent. The loss is the amount sent times (1 minus the provider's rate divided by the mid-market rate).
Made-up example: you send $200 and the fee is $4. The mid-market rate is 18.00 pesos per dollar, but the provider uses 17.28 (4% lower). Your recipient gets 3,456 pesos instead of 3,600. The missing 144 pesos are worth $8, so the total cost is $4 + $8 = $12, or 6.0% of the amount sent.
Pick the country, enter the amount and fee, then type the rate your provider shows or the amount your recipient will get. The pre-filled fee and provider rate are only examples. Where money is mostly or entirely paid out in U.S. dollars, as in El Salvador, Ecuador, Panama, Liberia and Lebanon, only the fee counts. Haiti and Ethiopia mix dollar and local-currency payouts.
What senders paid: the World Bank's Q3 2025 survey
The World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide program tracks transfer prices country by country. Its Q3 2025 survey gathered 1,010 price quotes from money transfer services in its U.S. corridors, with prices collected from July 2025 to September 2025, counting only services that disclose their exchange rate.
- Sending $200 cost 5.04% on average, and sending $500 cost 3.44%. Larger transfers cost less as a share, often because part of the fee is fixed.
- For $200: services paid online or in an app averaged 4.66%, in-person or phone services 6.02%, banks 11.15%, and money transfer operators (including online-only companies) 4.70%.
- Examples for $200: Mexico 4.54%, the Philippines 4.52%, Vietnam 5.27%, India 3.68%.
These are averages of what was on offer then, not a promise of what you will pay. South Korea is not one of the U.S. corridors the survey checks, so the calculator has no average for it.
Cash transfers: the 1% federal tax
A 1% federal excise tax applies to remittance transfers funded with cash, money orders, cashier's checks or similar instruments, for transfers after December 31, 2025. Transfers paid from an account at a U.S. bank or credit union, or with a U.S.-issued debit or credit card, are outside it. The sender owes the tax and the provider collects it. Under the proposed IRS rules it is figured on the amount sent, not the fee, so a cash-funded $200 transfer carries $2. Final rules are not out yet and details could change.
The calculator adds the tax to "Total you pay" but leaves it out of the percentage compared with the World Bank averages, which were collected in Q3 2025, before the tax. More in our guide Sending money home: the 1% tax and your rights.
Your rights when you send money abroad
The CFPB's Remittance Rule (Regulation E) covers consumer transfers abroad. In short:
- Before you pay, the provider must disclose the fees, taxes, exchange rate and amount to be received, some of which may be estimates (12 CFR 1005.31).
- You can cancel if the provider gets your request within 30 minutes of payment and the money has not been picked up or deposited (1005.34).
- You can report an error within 180 days of the date the money was to arrive (1005.33).
Ways to compare offers
- Compare the amount your recipient gets, not just the fee, across more than one option the same day. Check rates against the daily reference rate, and ask about charges by the recipient's bank, which this calculator leaves out.
- Be careful with unexpected requests to send money. The FTC warns that wire transfers work like cash and are hard to reverse.
Data and limits
Averages come from the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide dataset (Q3 2025), listed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. CentDaily calculated them from that dataset; the World Bank does not endorse this site. Reference exchange rates come from ExchangeRate-API and can differ slightly from the live mid-market rate. This is an estimate for comparison, not financial, tax or legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the mid-market rate?
It is the middle point between the buy and sell prices of a currency, without a provider's markup. It is a fair yardstick for judging a provider's exchange rate. The gap between it and the rate you are offered is a cost on top of the fee.
Why is there a cost when my provider says there is no fee?
Because the cost can sit in the exchange rate. If the provider's rate is below the mid-market rate, your recipient gets less than at the market rate, and the calculator counts that difference as part of the cost.
Does the 1% remittance tax apply to my transfer?
Only if you fund it with cash, a money order, a cashier's check or a similar instrument. Transfers paid from an account at a U.S. bank or credit union, or with a U.S.-issued debit or credit card, are outside it. The provider collects it, and it is figured on the amount sent, not the fee.
General information only, not legal, tax, financial or immigration advice. CentDaily is not affiliated with any government agency, the World Bank or any money transfer company. Figures and rules are as of October 14, 2026 and may change.