Jarrod Suda
Guide
Byron Mühlberg
Reviewer
Sep 18, 2024
Advertiser disclosure
Western Union is one of the largest and oldest international money transfer services in the world with an extensive brick-and-mortar and cash pickup network as well as a significant online presence.
However, if you've ever tried to use Western Union to send money overseas, you'll probably have found it difficult to get an overview of the fees charged across the board. This is because WU's fees and exchange rates are finicky and complex. They are case-dependent, and vary based on many different factors including:
- in which country you're living,
- how much money you're sending,
- in which country your recipient is living,
- how your recipient will receive their money.
According to millions of comparisons made right here on Monito, we've found that these are generally good alternatives to WUby receiving method:
- 🏦Bank deposit:Wise
- 💵Cash pick-up:Remitly
- 📱Mobile wallet:WorldRemit
- 💳 Card deposit:Paysend
In this short guide, we explore all of this in more detail. You can read on to get a basic template for how to understand Western Union's fees, and to find out roughly what they are in general.
WU is cheap, but not always cheapest. Compare the market to find the best deal in real time:
Definitive Guide on Western Union's Fees
- 01. Western Union international money transfer fees scroll down
- 02. Western Union exchange rate fees scroll down
- 03. Cash App as a Western Union alternative in the USA scroll down
- 04. Better alternatives to Western Union for sending abroad scroll down
Key Facts About Western Union Fees
⭐ Monito Ranking | 4th cheapest overall |
---|---|
📍 Customers | 150 million |
💸 Transfer Fee | $0.00 to $61.00 |
💵 FX Markup | Varies from 0.4% to 7%+ |
Western Union Fee 1: Service Fee
As we'll see, Western Union charges two types of fees. In addition to the exchange rate margin, which we'll explore later, the transfer company charges a service fee. These fees vary significantly depending on where you're sending from, how much money you send, your payment method, and where your beneficiary is located as well as their receiving method.
Western Union International Fees Table
Here is an example reference of various $1,000 USD transfers from the United States to Canada when using Western Union's mobile app, website, brick-and-mortar stores, and phone service. Bank-to-bank transfers tend to be the cheapest while cash pick-up transfers tend to be the most expensive.
Receive Method | Pay Method | Transfer Time | Fee |
---|---|---|---|
Cash at WU location | Bank account | 4 business days | $4.99 |
Cash at WU location | Debit card | In minutes | $6.99 |
Cash at WU location | Credit card | In minutes | $33.99 |
Bank account | Bank account | 8 business days | $1.99 |
Bank account | Debit card | 4 business days | $24.90 |
Bank account | Credit card | 4 business days | $49.90 |
Data quoted 11 July 2024
Be aware that this fee schedule will likely be quite different if you're not sending from the US to Canada. Regardless of your country corridor, we recommend you keep in mind a few principles when transferring money internationally with Western Union:
- rarer currencies (e.g. the Indonesian rupiah) are more expensive,
- the rate will be best for bank deposits, followed by cash pickups,
- the rate will be worse for mobile wallet deposits,
- the rate will be worse if you pay cash in-store,
- sending online by bank transfer is cheaper but slower.
Western Union's Wire Transfer Fees
When sending an international transfer with Western Union from your bank account to someone else's (as opposed to a cash deposit or card payment), the charges can vary significantly depending on the factors we touched on above. Still, they're generally cheaper than cash, card, or mobile wallet transfers.
If you're looking for a rough estimate of Western Union's wire transfer fees, you can generally expect to pay around $0.65 and $3.76 for every $100 that you send. Bear in mind, though, that these charges can be higher depending on the currency you're sending from and to.
What Are Western Union's Fees in the USA?
Western Union's fees from the USA are generally reasonably low, although they increase depending on your transfer method and receiving currency. In general, you can expect to pay around 0.5% and 4% for transfers from the US to countries abroad.
What Are Western Union's Fees in Canada?
Like from the USA, transfers from Canada are reasonably well-priced at Western Union, although only if you use Western Union Online (as opposed to its in-branch services). Once again, total fees of around 0.5% to 4% would be expected for Western Union transfers from Canada.
What Are Western Union's Fees in India?
Sending money abroad from India tends to be pricier with Western Union since there are mandatory taxes that get calculated into the final cost. The fees tend to be at least 2% of the transfer amount and can get much higher still.
Western Union Fee 2: FX Margin
Western Union's most complex fee is its hidden exchange rate fee, called an 'FX margin' or an 'exchange rate margin'. Before we learn how much they cost, let's go through how and why they're charged in the first place.
Understanding FX Margins
At any given moment, banks and large financial institutions exchange foreign currencies with each other using the interbank exchange rate, also called the mid-market exchange rate. This is the actual market price (i.e. the one you see on Google). And it is the ideal rate to use when exchanging and sending foreign currency.
However, to profit from your transfer, Western Union applies a weaker exchange rate when it transfers your money internationally. Western Union will pocket this difference, which is known as an exchange rate margin.
For example, if the mid-market exchange rate between the USD and the EUR was 0.91 at a given moment, Western Union might offer you an exchange rate of 0.89. This would mean they make the transfer at the mid-market rate and earn around 2% on the transaction based on the rate they offer to you.
How Bad Are Western Union's Exchange Rates?
Let's see how this works in practice with a transfer from the US to the UK. To find Western Union's exchange rates, we used their online price estimator (on January 16th at 0900 CEST).
We found that for every one US dollar that you give Western Union, they bank transfer your recipient 0.80 British pounds:
- Western Union Rate: 1.00 USD = 0.8070 GBP
Below, we show the actual mid-market exchange rate between USD and GBP — recorded at the exact date and time. (If you're interested, you can monitor live mid-market exchange rates on sites like Monito, Google, and XE.com.)
- Mid-Market Rate: 1.00 USD = 0.8202 GBP
Instead of getting £82.02, your recipient would get £80.70 with Western Union. That's equivalent to a 1.6% markup for the transaction.
Other common currency pairs are even more expensive. We found that Western Union applies around 7% margins on the US dollar to Indian rupee money transfers. These rates make Western Union an average choice as an international money transfer service (we've seen much worse, but there are a lot cheaper options too). While not as bad as airport kiosks (which mark up 9% or more), you can often find better services with Monito's comparison engine (these services may mark up around 0% to 0.5%).
In case you're interested, we looked at the exchange rates of ten popular currencies from the United States (MXN, COP, EUR, GBP, CAD, INR, AUD, PHP, DOP, JMD) and estimated Western Union's fees for different transfer amounts as follows:
How much does Western Union charge to send $100?
Assuming you're sending bank-to-bank, Western Union generally charges between $0.65 and $3.76 to send $100. However, the costs could still be higher if you choose a different sending or receiving method.
How much does Western Union charge to send $200?
Assuming you're sending bank-to-bank, Western Union generally charges between $1.29 and $7.52 to send $200. However, the costs could still be higher if you choose a different sending or receiving method.
How much does Western Union charge to send $300?
Assuming you're sending bank-to-bank, Western Union generally charges between $1.94 and $11.28 to send $300. However, the costs could still be higher if you choose a different sending or receiving method.
How much does Western Union charge to send $500?
Assuming you're sending bank-to-bank, Western Union generally charges between $3.23 and $18.80 to send $500. However, the costs could still be higher if you choose a different sending or receiving method.
How much does Western Union charge to send $1,000?
Assuming you're sending bank-to-bank, Western Union generally charges between $6.47 and $37.60 to send $1,000. However, the costs could still be higher if you choose a different sending or receiving method.
How much does Western Union charge to send $5,000?
Assuming you're sending bank-to-bank, Western Union generally charges between $32.34 and $188.02 to send $5,000. However, the costs could still be higher if you choose a different sending or receiving method.
Sending Money Within the USA?
If you're living in the US and you're interested in sending money domestically, then Western Union is also not the best bet.
In these cases, we recommend signing up with Chime, a checking account and mobile payment service that lets you send money from your phone to somebody else's account instantly.
- Transfer to Another Chime Account Holder: $0.00/transfer
- Transfer to a Debit Card: Instantly and for free
- ATM Withdrawal Fee: Free at 55,000 ATMs nationwide, out-of-network $2.50/withdrawal fee
Money Transfer Services With Better Fees Than Western Union
As we mentioned at the top, although Western Union is a very reasonably priced money transfer service, it's not always the cheapest option for any given combination of transfer countries and payment methods.
Below, we've listed the four providers which, according to our comparison, are sometimes cheaper than Western Union for specific kinds of transfers.
Wise (Better For Bank Deposits)
9.5
Monito Score 2024
- Customer Satisfaction 9.4
Go to Wise
💸 Total Fees: | 0.25% - 1.75% /transfer |
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💵 Fee Type: | Fixed fee + commission only |
👌 Avg. Cheapest*: | 55% on Monito (bank) |
🌍 Coverage: | 26 currencies to ±57 others |
⏰ Transfer Speed: | 1 business day |
🚧 Transfer Limits: | $1 - $1,000,000 |
✅ Best For: | Bank transfers (max ±$10,000) |
🔎 More Info: | See our revieworgo to Wise |
Wise is basically a household name when it comes to international money transfers. Opening a Wise Account will let you send money at the lowest fees and exchange rates on average.
Go to Wise now
Remitly (Better For Card Deposits)
9.3
Monito Score 2024
- Customer Satisfaction 9.3
Go to Remitly
💸 Total Fees: | 0.5% - 2% /transfer |
---|---|
💵 Fee Type: | Fixed fee + margin |
👌 Avg. Cheapest*: | 53% on Monito (cash pickup) |
🌍 Coverage: | 14 currencies to 47 others |
⏰ Transfer Speed: | 3 to 5 business days |
🚧 Transfer Limits: | $1 - $20,000 USD |
✅ Best For: | Cash pick-up or cash delivery. |
🔎 More Info: | See ourrevieworgo to Remitly |
Remitly is a US-based digital remittance service that's frequently the fastest and cheapest way to send money internationally on Monito. The platform offers various pay-in and pay-out options (including card payments, bank transfers, and cash services) and supports currency transfers to over 85 countries worldwide.
Visit Remitly
WorldRemit (Better For Mobile Wallets)
8.3
Monito Score 2024
- Customer Satisfaction 9.1
Go to WorldRemit
💸 Total Fees: | 1% - 2.5% /transfer |
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💵 Fee Type: | Fixed fee + margin |
👌 Avg. Cheapest*: | 18% on Monito (mobile money) |
🌍 Coverage: | 56 countries to ±150 currencies |
⏰ Transfer Speed: | 1 - 3 business days |
🚧 Transfer Limits: | $1 - $9,000 |
✅ Best For: | Mobile wallet transfers |
🔎 More Info: | See review or go to WorldRemit |
WorldRemit is a UK-based online remittance provider that offers the best way to transfer money internationally to diverse regions globally, including Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America — often offering the cheapest way to send money internationally to these countries.
Check out WorldRemit
Paysend (Better For Card Deposits)
8.8
Monito Score 2024
- Customer Satisfaction 8.1
Go to Paysend
💸 Total Fees: | ±$1 + ±2% /transfer |
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💵 Fee Type: | Fixed fee + margin |
👌 Avg. Cheapest*: | 4% on Monito |
🌍 Coverage: | 170+ countries |
⏰ Transfer Speed: | Up to 3 business days |
🚧 Transfer Limits: | Up to $100 million |
✅ Best For: | Card deposits |
🔎 More Info: | See review or go to Paysend |
Based in London, Paysend is well known for its excellent fees when it comes to sending money to someone's debit or credit card overseas. It even allows you to make card-to-card payments — a service seldom on offer from other providers.
Try out Paysend now
Monito has reviewed and compared hundreds of other money transfer services. Our live comparison engine even compares their exchange rates and transfer fees in real time. Compare now to see if Western Union is still the best option for your specific transfer. 👇