How to Send Money to Europe: The Cheapest Ways Compared

The cheapest way to send money to Europe depends on one thing above all: whether your money is already in euros inside the SEPA area. If it is, a SEPA transfer is usually the cheapest route there is. If it isn't, the exchange rate will cost you more than any fee. Everything else, from the app you choose to the day you send, is a detail by comparison.

This guide works through the common starting points, shows where the cost actually sits in an international money transfer to Europe, and lists what to check before you press send.

Key takeaways

• Euros from an account in the SEPA area to another account in the SEPA area: use a SEPA credit transfer. Within the EU, your provider must charge the same for a cross-border euro transfer as for a domestic one.
• Any other currency: the exchange rate is usually the biggest cost. Compare the amount the recipient receives, not the advertised fee.
• From outside SEPA: an international (SWIFT) transfer works almost everywhere, but intermediary banks can deduct charges along the way.
• The European Central Bank publishes euro reference rates every working day, which gives you a neutral benchmark to compare quotes against.
• Check the recipient's name against the IBAN before sending, and send a small test amount first to a new recipient.

Where the cost of sending money to Europe hides

An international transfer has up to four costs, and only one of them is usually labelled as a fee.

1. The transfer fee your provider charges you. This is the number most comparison sites lead with.
2. The exchange-rate margin. If your money changes currency, the provider converts it at a rate that is usually less favourable than the market rate. The difference is a cost, even when the screen says "no fee".
3. Intermediary deductions. On an international transfer that passes through correspondent banks, each bank in the chain can take a charge from the amount in transit.
4. The receiving bank's fee. Some banks charge to credit an incoming international payment.

The cheapest route is the one where the total of all four is smallest. The simplest way to see that total is to compare what arrives, in euros, for the same amount sent.

Sending euros within Europe: use SEPA

If you already hold euros in an account in the SEPA area and you are paying an account in the SEPA area, a SEPA credit transfer is almost always the cheapest option. The scheme covers 41 countries: the 27 EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, and more recently Albania, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Three rules work in your favour inside the EU:

• Cross-border costs the same as domestic. Under Regulation (EU) 2021/1230, a provider's charges for a cross-border payment in euros must match its charges for a corresponding national payment.
• Instant costs no more than standard. In the euro area, an instant euro transfer may not cost more than the provider's comparable standard transfer.
• Each side pays its own bank. There are no intermediary banks taking a cut, and within the EEA only the IBAN is needed.

A standard SEPA transfer reaches the recipient's bank by the end of the next business day. SEPA Instant credits the account within ten seconds, at any hour. Our SEPA Instant vs standard SEPA comparison covers the differences, and our guide to SEPA transfers covers the basics.

Two caveats. Countries in the SEPA area but outside the EU, such as Switzerland, the UK or Moldova, are not covered by the EU's equal-charges rule, so check your price list. And for SEPA payments to countries outside the EEA, your bank may ask for the BIC as well as the IBAN.

Sending from another currency: the exchange rate decides

If your money starts in pounds, dollars or any other currency, you have to convert at some point. You can convert before sending, so a euro amount leaves your account, or let the money arrive in your currency and have the recipient's bank convert it. Either way, someone sets a rate.

Here is how to compare quotes properly:

1. Look up the ECB euro reference rate for your currency. The ECB usually updates it at around 16:00 CET every working day. It is published for information only, so no provider has to trade at it, but it is a neutral yardstick.
2. Ask each provider for a quote for the same amount, showing the rate, the fee and the amount the recipient receives in euros.
3. Divide the euros received by the amount you sent and compare that effective rate with the reference rate. The gap, plus the fee, is your real cost.

A provider that shows a zero fee and a weak rate can easily cost more than one with a visible fee and a rate close to the reference. A bank that converts on arrival rarely tells the sender its rate in advance, which is one reason to fix the rate yourself before you send.

Sending from outside SEPA: SWIFT and alternatives

From the US, Asia, Africa or anywhere else outside the SEPA area, the default route is an international transfer over the Swift network. It reaches almost any bank account in the world, in many currencies, and Swift says nearly 60% of payments sent over its gpi service are credited to the end beneficiary within 30 minutes and almost all within 24 hours.

The cost structure is different, though. When you send a SWIFT payment you usually choose who pays the charges:

• OUR: you pay all charges, including intermediary banks, and the recipient gets the full amount.
• SHA: you pay your bank's charge and the recipient bears the rest.
• BEN: the recipient bears all charges, which come out of the amount sent.

With SHA or BEN, the recipient can receive less than you expected, and neither of you may know the final figure in advance. Our comparison of SEPA and SWIFT and our piece on SWIFT alternatives cover the options in more depth, including specialist transfer services and stablecoin routes, which we compare in stablecoins vs traditional FX transfers.

A checklist before you send

• Recipient's full name, exactly as their bank holds it.
• IBAN, which starts with the two-letter country code. Within the euro area, providers now check the name against the IBAN before you authorise a transfer, so take a "no match" result seriously.
• BIC, if you are sending from outside the EEA, or to a SEPA country outside it.
• Currency of the receiving account. Sending euros to an account held in another currency triggers a conversion at the recipient's bank.
• Purpose and reference, if the recipient needs to match the payment to an invoice.
• A small test payment to a new recipient, especially for an instant transfer, which cannot be cancelled once executed.

Sending euros with Quppy

Quppy gives eligible users a multicurrency IBAN for EUR and GBP. For euros, you can use SEPA Standard and SEPA Instant where they are enabled for your account and the receiving institution participates. Quppy charges no transfer fee, €0, on currently supported EUR transfers.

That €0 is Quppy's transfer fee, not a promise that every step is free. If you exchange GBP into EUR before sending, that exchange is a separate operation, with its rate and cost shown before you confirm. A receiving bank or other third party can still apply its own charge. Funding your Quppy balance by bank card is not currently available, and SWIFT is not among the routes Quppy Personal currently supports.

Quppy is not a bank. Euro SEPA processing available through Quppy is provided by 2PAYAPP LIMITED, the partner named in the current Quppy Terms. Services, routes and limits vary by country and eligibility, so check availability in your country and read which EUR and GBP routes Quppy supports before you rely on it.