The 10 Best International Money Transfer Companies — Ranked By Monito Score

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 in today's age, 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.

10 Best Money Transfer Companies Overall

Let's walk through the 10 best international money transfer companies in the world (with data updated for 2023).

Understand the Fees to Transfer Money Internationally

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:

• Commission fee: This is an industry-standard sending fee that is charged for the service. It may come at a fixed price or as a percentage of the transaction total.
• Exchange rate margin: Some companies apply an exchange rate that is weaker than the live mid-market rate. They will pocket this markup difference.

#1 Remitly

Remitly is consistently the cheapest overall international money transfer company in the world. This list is updated to take into consideration all of our data from 2022, 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 types of transfers.

#2 Wise

Wise is a world-class option for money transfers overseas, one we recommend especially for small- to medium-sized transfers.

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 as its pricing is usually the most competitive for these transfers.

#3 Global66

Global66 offers a convenient fee calculator that includes exchange rate margins, making it easy for users to understand and compare the costs of their international money transfers. The platform also boasts highly competitive fees and exchange rates from countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Brazil, and the USA.

In fact, Global66 was the best transfer service in 2022 on average for Mexico to US transfers, Columbia to Spain transfers, and Columbia to US transfers.

#4 Skrill

Transfers made through Skrill are secure, fast and easy. The platform has a great reputation and has received positive customer reviews on Trustpilot. It supports a wide range of countries and currencies, and international transfers can be made using both debit and credit cards, making it a convenient option for users.

It is often a great choice for transfers from Morocco to France, from Germany to Ukraine, and from Saudi Arabia to India.

#5 Currencyfair

Currencyfair offers a clean and user-friendly web and mobile app interface for easy navigation. The platform allows users to select their desired transfer speed and cost, giving them the flexibility to choose the option that best suits their needs. Additionally, CurrencyFair boasts outstanding customer satisfaction rankings. For businesses, CurrencyFair has the added advantage of being integrated with Xero, making it a convenient choice for managing financial transactions.

Currencyfair has historically offered excellent rates for transfers from the United States to Canada, Poland to the United Kingdom, Germany to the United States, the United States to Spain, and the United States to Germany.

#6 TransferGo

TransferGo is known for consistently offering the cheapest rates on international money transfers, particularly to European countries. The platform offers a wide range of pay-in and pay-out options.

It is great for transfers from the UK to Poland and to the United States. It also specializes in transfers from Turkey to Ukraine, Turkey to the EU, and Poland to the UK.

#7 Instarem

Instarem is known for its overall good exchange rates and cheap fees. They also have a user-friendly platform; once your account is set up, you can easily navigate and use their service. Another advantage of using Instarem is that they offer quick transfers, which means your money can reach your recipient within a day.

It's excellent for transfers from India to the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom. It's also been effective for US-to-Nigeria transfers and Canada-to-United States transfers, as well as from Australia and Singapore to India

#8 XE Money Transfer

XE Money Transfer covers a vast scope, supporting 130 countries and around 100 currencies. Additionally, XE is backed by Euronet Worldwide, which gives users 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 either the United States or the UK. It's also great for the popular UK to Poland corridor.

#9 WorldRemit

WorldRemit's international money transfer service boasts a wide coverage, reaching countries that other providers may not. They have a vast network of cash pickup locations for added convenience for recipients. The platform offers a variety of options for sending and receiving money such as bank transfers, cash pickups, mobile money and airtime top-ups. Ease of use and customer satisfaction are strong points of WorldRemit. They also have a dedicated customer support team available to assist users with their transactions.

WorldRemit will be your best choice if you are sending bank transfers or cash internationally from Japan to the Philippines, Malaysia to Indonesia, South Africa to Nigeria, France to Morocco, Malaysia to India, and Malaysia to the Philippines.

#10 Small World

Available in most of the EU/EEA, UK, US, and Brazil, Small World is a good option for users looking to send money to a cash pickup location, especially in South America, Asia, and Africa, where Small World has an extensive network of locations.

Breaking It Down by Trust & Credibility

When it comes to the Trust & Credibility component of The Monito Score, Wise, TransferGo, and Instarem are the strongest services for the following reasons:

• Wise: Moves more than US$70 billion across borders for more than 10 million customers every year;
• TransferGo: Around 2.5 million customers and around £1 billion being handled in transfer principal;
• Instarem: Since its establishment in 2014, Instarem has grown to serve two million customers, employ over 200 people, and transfers over US$4 billion worldwide annually.

Worthy Mentions and Special Considerations

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.

Breaking It Down by Service Quality

When it comes to the Service Quality score, 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:

• Wise: Registering an account and setting up a money transfer is speedy and seamless;
• TransferGo: Setting up a money transfer is straightforward, and customer support is conveniently reachable;
• Western Union: An almost unmatched scope of pay-in and pay-out methods are available.

Worthy Mentions and Special Considerations

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.

Breaking It Down by Fees & Exchange Rates

In the Fees & Exchange Rates category, Remitly, 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:

• Remitly: Cheapest and competitive on 15% of available Monito searches for bank transfers and 64% for cash pick-ups for all 12 months of 2022;
• Wise: Cheapest and competitive on 19% of available Monito searches for bank transfers for all 12 months of 2022;
• Global66: Cheapest and competitive on 10% of available Monito searches for bank transfers for all 12 months of 2022.

Worthy Mentions and Special Considerations

The cheapest money transfer service can be very specific from region to region. Therefore extremely well-priced services that specialize 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.

Breaking It Down by Customer Satisfaction

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:

• Revolut Money Transfer: From millions of reviews on Google Play and the App Store, Revolut earned a 4.5 and 4.9 score, respectively;
• Wise: Around 85% of 116 thousand customers who gave their feedback on Trustpilot rated Wise five out of five stars;
• XE Money Transfer: Around 95% of 45 thousand customers who gave their feedback on Trustpilot rated XE five out of five stars.

Worthy Mentions and Special Considerations

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).

The Best Money Transfer Organizations for Various Use Cases

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.

Best Money Transfer Company By Service Type

Whether you want to send a traditional cash pick-up or an instant electronic transfer, rates will vary:

• Best overall for bank transfers: Wise
• Best for cash pick-ups: Remitly
• Best for card transfers: Revolut Money Transfer
• Best for mobile money: WorldRemit
• Best for coverage: Western Union
• Best for desktop transfers: Wise
• Best for mobile transfers: Wise
• Best for offline transfers: Western Union
• Best for customer support: Wise
• Best for transparent pricing: TransferGo/Wise

Best Money Transfer Services By Region

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.

From the Americas

• Best for sending money from the US to India: Remitly
• Best for sending money from the US to Canada: Currencyfair
• Best for sending money from the US to Mexico: Remitly
• Best for sending money from Canada to the US: Wise
• Best for sending money from N. America to Europe: Currencyfair
• Best for sending money from S. America to N. America: Global66
• Best for sending money from N. America to S. America: Remitly

From Europe

• Best for sending money from the UK to Poland: Remitly
• Best for sending money within Europe: Currencyfair
• Best for sending money from Switzerland: Wise
• Best for sending money from Europe to N. America: Currencyfair

From Asia

• Best for sending money from Asia to Europe: Remitly
• Best for sending money from Asia to N. America: Wise
• Best for sending money within Asia: Wise
• Best for sending money from Singapore: SingX
• Best for sending money from Brazil: Remessa Online

Find The Best Money Transfer Organization For Your Needs

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:

4 Important Factors To Look For in International Money Transfer Companies

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: How Monito Reviews Money Transfer Services

The Monito Score ranks money transfer companies objectively on twelve criteria in the following four categories to help you make informed decisions:

• Trust & Credibility: A confidence ranking based on several factors such as authorisation by financial regulators, use of security protocols, company size, and fee and exchange rate transparency;
• Service Quality: A service score based on a qualitative test of a service's web and mobile apps to determine the ease of opening a new account, making a transfer, contacting customer support, and ordering/managing an associated debit/credit card;
• Fees & Exchange Rates: A price ranking determined by how often a service is cheapest across hundreds of thousands of searches on Monito's comparison engine and how often the total cost of sending 1,000 US dollars overseas is below 1.5%;
• Customer Satisfaction: A customer-centric ranking based on how many five-star reviews customers have given to a service on Trustpilot weighted against the absolute number of four- and five-star reviews the service has received.

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.

How We Rank the Best International Money Transfer Companies and Organizations

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.