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Everything You Should Know About Cash App International

Byron Mühlberg, writer at Monito.com
Dec 22, 2022
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Cash App is one of the best ways to send and receive money right from your smartphone. However, if you've ever tried using Cash App to send money overseas, you might've found the process not to be so straightforward.

That's because Cash App currently only supports payments from the US to the UK and payment requests from the UK. If you're making a US dollar currency exchange with the British pound, then Cash App is a good option (provided both parties have Cash App) because it charges no fees whatsoever. However, if you're not transferring money between the US and UK, you'll need to compare the top alternatives instead.

In general, we recommend Remitly, which provides a fast and easy way to send money online to over 100 countries on bank accounts, mobile wallets, or cash pick-up.

This short guide looks at Cash App's international availability before comparing the best Cash App international alternatives to help you make the best money transfer choices.

Cash App isn't always an option. Find an alternative now:

Can (And Should) I Use Cash App for International Payments?

As we saw above, Cash App isn't found everywhere in the world and is only available to US and UK residents. To use the Cash App app in the first place (let alone send and receive money via online banking), you and your recipient must have either a US or a British bank account.

If you want to send or receive money between the US and the UK, then Cash App is an excellent choice (as long as you and the person you want to pay both use Cash App or are willing to download it). This is because Cash App charges no exchange rate margin and no transaction fees, meaning your money will be exchanged at the real USD-GBP exchange rate, known as the mid-market rate, with no costs at all.

On the other hand, if you want to send or receive money to or from anywhere else in the world, then you will need to find an alternative. You can compare options in real time by clicking this link or reading our in-depth recommendations of the best alternatives below!

Cash App International Transfer Alternatives

The good news is that if you're a Cash App user who'd like to send money abroad, you'll have plenty of options to choose from to send your money overseas instead. In summary, here are the main two:

  1. Transfer via a digital provider: Many international money transfer providers offer low fees, fast transfers, and a great user experience to suit your needs. The best are Wise for bank transfers, Remitly for cash pick-ups, and WorldRemit for mobile money transfers. However, pricing and exchange rates vary constantly, so compare providers on Monito to find the best deal every time.
  2. Send an international bank wire: US banks such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank, and others charge very high fees and poor exchange rates because they transfer over SWIFT. We therefore don't recommend them for transferring money abroad for most people. You can learn more about bank charges for international transfers here.

We go over both of these options in detail below:

Option 1: Digital Providers

Digital international transfer providers are online platforms that have grown in popularity in recent years as a low-cost, savvy, and safe way to send money across borders. If you're a Cash App user, we think switching over to a digital provider is a natural choice for several reasons:

  • Savviness: The user-friendly, seamless experience is usually slick and similar to Cash App in terms of accessibility and convenience.
  • Cost: They're (by far) the cheapest way to send money internationally, usually costing between 0.5% and 2% in total fees.
  • Speed: Money usually arrives overseas in a matter of hours or, at most, around one to two days depending on the provider.

To learn more about digital providers and how they differ from banks, take a look at our bank vs digital provider comparison.

Ultimately, the best digital provider for you will depend on factors such as 1) which country you're sending to, 2) how much you're sending, and 3) how your recipient will receive their funds. According to millions of searches on Monito's real-time comparison engine, here are the three best digital providers for transfers from the US to bank accounts abroad:

Remitly

A world leader in low-cost international cash pickup transfers, Remitly often offers the cheapest (although seldom the fastest) money transfers abroad from the United States.

Cheapest: On 26% of Monito comparisons for transfers from the US to foreign bank accounts.

Cheapest destinations: Latin America, Asia-Pacific.

Transfer time: 2-3 business days.

Recommended for: Low-cost bank transfers where time isn't crucial, especially to Latin American countries. We also recommend Remitly for sending money for cash pick-up and cash home delivery services because of its speed and pricing for cash-related transfers in particular

More info: See our Remitly review, or visit their website.

Wise

One of the most popular and widely-used money transfer services out there, London-based Wise has built a solid reputation on fast, affordable bank transfers over its user-friendly web and mobile platforms.

Cheapest: On 20% of Monito comparisons for transfers from the US to foreign bank accounts.

Cheapest destinations: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific.

Transfer time: 1-2 business days.

Recommended for: Fast, affordable bank transfers, especially to North America and Europe.

More info: See our Wise review, or visit their website.

WorldRemit

WorldRemit is a much-loved money transfer service that's particularly popular for remittances across the globe. It offers fast, affordable bank transfers and cash pickup transfers, but its mobile wallet deposit options are particularly extensive and affordable.

Cheapest: On 15% of Monito searches for transfers from the US to foreign bank accounts.

Cheapest destinations: Latin America, Africa.

Transfer time: 1 business day.

Recommended for: Speedy and affordable bank transfers, especially to Latin America and Africa. We recommend WorldRemit for mobile money transfers due to its industry-leading coverage among mobile wallets (e.g. M-PESA, GCash, MTN Mobile Money, Airtel, and others).

More info: See our full WorldRemit review, or visit their website.

Option 2: Banks and PayPal

The second (and generally the far worse) alternative to using Cash App for international transfers is to use your bank or PayPal.

Not only is using your bank or PayPal the slower and less convenient to transfer abroad, but going this route also comes with high hidden fees, as both your bank and PayPal will typically give you a poor exchange rate on top of the standard service fees for international transfers.

For example, our research revealed that sending $1,000 from the US to a Eurozone country with Wells Fargo would cost $30 in service fees and $50 in exchange rate margin fees. Together, these fees amount to around 8% of the amount transferred, which is about 10 times more than the cheapest available service compared on Monito's comparison engine for the same transfer. And given PayPal's similarly high exchange rate margins, the story isn't very different with them either.

But it doesn't stop there. When sending money internationally with your bank, your funds will go over SWIFT, meaning third-party banks (called correspondent banks) can potentially charge additional fees (called correspondent bank fees) that can further reduce the amount that arrives in your beneficiary's account.

This makes banks a costly way to send money abroad — and finding a cheap solution is as crucial as ever.

As we explored above, by offering bank-beating exchange rates, very low fees, and a top-notch user experience, digital providers are fortunately doing what Cash App does within the US, but internationally! And depending on where you're sending money, providers such as WiseRemitly, and WorldRemit will probably be your best choice. See the table below to understand why:

Last updated: 2022/11/16
¹ Average total cost (FX margin plus transaction fees) of a payment with currency exchange
² 0% for USD-GBP and GBP-USD payments, otherwise not available

In summary, if there were one thing to take away from this article, here's what it'd be:

Unless you're transferring money to the UK, or to the US from the UK, you'll need to find alternatives to Cash App. Banks (and PayPal) charge high service fees and exchange rates, making them a poor choice for most people. Digital providers, on the other hand, are by far the cheapest, fastest, and savviest options, making them the best Cash App alternatives for international transfers.

Get started now by comparing your options below: —

Compare leading digital providers:

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