How To Instantly Send Money Internationally Online in 2023

Are you looking to send money overseas instantly online? While instant international transfers aren't possible per se, the internet allows you to get pretty close. These days, sending money online can be near-instantaneous, with some types of transfers being processed and delivered in only seconds!

Find the fastest (and cheapest) money transfer provider using Monito's live comparison engine below 👇

Even when it comes to international money transfers (which involve currency exchange and traditionally take longer), transfer speeds can still be fast, with bank transfers executed in under 24 hours increasingly becoming the norm among online money transfer services.

Similarly, some forms of credit transfers can be near-instant too. For example, in the EU, credit transfers made via SEPA can arrive in the beneficiary's account within just seconds. What's more, if both your bank and the bank of your beneficiary use the same payment system, such as Faster Payment, SOFORT, or iDeal, then your transfer will also be nearly instant.

In this guide, we explore the options which could be fastest for you and what tricks you can take advantage of to speed up your transfer.

How To Send Money Internationally Fast

Monito's comparison engine ranks money transfer services according to their cost (fixed fees, commissions, and exchange rate margins) per transfer. However, we also note how quickly each service sends money to its destination, regardless of the transfer and receipt method.

According to our data, the following services consistently performed highly in terms of speed on a global level:

Fastest: Remitly

Remitly is a high-speed money transfer service for sending funds internationally. For example, for bank transfers from the US to India, users can expect money to arrive in their recipient's bank account in just a few minutes.

How fast: 3-5 business days ('Economy' bank transfers), minutes ('Express' card transfers)

Recommendation: Because of its speed and pricing for cash-related transfers in particular, we recommend Remitly for sending money for cash pick-up and cash home delivery services.

2nd Fastest: XE

The world's oldest online money transfer company, XE Money Transfer is widely-known in the world of currency exchange and often offers the best way to transfer money internationally in terms of the number of foreign currencies and countries it covers.

How fast: 1-4 business days, depending on the country combination

Recommendation: We recommend Skrill for low-cost payments via debit card to other Skrill wallets. For bank transfers, the process can take quite long, however, and for these transfers, we don't recommend Skrill if you'd like to find the fastest deal.

3rd Fastest: Wise

Wise has made leaps and bounds in reducing its transfer speeds to among the shortest in the industry, providing a fast and efficient transfer service. According to their Q3 2022 Mission Update, 50% of transfers with Wise arrived within 20 just seconds. Wise has also announced that 71% of transfers arrived within one hour and 90% within a day.

How fast: In 2022, 50% of Wise transfers arrived within 20 seconds, 71% within an hour, and 90% within a business day.

Recommendation: We recommend Wise especially for small- to medium-sized bank transfers (up to US$10,000.00) destined for international bank accounts, as the platform is particularly well-priced for these transfers.

4th Fastest: Skrill

A mobile wallet, Skrill is one of the fastest international money transfer services out there. However, payments are only possible via debit card.

Fastest: While transfers to bank accounts take quite long (usually two to five working days), international transfers to another Skrill wallet are nearly instant. For this reason, Skrill ranks as the fastest money transfer service of all on Monito's comparison engine.

Recommendation: We recommend Skrill for low-cost payments via debit card to other Skrill wallets. For bank transfers, the process can take quite long, however, and for these transfers, we don't recommend Skrill if you'd like to find the fastest deal.

The above services are by no means the only ones that offer fast online money transfers. Indeed, many others might offer you faster speeds for your desired transfer, depending on several key factors. These include:

• The two countries between which you're sending money;
• Which payment method you choose to send the money;
• Which receipt method you choose to send the money;

To get an overview of how fast each service might be for your individual transfer, be sure to run a search on Monito's real-time comparison engine below. Look out for the little grey icon next to each provider's name that tells you how long you can expect your transfer to take:

Tips To Send Money Internationally Instantly

Once you've compared money transfer services and found the fastest provider (or providers) for your transfer, there are several other useful tips and tricks that you can consider to speed along the process.

The top five suggestions for helping your currency transfer to arrive as close to instantly as possible are as follows:

Tip 1: Register in Advance

To give yourself enough time to get verified before you transfer, we advise you to register for an account more than a week before you actually need to use it. You can also try setting up two or three accounts with different providers to give yourself more flexibility. Use Monito's comparison engine to discover the most competitive for your transfer.

Tip 2: Choose the Right Payment Method

Paying by debit or credit card is generally the fastest way to pay for a transfer, with bank transfers coming in second. In general, using cash to pay for your transfer is the slowest method of the three.

Tip 3: Choose the Right Receipt Method

As a rule of thumb, cash pickup is normally the fastest receipt method and is usually nearly instant. On the other hand, bank deposit speeds can vary significantly, with the funds taking anywhere between a few hours and a few days to arrive.

Tip 4: Make Sure You Have the Funds Available

Double-check how much you have and what you can afford to send, considering the fees that your chosen money transfer service will charge you. Ensure that you have cleared funds available at the time you make your transfer.

Tip 5: Confirm the Sender and Beneficiary Details

Ensure you have all the correct details to specify how you will send the money and how your beneficiary will receive the money. Getting these details wrong can mean your transfer service must follow up with you to confirm them, leading to the transfer taking much longer to arrive.

Instant International Transfers to Banks With Digital Banks

If you're looking to send money abroad quickly regularly, we recommend that you explore your options among one of the many neobanks out there.

These banks, which function similarly to ordinary banks, are on the rise in Europe and North America and often allow users to transfer money instantly between accounts in different foreign currencies — so long as those accounts are also part of the same bank.

Instant International Money Transfers To and From Accounts

For example, with the EU-wide neobank N26, you can use the MoneyBeam feature to send money instantly to other N26 users, even if they're based in a different country. And while SEPA transfers to other banks and foreign currency transfers take slightly longer at N26, even these are relatively quick and tend to be completed within only a 24-hour timeframe.

Aside from N26, some of the biggest names in the neobanking sector include Revolut, Monzo, and Monese, but many others are out there.

For speedy international money transfers, we recommend the Wise Account, which allows you to send money instantly to other Wise account holders for free. You can even use multiple bank accounts in different currencies, namely the British pound, the Euro, the Polish złoty, the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar, the Hungarian forint, the Singaporean dollar, and the US dollar.