Monito.com

NAB International Transfers: Everything You Need To Know

Nov 27, 2020
Advertiser disclosure

Using NAB to send money overseas from Australia? While its fees and exchange rates are among the most competitive for bank transfers from the Aussie dollar, NAB’s hidden fees can still leave these services very expensive.

One of the most popular and prominent banks in Australia and New Zealand, National Australia Bank (NAB) is a large multinational banking giant with a long record of service in the Australian banking sector. Offering a multitude of financial services to its more than 4 million customers, NAB prides itself on offering affordable banking solutions to a wide variety of personal and business clients.

However, by delving into the bank's exchange rates in particular, we found that one service: international money transfers, are still for the most part very expensive at NAB, despite being slightly cheaper than those of other Australian banks.

Sending abroad with NAB can easily cost you the equivalent of 8 or 9% of your entire transfer amount, leaving the bank greatly outpaced by competitive money transfer alternatives on the market.

What Will NAB Charge You?

National Australia Bank charges a very simple fixed fee structure for international money transfers sent abroad from Australia using NAB Internet Banking or the NAB mobile app:

  • An AU$10.00 fee for funds transferred from Australian dollars into a foreign currency;
  • An AU$30.00 fee for funds transferred into a foreign bank account in Australian dollars.

If you're simply planning to transfer money across into another currency, then the former fee is the one that's relevant to you. On the other hand, if you'd like your beneficiary to receive Aussie dollars into their bank account in a foreign country, then it's the second fee that concerns you.

International Money Transfers with NAB: Beware the Hidden Fees

While the fees on international money transfers with National Australia Bank may appear to be relatively low, sitting at AU$10.00, they are, in fact, anything but:

This is because when you send funds abroad with NAB, you'll be paying a hidden fee in addition to the disclosed transfer fee. This fee, known as an exchange rate margin, is "charged" every time you pay NAB's exchange rates on foreign transfer. These rates, which are ever-so-slightly worse than the real exchange rate — known as the mid-market exchange rate — allow the bank to pocket a difference as profit on every transfer.

While NAB's hidden exchange rate margins are indeed considerably lower than those of some other Australian banks, such as ANZ, CommBank, and Westpac; they can nevertheless be quite high, hovering anywhere between 3% and 5% of your transfer amount. Take a look at the table below to get a better picture of how this hidden fee affects transfers with various currencies:

The Costs Combined

While admittedly not the most expensive insofar as Australian banks are concerned, NAB's exchange rate margins taken together with its fixed fees still leaves international money transfers far from cheap.

For example, if you were to send AU$500 to a friend in India, NAB would charge you AU$25.62 in total fees on that transfer at the time of writing (AU$10.00 in fixed fees plus AU$15.62 in exchange rate margin fees). While slightly cheaper than many other Australian banks out there, this transfer with NAB would still amount to around 5.12% of your entire transfer amount, leaving your friend with ₹25,899.

Contrast this to making the same transfer with TransferWise, a London-based money transfer specialist service, and cheapest on our comparison engine at the time of writing. With TransferWise, you'd pay no fixed fees and just AU$0.07 in exchange rate margin fees, leaving that same friend with ₹27,282 at the time of writing, or 5% more than they'd have received with NAB.

Take a look at the examples in the graph below to get a better idea of how NAB's fees are broken up, as well as what you might expect to pay when you send money abroad (as of 26/11/2020 at 13:00 +01:00 GMT):

The Costs Visualised

Compare all your options and save upwards of 95% in fees on money transfers to countries around the world using our up-to-the-minute comparison engine:

NAB International Transfers: Other Fees to Anticipate

Aside from paying the unavoidable fixed fee and exchange rate margin when sending abroad with NAB, you may find yourself subject to further fees still.

Depending on your individual circumstances, these additional fees might include an AU$30.00 service fee should you wish to transfer your money international in-person from a branch, rather than over the internet.

Interestingly enough, one (usually very expensive) fee that sometimes comes unexpectedly when sending money abroad does not apply to NAB customers. These fees, known as correspondent bank fees, are levied by foreign banks when there's a need for them to assist in getting your money to your beneficiary's bank (e.g. if either your bank or your beneficiary's bank don't have the networks or resources to transact directly). In order to get around this fee for its customers, NAB fully covers any correspondent bank fees imposed by external banks.

Is NAB Right for Your International Transfer?

National Australia Bank is, without a doubt, a bank that can boast a stellar record of world-class service, and it'll likely suit your everyday banking needs just fine.

However, when it comes to transferring money abroad in particular, the costs remain high. If you're somebody who doesn't mind paying the extra fees for the bank's security and world-class service, then sending abroad with NAB might be the right decision for you. On the other hand, if you're somebody who likes to keep your costs down when sending abroad, then it's well worth considering your options more closely:

If you'd like to find the best deal on transfers abroad, these usually come in the form of low-cost money transfer specialists, such as TransferWise and Skrill, which use a savvy network of global bank accounts to offer very low fees. To discover the cheapest services on money transfers abroad from Australia in real-time, we'd encourage you to run a search on our real-time comparison engine and find out which provider will best suit your needs.

To get a better picture of how NAB's foreign exchange services weigh up against those of a few of the low-cost currency exchange services mentioned above, see how the services compare on an AU$250 transfer to India in the table below (as of 26/11/2020 at 12:00 +01:00 GMT):

Find Cheaper Ways To Send Money From Australia

Photo credit: Bahnfrend on Wikimedia Commons, distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license, cropped from the original

Why Trust Monito?

You’re probably all too familiar with the often outrageous cost of sending money abroad. After facing this frustration themselves back in 2013, co-founders François, Laurent, and Pascal launched a real-time comparison engine to compare the best money transfer services across the globe. Today, Monito’s award-winning comparisons, reviews, and guides are trusted by around 8 million people each year and our recommendations are backed by millions of pricing data points and dozens of expert tests — all allowing you to make the savviest decisions with confidence.

Learn More About Monito
  • Monito is trusted by 15+ million users across the globe.

  • Monito's experts spend hours researching and testing services so that you don't have to.

  • Our recommendations are always unbiased and independent.

Monito.com

Global Impact Finance Ltd
Rue du Pont 22
1003 Lausanne
Switzerland

Affiliate Disclosure
Instead of banner ads and paywalls, Monito makes money through affiliate links to the various payment service providers featured on our website. While we work hard to scout the market for the best deals, we're unable to consider every possible product available to you. Our extensive range of trusted affiliate partners enables us to make detailed, unbiased, and solution-driven recommendations for all types of consumer questions and problems. This allows us to match our users with the right providers to suit their needs and, in doing so, match our providers with new customers, creating a win-win for everybody involved. However, while some links on Monito may indeed earn us a commission, this fact never impacts the independence and integrity of our opinions, recommendations, and evaluations.