Can You Use PayNow Overseas?

If you're living in Singapore, you probably already know all about PayNow, the country's interbank payment network that provides an excellent, fast, and secure way to transfer money from one bank account to another. But can PayNow be used overseas?

Although you can use PayNow to make or receive payments while you're outside of Singapore, you cannot use it to send or receive payments to or from another country overseas. This is because PayNow only works between Singaporean bank accounts. This means that if you want to transfer your money overseas, you'll need to pick a PayNow international transfer alternative instead:

In this short guide, we look at why PayNow doesn't work internationally in the first place. Then, we'll delve into the best PayNow international alternatives to help you make the best money transfer choices.

Why Doesn't PayNow Work For Overseas Transfers?

As we saw above, Paynow does not work for overseas transfers, and the payment network is currently only available to Singaporean bank account holders. —

Put simply, PayNow doesn't work for overseas transfers because the system was built as an interbank payment network exclusively for Singaporean banks. Although you can log into your Singaporean bank's e-banking abroad and make a PayNow transfer, you cannot make and receive overseas payments through PayNow because foreign exchange is a hugely complex system, with many rules, regulations, and industry standards that companies and operators are obligated to follow.

PayNow Overseas Transfer Alternatives

The good news is that if you're a PayNow user who'd like to send money overseas, 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, SingX, and Instarem for bank deposits and Remitly for cash pickup 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: Singaporean banks such as UOB, DBS, OCBC, 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 use PayNow, we think switching over to a digital provider is a natural choice for a number of reasons:

• Savviness: The user-friendly, seamless experience is usually slick and similar to PayNow 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.

In the end, the digital provider that's best 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 Singapore 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 Singapore

Cheapest: On 8% of Monito comparisons for transfers from Singapore to foreign bank accounts.

Transfer time: 2-3 business days.

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 50% of Monito comparisons for transfers from Singapore to foreign bank accounts.

Transfer time: 1-2 business days.

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

SingX

SingX is a much-loved local Singaporean money transfer service that's particularly popular for remittances across the globe. It offers fast, affordable bank transfers that are particularly fast and affordable.

Cheapest: On 7% of Monito searches for transfers from Singapore to foreign bank accounts.

Transfer time: Within 1 business day.

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

Option 2 — Banks and PayPal

The second (and generally the far worse) alternative to using PayNow for overseas 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 SGD 1,000 from Singapore to Malaysia with UOB would cost around SGD 12.50 in service fees and SGD 30 in exchange rate margin fees. Together, these fees amount to nearly 5% of the amount transferred, which is about 5 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.

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

You cannot use PayNow to transfer money overseas. This means you'll need to find alternatives. Banks (and PayPal) charge high service fees and exchange rates, making them a poor choice for most. Digital providers, on the other hand, are by far the cheapest, fastest, and savviest options, making them the best PayNow alternatives for overseas transfers.

Get started now by comparing your options below: —