How to Send Money to Brazil

Thousands of people like you send money back to Brazil every week. With over three million Brazilians living outside Brazil, everyone needs an easy and inexpensive way to send reals back home to benefit family, friends and others.

Banks in neither your adopted country nor Brazil have the best fees or exchange rates for converting money into reals. That’s why it’s vital to compare all of your options for sending money back to Brazil so your reals can go further. Whether you want to make a one-off currency transfer or you need to send money regularly, we can help you find the best options.

People from Brazil send over $2.5 billion back home each year, that’s over $800 each. Our research shows that most people overspend by up to five percent on their transfers, so using a lower-cost provider could save Brazilians up to $125 million collectively, or up to $40 individually, every year.

We want to stop you from overpaying, and we make it easy to compare the best-value options for money transfer, or select one of our recommended currency providers.

I Want to Transfer Money to Brazil, but Which Provider Should I Use?

There are plenty of options for sending money back to Brazil. Here on Monito we cover all the popular specialist money transfer providers and banks for converting your money into reals and sending it home.

We know there are lots of ways to transfer currency to Brazil, which is why we compare all of the most popular options side-by-side so you can make an informed choice. The best money transfer provider for you will depend on several areas like the exchange rate they offer, how much you are sending, where you are sending from, the currency you are exchanging into reals and some other factors.

We take all of those details into account when recommending the best way to send money to Brazil. We’ll help you find the fastest and cheapest ways to send money home. For example, we can tell you the best providers for sending money to Brazil from the USA, Paraguay, Japan or Portugal.

IOF (Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras)

When you send money to Brazil, your transfer will be subject to the IOF (Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras). The IOF is a tax applied to any foreign exchange transaction in or out of Brazil. The tax is usually included in the money transfer fees or currency exchange rate margin applied by the money transfer provider or bank.

The Cheapest and Best Ways to Send Reals to Brazil

There are several good options for currency exchange, depending on how the person you’re sending money to wants to get access to their reals.

Sending Less Than $100 in Reals to a Bank Account in Brazil

If you want to send money to a bank account in Brazil, we recommend using a specialist currency provider. If you’re transferring under $1,000 or equivalent, your best options include WorldRemit, TransferWise and Transfast.

Sending More Than $100 in Reals to a Bank Account in Brazil

If you’re sending more than $100, we recommend TransferWise, WorldRemit or Xoom.

Banks that You Can Transfer Reals to in Brazil

You can normally arrange to send reals to any of the following banks: Banco Bradesco Financiamentos, Caixa Econômica Federal, Banco J Safra S/A, Banco Itaú, Banco do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul S/A and more.

Cash Pick-Up Locations in Brazil

Some of these banks are also popular locations for picking up reals that you have transferred. If the beneficiary wants to collect reals as cash in Brazil without going through a bank, then providers like Xoom or MoneyGram are good options.

Xoom provides over 150 cash pickup locations across Brazil.

If you have any questions about sending reals to Brazil, we’re happy to help, get in touch with us now.

What information do you need to send money to a bank account in Brazil

Brazilian banks do not use IBANs to uniquely identifying bank accounts, and not all banks use the SWIFT network. This means you will usually need to enter the name of the bank, a branch code and the account number of the recipient in order to proceed to the transfer.

In addition, you will need a CPF number, which is the Tax Registration Number everyone living in Brazil receives from the Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas

In some cases, you will also need to specify the type of account to which you are transferring (checking or savings).

Name of the recipient 
The name of the recipient's bank account's holder.

Name of the recipient's bank (ex. Banco do Brasil) 
The name of the recipient’s bank in SBrazil. Often, you will be able to select the name of the bank in the list, in other cases, you have to enter the name yourself.

Branch code (ex. 59878) 
The branch code identify the individual branches of a bank.

Account number (ex. 58745898) 
The account number of the recipient’s bank account.

Tax Registration Number (CPF) (ex. 342.146.659-12) 
Individual Tax ID number from the Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas.

More about the Brazilian Diaspora

Brazil is historically an immigration country, with a lot of migrants from all the world living and working in Brazil. In contrast, less than 1% of Brazilians are living outside Brazil, but with a country this size, Brazilians living abroad still represents a large group of between 1.5 and 2 million people. Most of Brazilians forming this diaspora migrated in the last three decades, mainly driven by economic opportunities abroad, with the majority of them moving to the United States.

Other countries with important Brazilian communities include Japan, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland and Angola.