Receiving Money From Abroad: Fees, Details and Tax (2026)

Receiving money from abroad is not free, and the charge you can see is not the one that costs you. US banks charge $0 to $15 to receive an international wire. UK banks charge £0 to £7.

The second charge is the one that matters. If the money needs converting, your bank sets the exchange rate itself and keeps a margin. Starling takes 2% on money coming in. Nationwide takes 0.5%. Most banks do not publish a figure at all.

On $5,000 arriving, a 2% inbound margin is $100. The incoming fee on the same payment is $15 or nothing. Anyone receiving money from overseas more than once a year is paying the margin repeatedly without ever seeing it.

This guide prices both charges, names what each major bank takes, and explains how to receive money from abroad without the conversion happening at all.

What It Costs to Receive Money From Abroad

Receiving money from abroad costs between nothing and about 2% of the amount. There are two separate charges: a flat incoming fee of $0 to $15 at US banks and £0 to £7 at UK banks, and a conversion margin applied to the exchange rate whenever the arriving currency is not one your account already holds.

Which of the two dominates depends entirely on the amount. On $200 the flat fee is everything. On $20,000 the margin is everything. Put your own figure in below to see what a transfer actually delivers before it reaches you.

The comparison is built around sending, but the number it shows is what lands in the recipient's account. That is the same number a person receiving money from abroad cares about.

The Incoming Fee, $0 to $15

This is a flat charge your bank applies for handling an inbound international payment. It is published, it is easy to find, and it is the smaller of the two charges on almost any amount above a few hundred dollars.

It also varies enormously between banks in the same country for the same service. Chase and Bank of America both charge $15 to receive an international wire. Wells Fargo charges nothing, for domestic wires, international wires in dollars, and international wires in foreign currency alike.

The fee is flat, so it behaves the opposite way to the margin. On a $300 payment a $15 incoming fee is 5% of the money. On a $30,000 payment it is 0.05% and effectively free.

The Inbound Conversion Charge Nobody Quotes

If the money arrives in a currency your account does not hold, your bank converts it. It picks the rate, it applies a margin, and the conversion happens before the money reaches your balance.

This is where the real cost sits, and it is invisible in a way the fee is not. You see a deposit land. You do not see what it was before the conversion, and no line on the statement separates the two.

The gap between banks is wide. Starling applies 2% to money coming in. Nationwide applies 0.5%. Several large banks publish no inbound figure at all, which means the only way to measure it is to compare what landed against the mid-market rate on the day. How that rate works is set out in the guide to the mid-market exchange rate.

There is one more difference that matters more than either number. When you send money, a confirmation screen shows you the rate before you commit. When you receive it, there is no screen and no moment of consent. The conversion has already happened by the time you know about it.

What US Banks Charge to Receive an International Wire

Receiving international money transfer payments costs $0 to $15 at a US bank. Chase and Bank of America both charge $15. Wells Fargo charges nothing on any incoming wire. Bank of America waives its fee at higher relationship tiers, and none of the three publishes a margin for converting an inbound foreign currency payment.

Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Compared

The three largest US retail banks price incoming wires in two completely different ways, which is unusual for a service that is functionally identical at all of them. Every figure below is from the bank's own current fee schedule.

Wells Fargo's schedule, effective 28 July 2026, lists no fee for incoming domestic wires, incoming international wires in US currency, and incoming international wires in foreign currency. That is the clearest position of the three and it is worth knowing if you are choosing where to be paid.

Bank of America waives the fee for customers in its Preferred Rewards Preferred Plus, Preferred Honors and Premier tiers. If you qualify, the fee is a non issue. If you do not, it is $15 every time somebody pays you.

How to Get the Incoming Fee Waived

The waiver is usually tied to a relationship tier or a premium account rather than to the payment itself. That makes it worth checking once and then forgetting about, rather than something to negotiate per transfer.

If you are paid from abroad regularly and your bank charges $15 a time, the arithmetic is simple. Twelve payments a year is $180 in fees alone, before any conversion margin. That is usually more than the cost of opening an account somewhere that does not charge. What the same banks charge in the other direction is in the guide to sending money internationally from a US bank.

What the Fee Does Not Cover

Bank of America's own schedule states that other fees or amounts may also apply on an international wire, including charges made by the recipient's financial institution. That wording is doing a lot of work.

It means the $15 buys you the handling of the payment at your end only. Anything deducted before the money reached your bank is separate, unrecoverable and not itemised. What those deductions are, and who chose to let them happen, is covered in the guide to telegraphic transfer fees.

What UK Banks Charge to Receive Money From Abroad

UK banks charge £0 to £7 to receive money from abroad, and several charge nothing at all. The inbound conversion margin matters more: Nationwide applies 0.5%, Starling applies 2%, and most of the high street does not publish a figure for money coming in.

The Receiving Fee at Each Bank

Fees below are for a personal account receiving a payment in a foreign currency. Euro payments arriving from inside the EEA are treated separately at several banks and are usually free.

Barclays and Nationwide charge nothing to receive, which makes them the cheapest UK accounts to be paid into on the fee alone. HSBC charges £5 for a foreign currency payment and nothing for euros arriving from inside the EEA, or for its Global Money and Premier customers. The full picture on both sides is in the guide to the best UK banks for international transfers.

The Inbound Margin, and Why Starling Is the Outlier

Starling charges 0.4% to send and 2% to receive. That is a fivefold gap, and it falls on the side of the transaction where you never see a rate before it is applied.

On £5,000 arriving, 2% is £100. Starling's incoming fee is nothing, so a reader comparing fee tables would conclude it is free to be paid into. It is the most expensive account in this table for receiving money from abroad in a foreign currency.

Nationwide is the mirror image and the genuinely good option. It applies 0.5% inbound against 2.2% outbound, charges no receiving fee, and has no sending limit. It is the only UK bank on this list that is cheaper to be paid into than to send from.

Euro Payments Inside the EEA

Euro payments arriving from inside the EEA are the cheapest case at almost every UK bank. SEPA carries them directly, so there is no chain of intermediaries and nothing to deduct. Barclays, Nationwide, HSBC, NatWest and TSB all handle them free.

The catch is that free applies to the transfer, not to the conversion. A euro payment landing in a sterling account still gets converted at your bank's rate with its margin attached. Free to receive and free to convert are different claims, and only the first one is being made.

Why Less Money Arrived Than Was Sent

Three things take money out of an international payment before it reaches you: correspondent banks deducting a handling charge in transit, the charge code the sender chose, and your own bank's conversion margin. Only the third one is yours to control, and none of the three appears as a line on your statement.

Correspondent Banks Take a Cut in Transit

Two banks can only pay each other directly if they hold accounts with each other. Most do not, so the payment passes through a chain of banks that do. Each one in that chain can deduct a handling charge, typically $10 to $25, before passing it on. The full mechanism is in the guide to how international money transfer works.

This is why a round number sent from abroad so often arrives as an odd one. It is also unrecoverable: the deducting bank has no relationship with you and charged under its own tariff, so there is no complaint route. The mechanics are set out in the guide to international wire transfer fees.

The Charge Code the Sender Chose

Every international bank payment carries a code that decides who pays those charges. SHA means shared, and it is the default on almost every online payment, which means the sender pays their own bank's fee and you absorb everything else.

OUR means the sender pays the intermediary charges too, so you receive the full amount. It costs them £12 to £20 at most UK banks and a similar amount in the US. If you need an exact figure, this is the thing to ask the sender for before they send.

Most senders have never heard of it, because their bank picked SHA for them without asking. Telling them the word is usually enough, and it costs you nothing to ask. Why banks are structured this way is set out in the guide to how banks charge for money transfers.

Your Bank Converted It Without Asking

The third deduction happens after the money reaches your bank. If it landed in a foreign currency, it was converted on the spot, and the margin came out before your balance updated.

This one is different from the other two, because it is the only one you can prevent outright. Hold a balance in the currency being sent and there is nothing to convert, so there is no margin to take. That is the subject of the section after next.

What Details to Give the Sender

To receive money from another country you need to give the sender your full legal name as your bank holds it, your account details in your country's format, and your bank's SWIFT or BIC code. Getting the format right is the difference between a payment arriving in two days and one bouncing back a week later, short.

If You Are Receiving Into a US Account

Give your full legal name, your account number, your bank's nine digit routing number and your bank's SWIFT or BIC code. Some banks use a different routing number for wires than the one printed on a cheque, so check rather than assume.

Several senders will also be asked for your address by their own bank, and a few destinations require a purpose of payment. Supplying all of it up front is faster than answering questions once a payment is already in flight.

If You Are Receiving Into a UK Account

Give your full legal name, your sort code and account number, your IBAN and your bank's SWIFT or BIC code. UK banks issue an IBAN for every current account and it is usually in the app under account details. The country by country breakdown is in the guide to what bank details you need to transfer money.

Nationwide adds a step worth knowing about. Its own guidance tells customers to give senders an intermediary BIC, MIDLGB22, which belongs to HSBC. The payment reaches HSBC first and then moves on. That is a normal arrangement, and it is also a bank in the middle entitled to charge.

The Name Rule That Bounces Incoming Payments

The name the sender types must match what your bank holds, not how you normally write it. A missing middle name, a maiden name or a shortened first name is enough to bounce a payment in several countries.

A bounced payment comes back short, because every bank that already handled it keeps its charge whether the money arrived or not. Reading your name off a bank statement and sending the sender that exact string takes one message and prevents the whole problem.

How to Receive Money From Abroad Without Converting

Hold an account that can receive the sender's currency and no conversion happens on arrival, so no margin is taken. A multi-currency account issues real local account details in several currencies, so a dollar payment lands in a dollar balance and you decide when, or whether, to convert it.

Local Account Details in the Sender's Currency

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Wise gives you the account details a local sender would expect. A US routing number and account number for dollars, a UK sort code and account number plus an IBAN for pounds, an IBAN and BIC for euros. It is the account most people receiving international money transfer payments regularly end up holding.

To the person paying you, it looks like a domestic payment. They are not sending money abroad at all, which removes the correspondent chain, the intermediary deductions and the charge code question in one move.

The money arrives in the currency it was sent in and sits there. You convert when the rate suits you, or spend it in that currency, or never convert it at all. The decision moves from your bank to you. Wise is not a bank, so the trade off is that balances are safeguarded rather than covered by deposit insurance.

What That Saves on a $5,000 Payment

Take a $5,000 payment arriving into a UK account that only holds sterling. Starling's 2% inbound margin is £80 at typical rates. A bank charging an unpublished margin of similar size is in the same territory, and the incoming fee sits on top.

The same $5,000 into a Wise dollar balance costs nothing to receive, because nothing is converted. If you later convert it, Wise charges roughly 0.4% to 0.6% at the mid-market rate, which is about a quarter of what the bank would have taken without asking.

Repeated monthly the gap compounds. Twelve payments of $5,000 through a 2% inbound margin is roughly £960 a year, against about £250 converting deliberately. Wise is not a bank, so balances are safeguarded rather than covered by FSCS or FDIC deposit insurance, which is a real difference rather than a smaller one. The full assessment is in the Wise review.

When You Do Want the Conversion

Holding a foreign currency balance is not free of risk. If you hold dollars and the dollar falls against your home currency, the money is worth less when you eventually convert it, and no fee saving covers that.

So hold the currency when you will spend it in that currency, or when you can wait for a rate you like. Convert on arrival when you need the money in your own currency now and a move in the rate would hurt more than a margin would. If a dollar balance is what you want long term, the options are compared in the guide to the best USD bank accounts in the UK.

How Long It Takes to Receive an International Transfer

How long does it take to receive an international transfer? One to five working days in most cases. Euro payments inside the EEA usually land the next working day. Payments in major currencies take two to three days, and a thinly traded currency can take five because more banks have to handle it.

One to Five Working Days

The number of banks in the chain sets the timing, not the distance. Dollars to euros between two large banks is direct and fast. A smaller currency may need three intermediaries, each adding a processing cycle. The full breakdown is in the guides to how long an international money transfer takes and how long a wire transfer takes.

Cut off times matter at your end too. A payment that reaches your bank after its daily cut off is credited the next working day, so the sender's screen can say delivered while your balance says nothing yet.

Why a Payment Gets Held on Arrival

Banks hold incoming payments for checks, and the trigger is usually the amount or the pattern rather than anything wrong. A first payment from a new sender, a sudden change in what normally arrives, or a large sum against your usual balance will all prompt a look. What to have ready is in the guide to transferring large sums internationally.

A held payment normally clears in a day or two once you explain what it is. Having the invoice, contract or completion statement to hand turns a week into an afternoon, so ask the sender for the paperwork before the money moves rather than after. How to check a provider is regulated before anything large arrives is covered in the guide to the safest way to send money internationally.

Tax and Reporting on Money Received From Abroad

There is no tax on money received from abroad as such, on either side of the Atlantic. What matters is what the money is. A gift is not income in either country. Salary, rent, dividends or business income earned abroad is taxable if you are resident, whether or not it was ever sent to you.

This is general information rather than tax advice, and the thresholds below change. Check your own position with an accountant before acting on it, particularly on anything large or recurring.

The US Position: Form 3520 and the $100,000 Threshold

A US person who receives more than $100,000 in a tax year from a nonresident alien individual or a foreign estate must report it on Form 3520. The threshold for gifts from foreign corporations or foreign partnerships is far lower, at $20,573 for 2026.

The IRS is explicit that Form 3520 is an information return, not a tax return, because foreign gifts are not subject to income tax. You are reporting that the money arrived, not paying tax on it. Missing the filing can carry penalties even though no tax was due, which is why the distinction matters.

Holding money in a foreign account is a separate obligation. If your foreign financial accounts total more than $10,000 at any point in the year, that is an FBAR filing regardless of whether any of it came from a gift.

The UK Position

There is no UK tax on receiving a transfer as such, and no UK gift tax on the recipient. A gift from a person abroad is generally not taxable income in your hands.

Foreign income is the different case. HMRC's guidance is that a UK resident normally pays tax on foreign income, which it defines as anything from outside England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, including wages earned abroad, foreign dividends and savings interest, overseas rental income and overseas pensions.

The consequence is that tax follows the income, not the transfer. Foreign rental income is taxable whether you bring it into the UK or leave it abroad. Not transferring it does not make it disappear.

What Your Bank Reports Regardless

Banks in both countries report to their regulators under anti money laundering rules, and that happens whether or not you have any filing obligation of your own. Being asked where money came from is routine and is not a sign that anything is wrong.

The practical advice is the same in both countries. Keep the paperwork for anything large: the contract, the invoice, the completion statement or a short note from the sender explaining what the money is. A question two years later is easy to answer with a document and awkward without one.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line on Receiving Money From Abroad

The fee you can find is not the charge that costs you. A $15 incoming wire fee is published, flat and small. A 2% inbound conversion margin on the same $5,000 payment is $100, is not published at most banks, and is applied without a screen, a prompt or a moment where you could have said no.

The Two Numbers to Check

First, what your bank charges to receive an international payment. That is on its fee schedule and takes a minute to find.

Second, and harder, what it takes on inbound conversion. Most banks do not publish it, so the only reliable method is to compare what landed against the mid-market rate on the day it arrived. Do that once on a payment you have already received and you will know your own number.

If You Are Paid From Abroad Regularly

Get local account details in the currency you are paid in, through Wise or an equivalent, so the conversion stops happening automatically. That single change removes the inbound margin, the correspondent deductions and the charge code problem at the same time. If you are also sending money the other way, the routes are priced against each other in the guide to how to send money internationally.

And tell whoever pays you the word OUR. It costs them £12 to £20 and it is the difference between an invoice being settled in full and being settled £40 short every single month.

Sources

Fees and thresholds on this page were taken from the banks' and regulators' own published material and checked live on 31 August 2026. Bank pricing and tax thresholds both change, so confirm the figures that apply to you before acting on them.

• Wells Fargo, Consumer Account Fees and Information, effective 28 July 2026, no fee for incoming domestic or international wires in US or foreign currency.
• Bank of America, personal schedule of fees, the $15 incoming international wire fee, the Preferred Rewards waivers, and the note that other institutions may also charge.
• Chase, Secure Checking account fees, the $15 incoming wire fee for domestic and international payments.
• HSBC UK, international money transfer, the £5 charge to receive a foreign currency payment and the free cases for EEA euro and Global Money.
• Nationwide, SWIFT and SEPA international payments, no fee to receive, the 0.5% inbound conversion mark-up against 2.2% outbound, and the intermediary BIC.
• Internal Revenue Service, gifts from a foreign person, the $100,000 threshold, the $20,573 threshold for 2026, and the point that Form 3520 is an information return because foreign gifts are not income taxed.
• GOV.UK, tax on foreign income, what counts as foreign income for a UK resident.

Nothing on this page is tax advice. Thresholds and rules change, and your position depends on facts this page cannot know, so take anything above a routine amount to an accountant.