How to Send Money Internationally From a US Bank (2026)

Bank of America charges $45 to send an international wire in US dollars and nothing at all to send one in a foreign currency. Chase charges $40 online in dollars, $5 in a foreign currency, and nothing above $5,000.

That looks like generosity and it is arithmetic. Both banks waive the fee exactly where they can make more on the exchange rate than the fee was worth, and Chase's $5,000 threshold is the tell: above that amount the margin beats $40 comfortably.

Bank of America says so in its own words, disclosing on its wire transfer page that the markup on a foreign currency conversion is built into its exchange rate and that it makes money from the exchange. The fee is not removed, it is relocated.

This guide covers how to send money internationally from a US bank end to end. It prices every major US bank on the same payment, explains why the free option is usually the expensive one, and links down to the full fee breakdown for each bank.

How to Send Money Abroad From the USA Through Your Bank

Sending money abroad from a US account through your bank is four steps. Log into online banking, add the recipient as a wire payee with their full account details, choose whether to send in dollars or their currency, and submit before the afternoon cut off. It costs $0 to $50 in fees plus a 3% to 5% exchange rate margin, and takes one to five working days.

The margin is the real cost at every US bank, and it does not appear on the confirmation screen. Price the same payment at a specialist before you send.

What Every Major US Bank Charges

These are published fees for a consumer account, taken from each bank's own fee schedule. The exchange rate margin sits on top of every row and is typically 3% to 5%, which on $10,000 is $300 to $500.

Read the second column against the first. Two of the three biggest US banks charge less to send in a foreign currency than in dollars, and one of them charges nothing. No bank does that by accident.

The Free Wire Is the Expensive One

A US bank makes money on an international payment two ways: a fee you can see and a margin you cannot. Waiving the fee costs the bank $40 or $45. Adding 3% to the rate on a $10,000 payment earns it $300. The waiver is not a discount, it is a swap, and the bank comes out ahead.

Chase makes the arithmetic explicit by putting a number on it. A foreign currency wire is $5 below $5,000 and free at or above it. That threshold is where the margin reliably exceeds the fee, so the fee stops being worth collecting.

None of this means you should send in dollars instead. Sending dollars to a foreign account is worse, because the receiving bank converts at its own rate and you pay the $45 as well. It means the honest comparison is between a bank and a specialist rather than between two options at the same bank. The lever ranking is in the guide to the cheapest international money transfer.

International Money Transfer, Bank of America Priced in Full

An international money transfer at Bank of America is the clearest case on this page, because its pricing states the trade openly. $45 to wire dollars abroad, $30 domestically, $15 to receive, and no outbound fee at all on a foreign currency wire because the currency conversion earns more than the fee would.

What the Fee Schedule Actually Says

The published wording is worth reading twice: "No outbound wire transfer fee if sent in foreign currency, but exchange rate markups apply." That is a bank telling you where its money comes from, in a sentence, on its own website.

The longer version appears alongside it: "For wires sent in foreign currency, markups associated with the currency conversion are included in the Bank of America, N.A. exchange rate and we make money from the foreign currency exchange." There is no ambiguity to interpret here and no small print to decode.

What the schedule does not publish is the size of the markup. Bank of America discloses that a markup exists and never states what it is, which means you cannot price a foreign currency wire from its own materials. The full breakdown, including the Preferred Rewards waivers, is in the guide to the Bank of America international transfer fees.

Measuring the Markup Yourself

Since the number is not published, measure it. Start a wire for the amount you actually want to send, note the exchange rate the app quotes before you confirm, and compare it against the mid-market rate on any public source. The gap is the margin, expressed as a percentage.

Here is what that looks like with numbers. Suppose the mid-market rate is 1.0800 dollars to the euro and your bank quotes 1.0476. Divide the quote by the reference, subtract from 1, and the margin is 3.0%. On a $10,000 payment that is $300, against the $0 fee the screen is advertising.

Run the same check at a specialist and the quoted rate should sit within a fraction of a percent of the reference, with the fee shown separately as a dollar amount. That difference in presentation is the whole story: one provider shows you the charge and the other builds it into a number you have to reverse engineer.

Do it at the moment you would send rather than the day before, because the quote changes. And do not confirm the payment: every US bank shows the rate before the final step, which is what makes this measurable at all.

On a typical consumer wire that gap runs 3% to 5%, which is $300 to $500 on $10,000 against a $45 fee. Wire specific fees and limits are covered in the guide to the Bank of America international wire transfer fee, and the account level detail in the guide to Bank of America international money transfer.

Chase, Wells Fargo, Citi and Capital One

The other big US banks price the same way with different numbers, and the pattern holds at every one: a visible fee between $0 and $50, an invisible margin of 3% to 5%, and a discount structure that quietly rewards the payments where the margin earns most.

Chase

Chase charges $40 for an online international wire in dollars and $50 with a banker. Domestically it is $25 online and $35 assisted. Incoming wires are $15, or free if the wire was originally sent through chase.com, Chase Mobile or with a Chase banker.

The foreign currency pricing is the interesting part: $5 per transfer, or $0 at or above $5,000. Chase has effectively published the amount at which its exchange rate margin covers a $40 fee, which no other bank states this plainly. Fees and limits are in the guide to the Chase international wire transfer fees, and the process in the guide to Chase international money transfer.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo charges $30 for a digital international wire and $40 in branch, effective 28 July 2026, and charges nothing to receive one. Free incoming wires are genuinely unusual among the big US banks and worth knowing if money comes back the other way. Detail in the guide to the Wells Fargo international money transfer.

Citi and Capital One

Citi prices international wires by account tier rather than by a single published number, so what you pay depends on the relationship rather than the payment. That makes it the hardest of the big banks to compare in advance. Detail in the guide to the Citibank international wire transfer.

Capital One is similar, with pricing that varies by account type and a smaller international footprint than the other four. Detail in the guide to the Capital One international wire transfer.

When a US Bank Wire Is Actually the Right Call

Everything above argues against the wire, so it is worth being clear about the cases where it wins. There are four, they are narrower than most people assume, and in all four the deciding factor is reach or proof rather than price.

A Destination No Specialist Serves

SWIFT reaches essentially every bank on earth. Specialists reach the corridors they have built local accounts in, which is most of the ones people actually use and not all of them. If a specialist quote screen will not accept the destination country at all, the wire is the answer and the 3% to 5% is the cost of reaching somewhere difficult.

Check before assuming. Wise covers around 80 countries and Remitly receives in over 130, which between them cover the overwhelming majority of consumer payments. The genuinely unreachable list is short and mostly consists of places under sanctions or with closed capital accounts, where the wire may not work either.

A Payment That Needs a Bank Reference

Some transactions require the money to arrive from a named bank account with a documented paper trail: a property completion, an immigration financial requirement, a court payment, a university that will only accept a bank wire. In those cases the receiving institution is specifying the method, not you.

A SWIFT wire produces an MT103 confirmation, which is the standard document banks and solicitors accept as proof a payment was made. Specialists produce their own receipts and most institutions accept them, but if the other side has explicitly asked for a bank wire, arguing about it is not worth the $300.

A Very Large Payment With an Existing Relationship

Above roughly $250,000 the calculation changes, because a bank relationship manager can negotiate the rate and a retail specialist quote cannot be negotiated at all. A private client desk quoting 0.5% on $500,000 costs $2,500, which beats the retail specialist margin and is far below the 3% a consumer wire would pay.

That only applies if the relationship exists. Walking into a branch with $500,000 and no history does not get you the desk rate, and a specialist that treats large transfers as routine is usually the better answer at that size for anyone else.

Speed Inside One Bank

A wire between two accounts at the same institution, or between two banks with a direct correspondent relationship, can settle same day with none of the usual chain. If you and the recipient both bank somewhere with a large international network, ask before assuming the payment needs to go the long way round.

International Money Transfer to USA: The Receiving Side

An international money transfer to USA accounts has its own costs and they are smaller but not zero. Bank of America and Chase both charge $15 to receive a wire, Wells Fargo charges nothing, and Chase waives the fee if the wire was sent through Chase in the first place.

What You Cannot See When Receiving

An international money transfer to USA accounts has one structural weakness: the receiving side has no confirmation screen. Whoever sends the money agrees to a rate and sees what it will deliver. You see a number appear in your account with no way to check what it should have been.

If the sender converted to dollars before sending, the conversion already happened at their bank's rate and there is nothing you can do about it afterwards. The fix is upstream: ask the sender to send in their own currency to an account of yours that can receive it, or to use a specialist that quotes the delivered amount.

Correspondent banks can also deduct from an inbound wire in transit, which is why the amount arriving sometimes does not match what the sender says they sent. The full receiving side, including the US reporting thresholds, is in the guide to receiving money from abroad.

The Three Ways an Inbound Payment Loses Money

First, the sender converts before sending, at their own bank rate, which is typically 3% to 5% and already gone by the time you see the payment. Second, correspondent banks deduct $10 to $25 each in transit, which is why the number arriving can be lower than the number the sender quotes at you.

Third, your own bank charges to receive: $15 at Bank of America and Chase, nothing at Wells Fargo. That is the smallest of the three and the only one anybody notices, because it is the only one that appears as a line item.

None of the three is visible from the receiving end while it is happening, which is why the fix has to be agreed with the sender before the money moves rather than discovered afterwards.

Getting Paid From Abroad Regularly

If money arrives from another country every month, a $15 inbound fee is $180 a year before any conversion cost, and the conversion is the larger half. Someone receiving $3,000 a month at a 3% inbound margin loses about $1,080 a year on the rate alone.

The alternative is holding local account details in the currency you are paid in, so the money arrives unconverted and you convert when you choose rather than on arrival. That turns an automatic charge into a decision.

For a freelancer invoicing in euros or a contractor paid in pounds, that single change is usually worth more than every other optimisation on this page, because it removes conversions rather than discounting them. You convert when you need dollars, in the amount you need, at a rate you compared.

Limits, Cut Off Times and What Stops a US Wire

Three practical constraints decide whether a wire arrives when you need it, and none of them can be fixed once the payment is moving. Each is set by your own bank rather than by any law, which is why the answer differs between institutions and why checking beats assuming.

Daily and Per Payment Limits

There is no legal cap on what a US person can send abroad. What exists is your bank's own online limit, which is typically far lower than you would expect and often between $25,000 and $100,000 a day for a consumer account. Branch and phone limits are usually higher and sometimes unlimited with identification.

Limits also differ by how long the payee has existed. A recipient added today frequently carries a lower ceiling than one you have paid before, which is a fraud control rather than a product feature, and it catches people who set up a large payment on the day it is due.

Above roughly $10,000 expect a source of funds question regardless of the limit. Having a one line explanation and a supporting document ready costs nothing. Being asked mid payment with a deadline approaching costs days.

Cut Off Times Are Earlier Than You Think

Most US banks stop processing international wires in the early to mid afternoon Eastern time, and some cut off earlier for certain currencies. A wire submitted after the cut off is processed the next business day, which turns a same day payment into a next day one without any warning on the confirmation screen.

Add a public holiday at either end and the delay compounds. A Friday afternoon wire to a country with a Monday holiday can take until Wednesday to appear, and neither bank will treat that as a delay because neither of them was slow.

The practical rule is to send in the morning and to allow five working days on any payment with a deadline rather than counting on the advertised one to five. The cost of being early is nothing. Timings by route are compared in the guide to how long an international money transfer takes.

Why a Wire Arrives Short

Correspondent banks sit between your bank and the recipient's, and each one in the chain can deduct $10 to $25 for handling the payment. Your bank does not choose the route and cannot tell you in advance how many there will be, which is why the amount arriving sometimes does not match the amount sent.

This is the one cost on this page that is genuinely unpredictable rather than merely undisclosed. It is also the cost a specialist removes entirely, because a specialist transfer never enters the correspondent system: it is a domestic debit in one country and a domestic payout in another.

The Specialist Route From a US Account

A specialist provider does not send your money abroad. It holds accounts in both countries, debits your US bank account domestically, and pays out local currency from a balance it already holds locally. No SWIFT, no correspondent banks, and a cost of 0.1% to 1.5% instead of 3% to 5% plus a wire fee.

Wise

Wise quotes the mid-market rate with a visible fee from 0.1%, which makes it the natural benchmark for measuring what your bank is charging. On $10,000 that is roughly $40 to $80 all in, against $340 to $550 through a US bank wire. Full scoring in the Wise review.

9.5

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Fees & Exchange Rates10.0

Transfer Speed9.0

Safety & Trust10.0

Service & Quality9.5

Go to Wise

Read our review

Xe

Xe treats large transfers as normal rather than exceptional, removes its fee above certain thresholds and offers rate locking for a dated payment, which matters if you are wiring a property deposit or a tax payment abroad. Detail in the Xe review.

9.0

Read our review

Fees & Exchange Rates7.5

Transfer Speed10.0

Safety & Trust10.0

Service & Quality9.0

Go to Xe

Read our review

Remitly

Remitly reaches over 170 receiving countries with cash pickup and mobile wallets alongside bank deposit, which covers the corridors a US bank wire either cannot reach or reaches expensively. Detail in the Remitly review.

8.5

Read our review

Fees & Exchange Rates8.5

Transfer Speed8.0

Safety & Trust10.0

Service & Quality9.0

Go to Remitly

Read our review

The Same $10,000, Four Routes

The middle two rows are the point of this page. A US bank wire costs about the same whichever currency you pick, because the charge simply moves between the fee and the rate. The specialist row is the only one that changes the answer.

With the bank pricing understood, the only question left is what your specific amount and destination actually deliver, and that takes under a minute to check.

The Bottom Line on Sending Money Internationally From a US Bank

If you take one thing from this page about how to send money internationally from a US bank, take this: do not use the wire. A US bank charges $0 to $50 in visible fees and 3% to 5% in the exchange rate, which is $300 to $500 on $10,000. A specialist charges 0.1% to 1.5% all in, which is $10 to $150 on the same payment, and usually arrives faster.

And Ignore the Free Wire

Bank of America charges nothing to wire foreign currency and Chase charges nothing above $5,000, and both are telling you the same thing: the margin is worth more than the fee. A waived fee on a marked up rate is a smaller number attached to a bigger charge.

Keep your US bank account for what it is good at, which is being the funding source. Every specialist debits it directly by ACH, so you keep the bank's convenience, its fraud monitoring and its consumer protections on the funding leg, and pay somebody else's price on the conversion. Nothing about the account has to change.

The One Check Worth Doing

Before any wire above about $1,000, open your bank's transfer screen, read the quoted rate, and compare it to the mid-market rate. That single comparison tells you more than every fee schedule on this page, and it takes under a minute. Verifying the provider and the recipient is covered in the guide to the safest way to send money internationally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Wire fees on this page come from each bank's own published fee schedule and were checked on 4 September 2026. US banks revise these regularly, so confirm your own bank's current schedule before a large payment.

• Bank of America, wire transfers: the $45 outgoing international wire in US dollars, the $30 domestic wire, the $15 inbound wire, and the statement that there is "No outbound wire transfer fee if sent in foreign currency, but exchange rate markups apply", alongside its accompanying disclosure that the conversion markup is built into the bank exchange rate and that it earns from the foreign currency exchange.
• JPMorgan Chase, deposit account agreement and fee schedule: $40 online and $50 assisted for an outgoing international wire in US dollars, $25 online and $35 assisted domestically, $5 for a foreign currency wire or $0 at or above $5,000, and $15 incoming or free where the wire was sent through Chase.
• Wells Fargo published fee schedule: $30 for a digital international wire and $40 in branch, effective 28 July 2026, with no fee to receive.
• World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, Q3 2025: the 6.36% global average, 14.99% for banks and 4.72% for money transfer operators.
• PayPal, own fee page: the 5.00% international personal transaction fee capped at $4.99, plus a currency conversion spread of 3.00% to 4.00% that is not capped.
• Wise, pricing: use of the mid-market rate only and fees from 0.1%, used here as the benchmark for measuring a bank's exchange rate margin.

Nothing here is financial advice. Worked examples use published fee and rate policy rather than live quotes, and exchange rate margins are estimates because no US bank publishes them.