Telegraphic Transfer Fees: What You Actually Pay (2026)
A telegraphic transfer fee looks small. Most UK banks charge between £0 and £25 to send one. That is the number on the confirmation screen, and it is not what the payment costs you.
On £5,000 sent to a US dollar account, the fee is rarely more than £25. The exchange rate charge on the same payment is £100 to £180. Banks in the middle can take another £10 to £25 each.
So the real telegraphic transfer fee is three charges, not one. Two of the three are never itemised anywhere you will see them.
This guide prices all three on the same payment. It names what each UK bank charges, and explains the one setting that decides who pays the banks in the middle.
What a Telegraphic Transfer Fee Actually Costs
A telegraphic transfer costs about £30 to about £200 on a £5,000 payment. The stated fee is £0 to £25 of that. The rest is the exchange rate charge, which runs from 0.4% to 3.65% depending on your bank, plus anything deducted along the way.
Your bank's fee page shows you the first of the three. It cannot show the other two, because one depends on the rate today and the other on which banks handle the payment. Put your own amount in below and the comparison shows what actually lands.
Run it before anything above a few hundred pounds. On a £5,000 telegraphic transfer, the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive route is routinely more than £150.
The Fee Your Bank Shows You
This is the transaction charge, and the only part most people ever see. It is flat, so the same £25 applies to £200 and to £50,000. That makes it painful on small payments and almost irrelevant on large ones.
UK banks price it from £0 to £25. Barclays charges nothing online, Santander charges £25. Nationwide charges £15 for a SWIFT payment and nothing for a SEPA payment in euros. HSBC charges £5 online and £17 by post.
On a £200 payment, a £25 fee is 12.5% of the money. On a £50,000 payment the same £25 is 0.05%. That is why the fee on its own tells you almost nothing about which bank is cheapest for you.
The Two Charges It Does Not Show
The second charge is the exchange rate margin. Your bank converts your pounds at a rate slightly worse than the mid-market rate, and keeps the difference. It is never listed as a charge because it is built into the rate itself.
The third is what other banks take on the way. A telegraphic transfer usually passes through one or two banks in the middle, and each can deduct a handling charge before passing the money on. Those are the correspondent bank charges, and they come out of the payment rather than off your card.
Both scale with the amount while the fee stays still. On £5,000 through Lloyds the fee is £9.50 and the rate charge is about £178. The fee is 5% of what that payment really costs. How the rate charge works is set out in the guide to the mid-market exchange rate.
What Is a Telegraphic Transfer?
The short answer to what is a telegraphic transfer: it is a bank to bank payment sent across borders through the SWIFT network. Your bank sends a payment instruction, the money moves through the banking system, and it lands in the recipient's account. UK, Irish, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian, Australian and Indian banks all use the term.
Telegraphic Transfer vs Wire Transfer vs SWIFT Payment
These are three names for the same thing. Anyone comparing a telegraphic transfer vs wire transfer is comparing British English with American English, not two different products. A US bank calls it an international wire. A UK bank calls it a telegraphic transfer, a TT, or an international payment. The money moves the same way.
SWIFT is the network underneath all of them. It is a messaging system, not a payment rail, which is an important distinction. SWIFT carries the instruction that says move this money. The money itself moves between banks that already hold accounts with each other.
That is the reason the charges exist at all, and it is worth understanding before you send anything large. The differences between the various names people use are covered in the guide to remittance vs wire transfer, and the mechanics are set out in full in the guide to how international money transfer works.
Why the Old Name Is Still Used
The name is a hundred years old. Banks once sent payment instructions by telegraph, and the phrase stuck long after the telegraph did not. Nothing about a modern telegraphic transfer involves a telegram.
The name matters for one reason. If a solicitor or an overseas supplier asks for a telegraphic transfer, they mean a normal international bank payment. You do not need a special product and your bank does not offer one.
When You Will Be Asked to Send One
Property is the most common case. A conveyancing solicitor buying abroad will insist on a telegraphic transfer, because it leaves a named account and the audit trail is unambiguous. University tuition offices often do the same.
Suppliers invoicing in a foreign currency are the second case, particularly in trade finance. Large one off payments such as a deposit or a settlement make up most of the rest. In each case the recipient wants a bank payment specifically, and that is the one situation where paying telegraphic transfer charges is unavoidable.
Telegraphic Transfer Charges at UK Banks
Telegraphic transfer charges at UK banks run from nothing to £25 to send, plus an exchange rate margin of 0.4% to 3.65%. The fee and the margin move independently, so the bank with the lowest fee is often not the cheapest bank overall.
What Each Bank Charges to Send
Every figure below comes from the bank's own published tariff. Fees are for an online payment, which is the cheapest channel at every bank that offers a choice. Branch and telephone payments cost more almost everywhere.
Bank | Fee to send | Exchange rate charge | Receiving |
|---|---|---|---|
Barclays | £0 online, from £15 branch | Not published | Free |
HSBC | £5 online, £17 by post | 2.2% up to £50,000 | £5, free for EEA euro |
Lloyds | £9.50, £0 euro to Europe | 3.55% under £10,000 | Not published |
Halifax | £9.50, £0 euro to Europe | 3.55% under £10,000 | Not published |
Nationwide | £15 SWIFT, £0 SEPA | 2.2% out, 0.5% in | Free |
NatWest | £0 standard, £15 urgent | Up to 2.75% | £1 under £100, £7 over |
Santander | £25 | 3% up to £10,000 | Not published |
TSB | £10 to £5,000, £17.50 above | 3.20% to 3.65% | £2 under £100, £7 over |
Starling | £5.50 SWIFT, 30p local | 0.4% | 2% margin |
Two things in that table are worth sitting with. Barclays is the only bank charging nothing online, and also the only one that does not publish its rate charge at all, so its true cost cannot be worked out in advance. Santander charges the highest fee at £25 and is not the most expensive bank on the list. The full ranking is in the guide to the best UK banks for international transfers.
What the Exchange Rate Adds
The rate charge is where most of the money goes on any telegraphic transfer above a few hundred pounds. It is a percentage, so it grows with the payment while the fee does not.
On £1,000 to US dollars, HSBC's £5 fee sits next to about £22 of rate charge. On the same payment Lloyds charges £9.50 and about £35. Starling charges £5.50 and about £4, which is why a bank with a mid range fee can be the cheapest bank in the country.
TSB is the outlier. It is the only UK bank that prices by currency rather than by amount, and its margin never falls as the payment grows. On £50,000 that costs about £550 more than HSBC would charge. What each bank does with the rate is broken down in the guides to HSBC international transfers and Santander international transfers.
What It Costs to Receive One
Receiving a telegraphic transfer is not free everywhere, which surprises people who assume the sender covers everything. HSBC charges £5 to receive a payment in a foreign currency. NatWest charges £1 under £100 and £7 above it. TSB charges the same.
Nationwide is the useful exception. It charges nothing to receive and only 0.5% on incoming conversion, against 2.2% going out. It is the only UK bank cheaper to be paid into than to send from.
Starling is the opposite. It charges 0.4% to send and 2% to receive, a fivefold gap on the side of the transaction with no confirmation screen. If money is coming to you rather than from you, check the receiving column before the sending one.
Correspondent Banks and Why Less Money Arrives
A telegraphic transfer often arrives short because banks in the middle deduct a handling charge before passing it on. Each one typically takes £10 to £25. Your bank did not take that money, cannot see it in advance, and cannot get it back for you.
How a Telegraphic Transfer Travels
Two banks can only send money directly to each other if they hold accounts with each other. Most banks in the world do not. So the payment travels through a chain of banks that do, until it reaches one with a relationship to the recipient's bank.
Each bank in that chain is a correspondent bank, sometimes called an intermediary bank. A dollar payment from a UK bank to a small regional bank in Asia might pass through two intermediary banks. A euro payment between two large European banks often passes through none.
Nationwide's own guidance makes the chain visible. It tells customers to give senders an intermediary BIC, MIDLGB22, which is HSBC's. The payment reaches HSBC first and then moves to Nationwide. That intermediary is doing real work, and it is entitled to charge for it.
What the Banks in the Middle Take
A correspondent bank charge is typically £10 to £25, or the local currency equivalent. Two intermediaries means two deductions. This is why a round number sent abroad so often arrives as an odd one.
The charge is taken out of the payment, not billed to you. Send £5,000 and the recipient may see £4,960. Nothing on your statement will show the missing £40, because from your side £5,000 left your account exactly as instructed.
The amount is not knowable in advance. Neither you nor your bank chooses the route, and the deducting bank sets its own charge. That uncertainty is the single worst feature of a telegraphic transfer, and it is covered further in the guide to international wire transfer fees.
Why Your Bank Cannot Get It Back
The bank that made the deduction has no relationship with you. You are not its customer, and it charged the payment under its own published tariff. There is no complaint route, because nothing went wrong.
The practical consequence is that a shortfall is permanent. If the recipient needed an exact figure, fixing it means sending a second telegraphic transfer, with a second fee and a second rate charge. Why banks are structured to charge this way is set out in the guide to how banks charge for money transfers.
Why £5,000 Left and £4,960 Arrived
A telegraphic transfer arriving short is normal, not a mistake. Four things are worth knowing before you send one that has a deadline attached.
- The deduction is taken from the money, not added to your bill. Your statement will show the full amount leaving.
- Each bank in the chain can charge, typically £10 to £25. Two intermediaries means two deductions.
- Nobody can tell you the route in advance. Your bank does not choose it and cannot price it.
- You can prevent it, by paying all charges yourself. That option is explained in the next section.
If the recipient needs an exact figure, a solicitor's completion amount or a tuition invoice, this is the risk that matters. It is also the one you can remove for a fixed price.
The Route With No Banks in the Middle
Correspondent charges exist because a telegraphic transfer travels through banks neither you nor your bank controls. Remove the chain and the charge cannot happen.
- Local payout at both ends: Wise holds pounds in the UK and dollars in the US, so no third bank ever touches the payment.
- Quoted total is the final total: £28 on £5,000, with no OUR charge to add because there is nothing to cover.
- Mid-market rate, no margin: the same rate you get from a search, against about £207 through a high street bank.
- FCA authorised: customer money is safeguarded in accounts held apart from company funds.
This is architecture, not a promotional rate. The price can be quoted with certainty because no third party is in a position to change it after you press send.
OUR, SHA and BEN: Who Pays the Charges
Every telegraphic transfer carries a charge code, and it is the code that settles who pays telegraphic transfer charges in the middle of the chain. SHA means shared, and it is the default on almost every UK online payment. OUR means you pay everything. BEN means the recipient pays everything, including your bank's fee.
What the Three Options Mean
Under SHA you pay your own bank's fee and the recipient absorbs whatever the intermediaries and their own bank deduct. It sounds even. In practice it means the recipient pays every charge except the one you already saw.
Under OUR you pay your bank's fee plus the intermediary charges, so the recipient gets the full amount. Banks price this as an extra flat charge. Lloyds calls it a zone charge, at £12 for the USA, Canada and non-EEA Europe, and £20 for the rest of the world.
BEN is rare on personal payments and rarely a good idea. The recipient pays everything, including your sending fee, which is deducted from the money before they see it. Use it only when it has been specifically agreed.
Your Bank Has Already Chosen for You
This is the part almost nobody knows. Your bank picks SHA for you by default, and it says so in a help page you were never going to read.
Lloyds states it plainly for online and app payments: you pay the £9.50 fee, and the person you are sending money to pays any other fees. Its own wording is that this could include money deducted from the payment by an agent bank and by the receiving bank.
Santander gives the control back but does not advertise it. Its guidance says the beneficiary can pay all the charges, or you can pay the beneficiary's charges as well as your own. The setting sits in Online Banking under the heading Expenses paid by.
So the answer to who pays telegraphic transfer charges is: whoever your bank decided when you were not looking. On most UK online payments that is the recipient.
When to Pay OUR and What It Costs
Pay OUR whenever the exact amount matters. That covers property completions, tuition invoices, supplier payments with a stated total, visa and immigration fees, and anything with a deadline where a shortfall means starting again.
The arithmetic is straightforward. Lloyds charges £12 to £20 on top for OUR. Two intermediary deductions at £20 each would cost £40 and land on the recipient. Paying £12 to remove a possible £40 problem is worth it whenever the figure has to be right.
Do not pay OUR on small casual payments to family, where a few pounds either way changes nothing. The charge is flat, so on £200 it is a large share of the payment and the risk it removes is small.
A Worked Example: £5,000 to a US Dollar Account
Priced end to end, a £5,000 telegraphic transfer through Lloyds costs about £187 and may arrive £40 short. The same £5,000 through a specialist costs about £28 and arrives in full. The difference is roughly £199, on a payment that leaves and lands on the same dates.
The Bank Route, Priced End to End
Lloyds charges a £9.50 fee. Its margin below £10,000 is 3.55%, which on £5,000 is about £178. That is £187.50 before the payment has left the country.
Then the chain applies. On a dollar payment there is usually one intermediary and sometimes two, at £10 to £25 each. Under the default SHA setting that comes off the money, so the recipient sees around £4,960 worth of dollars.
The stated telegraphic transfer fee was £9.50. The payment cost about £207 in total, and about £40 of it was invisible to both parties until the money landed.
The Same £5,000 Through a Specialist
Wise converts at the mid-market rate and charges a stated fee, so there is no margin layer at all. On £5,000 to dollars that is about £28 in total, against £187.50 before Lloyds has even sent the payment.
It also avoids the correspondent chain entirely. Wise holds balances in both countries and pays out domestically at each end, so your pounds go to a UK account and dollars already sitting in a US account go to the recipient. Nothing crosses a border, so nothing can be deducted in transit.
That is the structural reason the price can be quoted with confidence. There is no third party in the middle setting its own charge, which is exactly what a telegraphic transfer cannot promise.
What Changes at £500 and £50,000
The ranking holds at every size, but the reason for it changes. On small payments the flat fee dominates. On large ones the percentage does.
Amount | Lloyds | HSBC | Starling | Wise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
£500 | about £27 | about £16 | about £8 | about £5 |
£1,000 | about £45 | about £27 | about £4.30 | about £6.50 |
£5,000 | about £187 | about £115 | about £20 | about £28 |
£50,000 | about £1,050 | about £1,050 | capped by limit | about £190 |
At £50,000 two other things bite. Starling's daily cap is £10,000, so the payment cannot be made at all in one go, and telegraphic transfer charges at that size attract source of funds questions at every provider. What to prepare is covered in the guide to transferring large sums internationally.
How Long a Telegraphic Transfer Takes
How long does a telegraphic transfer take? One to five working days. Euro payments inside the EEA usually clear the next working day, major currencies take two to three, and a thinly traded currency can take five because more banks handle it.
One to Five Working Days
The number of banks in the chain decides the timing, not the distance. Pounds to euros between two large banks is direct and fast. Pounds to a smaller currency may need three intermediaries, each adding a processing cycle.
This is the answer to how long does a telegraphic transfer take in practice: it depends on the currency, not the country. The full breakdown is in the guides to how long a wire transfer takes and how long an international money transfer takes.
The Cut-Off That Costs You a Day
Every bank has a daily cut-off, usually between 2pm and 4pm. A telegraphic transfer submitted after it joins the next working day's batch. Missing it by ten minutes costs a full day, not ten minutes.
Weekends and public holidays at both ends compound it. A payment sent on Friday afternoon into a four day route does not arrive until the following Thursday. If a completion date is attached, send on Monday or Tuesday morning.
The Urgent Fee That Buys You Nothing
Banks sell speed on payments where speed is not theirs to sell. Two examples worth knowing before you pay extra.
- NatWest urgent payments: £15 on top, but standard and urgent euro payments arrive on the same working day. On a euro payment the £15 buys nothing.
- Any payment sent after the cut-off: paying for urgent delivery does not move it into today's batch. It moves tomorrow, at speed.
Speed is decided by the currency and the cut-off, not by the fee. If a payment has a deadline, send it earlier rather than paying more.
How to Avoid Telegraphic Transfer Fees
You avoid telegraphic transfer fees by not sending a telegraphic transfer. Wise, Xe and Remitly move the same money through a different structure, at roughly a seventh of the cost, and with no correspondent chain that can deduct from it.
All three providers below are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and must safeguard customer money in accounts held apart from company funds. None is a bank, so the protection model is different rather than weaker.
Wise
Wise shows the fee and the rate on one screen before you confirm, so the whole price is a single visible number. On the £5,000 to dollars example running through this guide it costs about £28, against about £187 through Lloyds before any deduction in transit.
It also gives you local account details in several currencies, which matters for receiving as much as sending. Dollars arrive into a dollar balance instead of being converted on the way in, and you pick the moment to convert.
The limits are real and worth stating. Wise is not a bank, so balances are safeguarded rather than covered by FSCS. A first large payment triggers verification that can take a day or two, which is a problem if a completion date is close. The full assessment is in the Wise review.
What You Are Actually Comparing
The difference is structural, not a discount. A bank prices the currency conversion as a profit centre and routes the payment through banks it does not control.
- Mid-market rate: the rate you see quoted, with no margin added on top.
- A stated fee: about £28 on £5,000, shown before you confirm.
- No correspondent chain: local payout at each end, so nothing is deducted in transit.
- The recipient gets the full amount: no OUR charge needed, because there is nothing to cover.
On one £5,000 payment that is about £199. On a monthly payment it is over £2,300 a year, for about ten minutes of setup.
Xe
Xe covers a very wide currency range and is built for larger amounts. It offers rate alerts and forward contracts, which let you fix today's rate for a payment you will make months from now.
On a property purchase that feature outweighs every fee on this page. A 4% currency move between exchange and completion on a £300,000 purchase is £12,000. No retail bank account offers a way to remove that risk.
Remitly
Remitly is built around remittance corridors rather than one off large payments. It is strongest for South Asia, the Philippines, Latin America and much of Africa, and it delivers to cash pickup points and mobile wallets.
Neither of those delivery methods is available through a telegraphic transfer at any price. If the recipient has no bank account, the delivery method decides the payment and the fee comparison is secondary.
Which of the three wins depends on the amount, the currency and the destination, and it genuinely changes. Check your own numbers rather than trusting a general rule, including the ones here. The guide to the cheapest international money transfer ranks purely on price.
When You Cannot Avoid a Telegraphic Transfer
Sometimes the recipient requires a bank payment and that is the end of the discussion. Conveyancing solicitors, some university finance offices and some overseas institutions accept nothing else.
If You Have to Send One, Do These Three Things
Sometimes the bank route is the only route. These three steps cut the cost of a telegraphic transfer without changing where you bank.
- Send online, never in branch. Lloyds adds £12 or £20 for a branch or phone payment outside Europe, and HSBC charges £17 by post against £5 online.
- Pay OUR, not the SHA default. It costs £12 to £20 and removes a possible £50 of deductions from the money that arrives.
- Check the rate before you confirm. Search the currency pair, compare it to the rate on screen, and you will see the charge your bank never itemised.
The first two are decisions taken at the point of sending. Neither can be fixed afterwards, which is why they are worth thirty seconds each.
The wider set of routes, priced against each other on the same payment, is in the guide to how to send money internationally.
What You Need to Send a Telegraphic Transfer
You need the recipient's full legal name as their bank holds it, their account details in the destination's format, the SWIFT or BIC code of their bank, and the country and currency they should receive. Some destinations also want the recipient's address and a purpose of payment code.
The Details Your Bank Will Ask For
The account detail format changes by country. Europe and much of the Middle East use an IBAN, a single string containing the country, the bank and the account. The United States uses a nine digit routing number, Australia a six digit BSB, Canada a three digit institution number with a five digit transit number.
Outside the IBAN system you always need a SWIFT or BIC code as well, because that is what identifies the bank on the network. The country by country checklist is in the guide to what bank details you need to transfer money.
Gather all of it before you start. An abandoned telegraphic transfer costs nothing, but one sent with a wrong code can take weeks to unwind.
The Name Rule That Bounces Payments
The recipient's name must match what their bank holds, which is often not how they write it themselves. A missing middle name, a maiden name or a shortened first name is enough to bounce a payment in several countries.
A bounced telegraphic transfer comes back short, because every correspondent bank that already handled it keeps its charge whether the payment arrived or not. Asking the recipient to read their name off a bank statement takes one message.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a telegraphic transfer?
A telegraphic transfer is a bank to bank payment sent across borders through the SWIFT network. It is the same thing a US bank calls an international wire transfer, and the same thing a UK bank statement may call an international payment. The name dates from when banks sent payment instructions by telegraph and has outlived the technology by about a century. Being asked for one is not a request for a special product: any UK current account can send it, and it will cost you a fee of £0 to £25 plus an exchange rate charge of 0.4% to 3.65%.
How much is a telegraphic transfer fee?
Between £0 and £25 at UK banks for the stated fee, but that is not what the payment costs. Barclays charges nothing online, HSBC £5, Lloyds and Halifax £9.50, Nationwide £15 for SWIFT, Santander £25. On top of that sits an exchange rate charge of 0.4% to 3.65%, which on £5,000 is between £20 and £180. Then correspondent banks can deduct £10 to £25 each from the payment in transit. On £5,000 through Lloyds the £9.50 fee is about 5% of the true total of roughly £207.
What is the difference between a telegraphic transfer and a wire transfer?
There is no difference. Telegraphic transfer vs wire transfer is British English against American English for the same product, not two different services. UK, Irish, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Malaysian, Australian and Indian banks say telegraphic transfer or TT. US and Canadian banks say wire transfer. Both travel on SWIFT, both pass through correspondent banks, and both carry the same three costs: the bank's fee, the exchange rate margin, and whatever the banks in the middle deduct.
Why did less money arrive than I sent?
Correspondent banks. A telegraphic transfer passes through one or two banks that hold accounts with each other, and each can deduct a handling charge of £10 to £25 before passing the payment on. Your bank did not take that money and cannot recover it, because the deducting bank has no relationship with either of you and charged under its own published tariff. It happens because the payment defaulted to the shared charging option, SHA. To prevent it, choose to pay all charges yourself, OUR, which costs £12 to £20 extra at most UK banks.
Who pays telegraphic transfer charges, the sender or the recipient?
Whoever the charge code says, and your bank has usually picked it already. Almost every UK online international payment defaults to SHA, shared, which means you pay your bank's fee and the recipient absorbs every other deduction. Lloyds states this in its own guidance for online and app payments. The alternative is OUR, where you pay the intermediary charges too and the recipient gets the full amount. Santander lets you change it in Online Banking under Expenses paid by. BEN, where the recipient pays everything including your fee, exists but is rare on personal payments.
How long does a telegraphic transfer take?
One to five working days, decided by the currency rather than the distance. Euro payments inside the EEA usually clear the next working day. Payments to major currencies such as US dollars take two to three working days. A thinly traded currency may need three correspondent banks and take five. Cut-off times between 2pm and 4pm decide whether the payment starts moving today or tomorrow, and weekends and public holidays at both ends stack on top. If a completion date is attached, send on a Monday or Tuesday morning.
What are correspondent bank charges?
They are handling charges taken by the banks that move your money between your bank and the recipient's bank. Two banks can only pay each other directly if they hold accounts with each other, and most do not, so the payment travels through a chain of banks that do. Each one in the chain is a correspondent bank, also called an intermediary bank, and each can deduct £10 to £25. The charge comes out of the payment rather than being billed to you, which is why the amount that arrives is often an odd number.
Can I avoid telegraphic transfer fees?
Yes, in most cases, by not sending a telegraphic transfer at all. A specialist provider converts at the mid-market rate, charges a stated fee, and pays out from a local account in the destination country, so there is no correspondent chain to deduct anything. On £5,000 to US dollars that is about £28 against about £187 through Lloyds. The exception is when the recipient requires a bank payment, common for property completions and some university fees. In that case send online rather than in branch and pay OUR.
Is a telegraphic transfer safe?
Yes. It moves through the regulated banking system with a full audit trail, which is exactly why solicitors ask for one on a property purchase. The money leaves a named account and arrives in a named account, and the paperwork is unambiguous. The risks are not about security, they are about cost and certainty: you cannot know in advance what the correspondent banks will deduct, and a payment sent with a wrong account code or a mismatched name can take weeks to unwind.
Do I pay a fee to receive a telegraphic transfer?
Often, yes. HSBC charges £5 to receive a payment in a foreign currency, NatWest charges £1 under £100 and £7 above it, and TSB charges the same. Barclays and Nationwide charge nothing. There is also a conversion charge on the way in if the money needs converting: Nationwide applies 0.5%, and Starling applies 2%, which is five times what it charges to send. Check the receiving column of your bank's tariff, not just the sending column, if money is coming to you regularly.
The Bottom Line on Telegraphic Transfer Fees
The stated telegraphic transfer fee is the smallest of the three charges on the payment, and usually by a wide margin. On £5,000 through a UK high street bank, a £9.50 fee sits alongside about £178 of exchange rate charge and up to £50 of deductions in transit.
The Check Worth Doing Every Time
Before you confirm any telegraphic transfer, do two things. Search the currency pair and compare the mid-market rate against the rate on your screen, because the gap is the real charge. Then look for the charge option and decide whether the recipient can afford to receive less.
Both take under a minute and neither requires changing bank. On a £5,000 payment they are worth roughly £180 and £40 respectively.
If You Send Money Regularly
Open a Wise account once, while nothing is urgent, and verify your identity then rather than against a deadline. The saving on a single £5,000 payment is about £199. Repeated monthly it is over £2,300 a year.
Keep the bank route for the payments that genuinely require it. A conveyancing completion is worth £207 of telegraphic transfer charges. A monthly payment to family is not.
Sources
Fees, margins and charge options on this page were checked against the banks' own published tariffs on 31 August 2026. Bank pricing changes without much notice, so confirm the figures that apply to your payment before you send it.
- HSBC UK, international money transfer, the £5 online fee, the £17 postal fee, the receiving charges and the 2.2% conversion charge with its taper.
- Lloyds Bank, sending an international payment, the £9.50 fee, the 3.55% margin, the £12 and £20 zone charges, and the shared charging option wording.
- Nationwide, SWIFT and SEPA international payments, the £15 SWIFT fee, 2.2% out and 0.5% in, no sending limit, and the intermediary BIC.
- Santander UK, making international payments, the £25 fee, the tiered margin, and the Expenses paid by charge option.
- Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Services Register, to confirm a provider is authorised before sending anything large.
- World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, the global average cost of sending money across corridors.
Worked examples use the same £5,000 payment to a US dollar account throughout, so the routes are compared like for like.
Mohammad Humaid
Verified AuthorMo is the founder of MoneyTransferStore. As an expat who has experienced the challenges of sending money across borders himself, he set out to help others like him avoid hidden fees and unfair exchange rates on international transfers. With a background spanning fintech, payments, and Web3, Mo brings years of practical experience to building a platform focused on transparency and trust.
