How the result is calculated
Sending money abroad costs you twice: once in any fee the provider charges upfront, and again in the exchange rate, which is usually set a little below the mid-market rate so the provider keeps the difference. Banks tend to advertise the first and stay quiet about the second. This guide explains how the comparison puts both into one figure, where its prices come from, and why a provider with no fee can still be one of the dearest ways to send.
Every price in the table comes from Wise's public comparison of banks and money transfer services. For each route and amount, Wise records what a provider charges, the rate it converts at, and what the recipient ends up with. It checks each provider at its own times, not all at once, so two rows can describe prices from different hours. The table ranks the providers by the amount received and nothing else.
To show what each quote costs you, the comparison sets it against the mid-market rate from Open Exchange Rates, the same hourly rate the currency converter uses. The amount you send, converted at that rate, is what the recipient would get if exchanging money were free. Whatever falls short of it is the provider's whole charge, fee and margin together, measured in the receiving currency.
received(amount − fee) × rate
cost vs mid-marketamount × mid − received
- amount
- what you send, in the sending currency
- fee
- the provider's upfront fee, in the sending currency
- rate
- the exchange rate the provider converts at
- mid
- the Open Exchange Rates mid-market rate for the pair
Worked example
These figures come from Wise's comparison for £1,000 sent from Britain to India, recorded on 24 October 2026, when the Open Exchange Rates mid-market rate was 126.9862 rupees to the pound. At that rate £1,000 is worth ₹126,986.20. Live prices will have moved since; the arithmetic does not change.
| Item | Amount | How it is obtained |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-market value | ₹126,986.20 | 1,000 × 126.9862 |
| Lloyds delivers | ₹121,255.74 | (1,000 − 9.50) × 122.4187, a 3.66% markup |
| Lloyds' cost vs mid-market | ₹5,730.46 | 126,986.20 − 121,255.74 |
| Remitly delivers | ₹126,680.00 | (1,000 − 0) × 126.68, a 0.31% markup |
| Remitly's cost vs mid-market | ₹306.20 | 126,986.20 − 126,680.00 |
| Remitly delivers more by | ₹5,424.26 | 126,680.00 − 121,255.74 |
Of Lloyds' ₹5,730.46, the £9.50 fee accounts for about ₹1,206, its value at the mid-market rate. The other ₹4,524 or so is the margin in the rate, nearly four times the fee.
The second example is the one that surprises people. Barclays charged no fee on the same transfer; Wise charged £5.14.
| Item | Amount | How it is obtained |
|---|---|---|
| Barclays delivers | ₹123,625.61 | 1,000 × 123.6256, a 2.71% markup |
| Barclays' cost vs mid-market | ₹3,360.59 | 126,986.20 − 123,625.61 |
| Wise delivers | ₹126,421.83 | (1,000 − 5.14) × 127.075, a 0.00% markup |
| Wise's cost vs mid-market | ₹564.37 | 126,986.20 − 126,421.83 |
| Wise delivers more by | ₹2,796.22 | despite the fee |
A 2.71% margin on £1,000 is worth about £27, more than five times Wise's fee.
Reading the result
The headline names the provider that delivers the most and how much more it delivers than the provider at the bottom. On the recorded £1,000 transfer that was WorldRemit at ₹126,699.33 against Santander UK at ₹119,932.56, a spread of ₹6,766.77, or about £53 at the mid-market rate.
Each row then gives the fee in the sending currency, the rate, the markup, the amount received and the cost vs mid-market. The markup is Wise's figure: the percentage by which the provider's rate sits below the mid-market rate Wise uses. A negative markup means the provider was converting above that rate when it was checked, as WorldRemit was at minus 0.05%, which usually signals a promotional price paired with a fee. WorldRemit's £3.49 fee still left it ahead of every provider.
The markup and the cost column use different benchmarks read at different moments, so they can disagree by up to about 0.2%. Wise's own markup is zero by definition, yet its rate of 127.075 was about 0.07% above the Open Exchange Rates figure, which is why its cost of ₹564.37 is less than its fee converted, about ₹653.
What changes the result
The amount you send
Fees are often fixed or stepped, so they matter most on small transfers, while a margin grows in step with the amount. Wise's fee was £1.03 at £100 and £46.36 at £10,000; Remitly's was £1.99 at £100 and nothing at £10,000. The markups stayed the same.
| Item | Amount | How it is obtained |
|---|---|---|
| Wise at £100 | ₹12,576.61 | (100 − 1.03) × 127.075 |
| Remitly at £100 | ₹12,415.91 | (100 − 1.99) × 126.68 |
| Wise at £10,000 | ₹1,264,858.80 | (10,000 − 46.36) × 127.075 |
| Remitly at £10,000 | ₹1,266,800.00 | 10,000 × 126.68 |
| Ahead of the other | Wise at £100 | Remitly at £1,000 and £10,000 |
These quotes were recorded on 24 October 2026, when both providers used the same rate at every amount and only the fee changed. Live prices will differ; the pattern of a fee fading as the amount grows will not.
Banks or transfer services
The filter narrows the table to banks or to transfer services. On the recorded route, the British high street names carried markups from 0.89% at HSBC to 3.66% at Lloyds, while Remitly, Skrill, Western Union and Xoom stayed between 0.31% and 1.10%. State Bank of India, at 0.33%, shows that a bank with a corridor of its own can price like a specialist.
Who publishes the data
Wise publishes the comparison and is also our partner: CentExact earns a commission when someone uses the link on Wise's row, which is labelled. The ranking rule is the same for every row, so Wise sits fifth on the recorded transfer, below four providers that delivered more.
What is not included
- First-transfer offers. Many services price a first transfer more keenly to win a customer; the table shows standard prices.
- Charges after arrival. A recipient's bank or a cash pickup agent may take its own cut.
- Card funding. Paying by credit or debit card often costs more than a bank transfer, and some providers add a separate fee.
- Taxes on sending. The US remittance excise tax on transfers funded with cash, money orders or similar is left out.
Using the result
Treat the ranking as a shortlist. Pick the two or three providers near the top for your amount, ask each for a live quote on the same day, and compare the amount the recipient will get rather than the fee or the rate on its own. Check how you will pay and how the money will be collected, since both change the price. For a large transfer, a margin difference of half a percent is worth more than any fee in the table.