About this site

This Website provides data on the cost of sending and receiving small amounts of money from one country to another. Called remittances, these international transfers are often initiated by migrant workers. The aggregate cash flows and the number of participants are enormous. In fact, the World Bank estimates that remittances totaled $397 billion in 2008, of which $305 billion went to developing countries, involving some 190 million migrants or 3.0% of world population. The money received is an important source of family (and national) income in many developing economies, representing in some cases a very relevant percentage of the GDP of the receiving countries. The site covers 134 "country corridors" worldwide. The corridors studied flow from 14 major remittance sending countries to 72 receiving countries, representing around 60% of total remittances to developing countries.

The research and publication of remittance pricing worldwide serves four important purposes: benchmarking improvements, allowing comparisons among countries, supporting consumers’ choices, and putting pressure on service providers to improve their services. The World Bank enjoys a leading role in much of the global work on remittances and has supported a number of initiatives in the field. Learn more...

How much does it cost to remit?

FromTo
Find out by selecting sending and receiving countries below:


Least costly "country corridors" ($200):

Least costly Canada corridors:
 
Least costly France corridors:
 

Least costly Germany corridors :
 
Least costly Italy corridors:
 
Least costly Japan corridors:
 
Least costly Malaysia corridors:
 
Least costly Netherlands corridors:
 
Least costly Saudi Arabia corridors:
 
Least costly Singapore corridors:
 
Least costly South Africa corridors:
 
Least costly Spain corridors:
 
Least costly United Kingdom corridors:
 
Least costly United States corridors:
 
Note: In some corridors, exchange rate information was not available for all the operators, and therefore prices in those corridors may be higher than the amount shown. For additional details refer to corridor-specific notes and explanations.

The most and least costly "country corridors":

$200$500
Country Corridors
Average cost in US$
Top 5 (least costly):
 
Saudi Arabia to Pakistan
5.00
Saudi Arabia to Yemen
5.39
Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh
5.68
Singapore to Bangladesh
5.85
Saudi Arabia to India
6.15
Bottom 5 (most costly):
 
South Africa to Zambia
49.81
South Africa to Malawi
41.16
South Africa to Mozambique
39.76
Germany to China
38.96
South Africa to Botswana
37.99

Note: Cost includes the transaction fee and exchange rate margin. Only those corridors with a sufficient degree of transparency (i.e. all the relevant information was provided by all RSPs) are featured. Thus, for example, other corridors for which part of the information is not available or disclosed might result in practice more costly. Corridor averages are unweighted and do not reflect the market shares of the different firms that compose the average.

What's new

In March 2009, Remittances Prices Worldwide published new data for the first time since the site was launched in September 2008. Several new features have been added. Read More

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