International wire transfer fees: Wise, Revolut, banks and USDC

To compare international wire transfer fees, you have to add two things: the provider’s listed fees and the gap between its exchange rate and the mid-market rate. On published fee pages, 2,000 USD to EUR costs from $5 (a Chase euro wire, plus an undisclosed rate margin) to $25 (Revolut Standard on a weekend). Sending 2,000 EUR to JPY from ING Germany costs about €40.

How we checked this

We used each provider’s own fee page or price list: Wise’s US pricing page, its US fee disclosure and its help center; Revolut’s US exchange-fee help page and UK Standard fee terms; Chase’s Total Checking fee page and wire FAQ; ING Germany’s price list (dated 24.09.2026); and Coinbase’s fee disclosures and USDC page. As the benchmark we took the ECB euro reference rates for September 23, 2026: 1 EUR = 1.1411 USD and 1 EUR = 180.20 JPY. All worked examples below are arithmetic on those published numbers. None is a live quote.

Facts checked on September 24, 2026. Fees change often, so treat every number here as dated.

Where the formulas come from

The general formula for any route is the same:

Total cost = listed fees + (amount × rate margin) + fees charged by other banks along the way

The rate margin is the difference between the rate you get and a mid-market benchmark. We use the ECB reference rate because it is public, dated and free to check. The ECB itself says its rates are “published for information purposes only” and that using them for transactions “is strongly discouraged.” They are published around 16:00 CET on working days, so they are a snapshot, not the rate a provider will trade at an hour later. For comparing routes, that is fine. For predicting the exact euro amount that lands, it is not.

Here is what each provider publishes about its own part of the formula.

Two notes on this table. Wise does not publish a single percentage for USD→EUR or EUR→JPY on its static pages; its send-money pricing page sends you to the calculator for the actual number, and its help center says the percentage “varies from currency to currency.” And Revolut’s US page covers exchanges inside the app; the fee for the outgoing transfer itself is shown live in the app, per the UK terms, and is not published as a fixed number.

Worked examples: USD to EUR

Benchmark: 1 EUR = 1.1411 USD (ECB, September 23, 2026). At that rate, 500 USD is €438.17, 2,000 USD is €1,752.69 and 10,000 USD is €8,763.47. Every cost below is measured against those figures.

How we got these:

• Wise. We only have a range, so we show the published floor: the lowest conversion fee (0.22%) plus the ACH pay-in fee (0.17%). The real USD→EUR percentage is almost certainly not the floor, which is why this column says “at least.” Wise’s calculator shows the actual figure for your amount.
• Revolut. Standard plan, assuming no other exchanges that month. The first $1,000 is free; 0.5% applies above that, so $5 on 2,000 USD and $45 on 10,000 USD. On a weekend, the 1% out-of-hours fee applies to the whole amount on top. This assumes Revolut’s weekday rate matches the ECB rate, which it will not exactly, and it leaves out the transfer fee shown in the app.
• Chase. The wire fee is the easy part: $5 online in euros, $0 at $5,000 or more. The rate is the hard part. Chase shows it before you confirm, but does not publish a margin. Each 1% of margin costs $5 on 500 USD, $20 on 2,000 USD and $100 on 10,000 USD, so the margin will usually matter more than the fee. Sending the wire in USD instead costs $40 and hands the conversion to the receiving bank, at a rate you do not see in advance.
• USDC. On Coinbase in the US, USD to USDC is 1:1 with no fee. The euro end is where the cost sits: you need a platform that sells USDC for EUR and pays out by SEPA, and that sale carries a spread. Coinbase does not publish a fixed USDC→EUR spread, so the table has no USDC column.

Worked examples: EUR to JPY

Benchmark: 1 EUR = 180.20 JPY (ECB, September 23, 2026). So 500 EUR is ¥90,100, 2,000 EUR is ¥360,400 and 10,000 EUR is ¥1,802,000.

The bank route here is a German current account at ING, because ING publishes a full price list. We treat the 1.00% conversion charge as 1% of the amount sent.

The yen column assumes no fees are deducted by other banks. With SHA, that assumption often fails, as the next section explains. With OUR, you pay €12 more and ING covers those charges at a flat rate.

For Wise, Revolut and USDC on this route there is no fixed published number to use. Wise’s EUR→JPY percentage sits on its calculator, not on a static page. Revolut’s US and UK terms used here don’t cover an account with its European entity, so check the terms for your country. And a USDC route to yen needs an off-ramp that pays out to a Japanese bank, which none of the sources here documents. If you live between Japan and another country, our guide to banking as a digital nomad in Japan and Vietnam covers the receiving side.

What a bank wire can cost beyond the listed wire transfer fees

The fee on the bank’s fee page is rarely the whole cost. Three things sit outside it.

The rate margin. Chase lists its wire fees clearly but does not state how far its foreign-exchange rate sits from mid-market. ING does state its charge (1.00% for JPY and USD, 1.50% for currencies such as PLN or AUD, 2.00% for THB, HKD and others). On 10,000 EUR, ING’s 1% is €100 against a €20 wire fee. The conversion is the cost; the wire fee is the rounding.

Intermediary and recipient bank fees. A SWIFT payment can pass through correspondent banks, and each may take a cut. Chase’s own FAQ lists “Recipient bank and/or intermediary bank has deducted processing fees” as a reason a wire arrives short. ING spells out the choice: with SHA, “the recipient covers his bank’s fees and possible fees of intermediary correspondent banks”; with OUR, you pay a flat charge for “all additional charges that can arise through correspondent banks.” On a wire to Japan, SHA is cheaper for you and more expensive for your recipient.

Receiving fees. The receiving side can charge too. Chase Total Checking charges $15 for an incoming wire, domestic or international, with some exceptions. Wise charges $6.11 to receive a USD wire into a Wise account. If you are invoicing clients, that fee comes out of your payment; our guide to invoicing clients in USD and EUR covers how to set that up.

When does USDC beat Wise?

On paper, the USDC route is attractive for USD holders: Coinbase converts USD to USDC 1:1 with no fee, and moving USDC between wallets is cheap on most networks. But you are not sending USDC, you are sending euros or yen. The full formula is:

USD → USDC (free on Coinbase US) + network fee + USDC → EUR sale (spread) + payout fee (SEPA or local)

USDC beats Wise only when the last two items add up to less than Wise’s fee for the same amount. Coinbase says spreads are included in its quoted prices and can be seen in the order preview. It does not publish a fixed spread for USDC to EUR. So there is no honest way to say from documents alone which is cheaper. The comparison needs a same-day quote from both.

A few structural points hold regardless of price. You need verified accounts at both ends, and a platform that pays out in the destination currency. Some countries treat selling a stablecoin as a taxable disposal even at a stable price, so check with a tax professional where you live. And a USDC transfer sent to the wrong address or network usually cannot be reversed the way a bank payment sometimes can. Our explainer on stablecoin cards covers the spending side of the same rails.

Using the tables as a calculator

To estimate your own transfer, take the listed fees for your route from the tables above, add the amount times the rate margin, and add any fees other banks may take along the way. Then compare that with the live quote each provider shows before you confirm.

If you are choosing between the two app-based options for day-to-day use, our Wise vs Revolut comparison looks at living on both, not just sending money once.

Where it goes wrong

• Weekend transfers. Revolut adds 1% on Standard between 17:00 Friday and 18:00 Sunday ET. Wise’s US disclosure lists a “variable volatility fee” of 0–10%. Sending on a weekday avoids most of this.
• Fair-usage limits reset on a rolling month, not the calendar month. A $1,000 exchange on the 20th still counts against Revolut’s Standard limit on the 10th of the next month.
• Paying in with a card. Wise lists card pay-in fees up to 7.80%. On 2,000 USD, that could be more than any other cost in this article.
• Sending USD to a non-USD account. A USD wire from Chase costs $40 and leaves the conversion to the receiving bank, at a rate you only see afterward.
• Choosing SHA by default. Your recipient may receive less than you sent, with no advance notice of how much less.
• Using the ECB rate as a promise. It is a benchmark from mid-afternoon Frankfurt time. Live rates move.

This article is for education. It is not financial, tax or legal advice. For large or regular transfers tied to business income or residency, talk to a qualified professional.

Go deeper

• Money without borders — all our guides on living and working across currencies
• Money tools for expats and freelancers (2026): accounts, cards, invoicing, AI bookkeeping
• Wise vs Revolut for living in two countries
• Stablecoin cards (USDC): how they work, fees, and where they fail
• Invoicing clients in USD and EUR as a freelancer: a setup that survives moving countries