International Business Money Transfers

If you pay overseas suppliers, contractors, or international payroll, the right provider can save you thousands a year — and the wrong one buries the cost in the exchange rate where you never see it.

You can rely on the figures below: we checked them against provider pricing, the FCA, and the Bank of England in June 2026. For the mechanics of how transfers work, see our guide to international money transfers.

Two Routes for Business Payments

Choose your route by how you pay, not by the brand name. UK businesses split between two types of provider, and they suit different jobs.

If you make frequent payments, look first at multi-currency accounts — Wise Business, Revolut Business, Airwallex. You hold balances in many currencies, get local account details to receive like a local, and pay suppliers over local rails — skipping the SWIFT intermediary fees that eat into a bank wire.

They shine for the frequent, smaller payments and automated payroll you run every month.

If you move big, planned sums, the FX specialists — OFX, WorldFirst, Currencies Direct, Moneycorp — are dealer-led: a named account manager, keen rates on volume, and hedging tools the apps don’t offer.

So if you run high-frequency payouts, lean fintech; if you’re moving a big lump for a supplier contract or repatriating profit, we’d call a specialist. That’s the whole choice.

What Business Transfers Cost

You’re charged two things: the FX margin baked into the rate and any platform or transfer fee. The margin is usually the bigger cost, and it’s the one you can’t see on a receipt.

Banks don’t itemise the spread, but independent comparison services put high-street business FX margins at 2.5% to 4% over the mid-market rate. When you run a six-figure supplier payment, that gap is the difference between keeping and losing real margin.

Pay a supplier in dollars on a Monday morning through your high-street bank, and the margin is gone before the wire even clears.

Compare the amount received in your supplier’s account, never the headline fee. That single figure nets the margin and the fee together, and we rate it the only honest way to compare. The hidden margin costs you, not the fee.

Provider Pricing Compared

Here’s what you’ll pay, verified against each provider’s own pricing page in June 2026.

Watch Revolut’s weekend trap: once you pass your plan’s fee-free allowance, conversions cost 0.6%, and anything you exchange out of market hours carries an extra 1%.

If you want the simplest pricing, we rate Wise the transparency benchmark — the mid-market rate with a small, visible fee. Airwallex bakes a fixed 0.5% into the rate but waives its monthly fee once you hold £10,000.

Paying Suppliers at Scale: Batch Payments

If you pay a list of suppliers or contractors each month, look for batch payments before anything else — we rate it the first feature to check. Uploading one file beats keying in 40 transfers by hand.

If you pay a long list, the limits matter: Wise Business runs payouts to up to 1,000 recipients at once, Revolut unlocks bulk payments on the Grow plan and above, and Airwallex adds a full API for programmatic payroll. The FX specialists take a bulk upload for supplier runs too.

When payday lands on a Friday and 40 contractors need paying, that one upload turns an afternoon into five minutes.

Managing Currency Risk: Forward Contracts and Hedging

If you’ve a big payment due in months, fix the rate now instead of gambling on where the market goes.

You’ll find forward contracts and hedging with the FX specialists, not the multi-currency apps — those are built for payments, not rate protection.

You can fix it with a forward contract, which locks today’s rate for a transfer that settles later, so when that supplier invoice falls due at quarter-end, the cost is already set. It usually needs a 5% to 10% deposit up front.

If you need a longer lock, OFX goes up to 12 months out, while Moneycorp, Currencies Direct, and WorldFirst go up to 24 months for business clients. You’re protected if the rate moves against you, but you give up the gain if it moves your way.

The catch: you lose the upside.

A limit order targets a better rate and fires automatically if the market hits it; a stop-loss triggers if the rate falls to your worst-case level, so a slide can’t run away from you.

Is Your Business Money Protected?

Check the provider on the FCA Register — we always do — and know which protection you’re getting, because a fintech and a bank guard your money very differently.

If you use Wise, Airwallex, or OFX, you’re with an e-money or payment institution, not a bank, so FSCS doesn’t apply. They safeguard your funds instead: segregated from their own money, ring-fenced at a bank, and never lent out.

A UK bank gives you FSCS deposit protection — now up to £120,000 per eligible person per firm (raised from £85,000 on 1 December 2025). Safeguarding protects you, but it is not the same as FSCS.

If the firm fails, safeguarding repays you from a ring-fenced pool, but more slowly, and an administrator’s costs can come out first.

Revolut is the moving part: it launched Revolut Bank UK Ltd on 11 March 2026 and is migrating customers in phases, so check which entity your business account sits on — the bank (FSCS) or the e-money one — before you rely on either.

From 7 May 2026 the FCA’s PS25/12 rules tightened safeguarding: daily reconciliations, annual audits, and monthly returns — useful reassurance if you hold a large payroll float with an EMI.

International Business Money Transfer FAQs

Methodology and Disclosure