The arithmetic
Five deductions, and the one nobody quotes
A worked transfer of GBP 2,000 to the eurozone, at a mid-market rate of 1.17. Every figure below is what the calculator on the home page returns for it.
01
The advertised fee
EUR 0.47
The one number a provider puts on its own page. On this transfer the app charges GBP 0.40, which lands as EUR 0.47. The broker charges nothing at all, and is the expensive one.
It is the smallest of the five on most transfers, and the only one a comparison table usually carries.
02
The percentage fee
EUR 12.87
0.55% of GBP 2,000. It is honest, it is quoted, and it is the one deduction that grows in step with the amount rather than shrinking against it.
A flat fee gets cheaper as a proportion as you send more. A percentage fee never does.
03
The exchange-rate markup
EUR 67.86
The broker charges no fee and takes 2.9% in the rate. Nothing on its page calls this a cost, because it is not charged, it is simply a worse rate than the one on the screen behind you.
This is where a zero-commission provider earns, and it is the largest of the five here by a factor of five.
04
The intermediary deduction
EUR 0.00
A correspondent bank in the chain takes a fixed amount in transit. Neither the sender nor the recipient chose it, and neither is told in advance.
Zero on this corridor. On a thin corridor it is routinely 15 to 30 in the receive currency.
05
The receiving bank charge
EUR 0.00
Applied at the far end, after the sender has stopped looking. The sender sees a confirmation for the full amount and the recipient sees less.
Zero here. It is the deduction most likely to be blamed on the sender.
Four of the five are quoted. The fifth decides it.
The broker’s entire cost on this transfer, EUR 67.86, sits in the rate, where no comparison table looks. The app’s three quoted deductions come to EUR 21.48 between them. That is the whole of the difference.