What it costs to send money to and from South Africa
Sending money from South Africa
| Corridor | Cheapest | Typical | Providers |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Africa → India | 4.21% | 6.17% | 8 |
| South Africa → Kenya | 4.38% | 7.33% | 10 |
| South Africa → Mozambique | 3.93% | 7.99% | 10 |
| South Africa → Eswatini | 1.82% | 8.87% | 6 |
| South Africa → Lesotho | 1.82% | 9.13% | 7 |
| South Africa → Nigeria | -0.40% | 9.73% | 9 |
| South Africa → Zimbabwe | 4.97% | 10.35% | 14 |
| South Africa → Zambia | 5.20% | 13.01% | 13 |
| South Africa → Botswana | 4.27% | 14.46% | 11 |
| South Africa → Tanzania | 6.60% | 14.63% | 7 |
| South Africa → Angola | 8.20% | 15.29% | 8 |
| South Africa → China | 16.55% | 20.77% | 5 |
| South Africa → Malawi | 14.46% | 32.18% | 13 |
Sending money to South Africa
| Corridor | Cheapest | Typical | Providers |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States → South Africa | 1.92% | 5.67% | 7 |
| United Kingdom → South Africa | 2.09% | 5.71% | 8 |
Why the spread is so wide
On most of these corridors the dearest way to send money costs several times the cheapest. The gap is rarely about speed or convenience — it is about who you send with. Across the corridors here where the survey priced both, a bank cost more than a transfer operator on 26 of 27, and the difference is worth more than any other single decision in the transfer.
That holds for the amounts the survey prices, which are small — the sums people actually remit. It can reverse on a large transfer, because a bank's flat fee stops mattering once the amount is big enough. Each corridor page prices every provider at whatever amount you enter, which is the only way to see which case you are in.
Part of the cost is also hidden by design. Providers advertise the fee and stay quiet about the exchange rate, so a transfer with no fee at all can be the expensive one once the margin on the rate is counted. Every corridor page here separates the two.
