This thread is a follow-up to another thread, I thought that it鈥檚 worth starting a new one (the other thread can be found here: (/en/forum/south-am 鈥� ocked.html). It inspired me to make 3 identical transfers on the same day, with 3 different methods, in order to compare the fees, eg to compare how much money got credited to my Brazilian account (a NuBank Pix account). Since NuBank doesn鈥檛 allow international transfers directly, it is necessary to use an intermediary like Wise, Western Union, or Remessa Online. It鈥檚 not rare that foreigners living in Brazil are in this situation, since there aren鈥檛 a lot of banks that allow you to open an account without a proof of address, for example an electricity bill. NuBank is less 鈥減icky鈥�, but you don鈥檛 get an international account number (IBAN) with your account, which is why you need an intermediary.
So here it goes: this Monday, I transferred 65 Swiss francs to a Brazilian bank account (not my NuBank account) directly, using its IBAN. 65 Swiss francs is about 82 US$ with yesterday鈥檚 exchange rate. The transfer arrived within a few hours (the same afternoon), and the BR account got credited 426 Reais.
At the same time, I made a Western Union transfer from my credit card (linked to a Swiss bank account) to my NuBank Pix account of 65 francs. The money arrived on my Pix account within a couple of minutes, almost immediately, but I received only 414 Reais. Not only that, but Western Union added a transfer fee to my credit card, which resulted in a charge of 68 francs instead of 65 (or 85.5 US$ instead of 82).
Lastly, I used the Wise app to transfer 65 francs from my Swiss account to my Pix account. This transfer was relatively slow, it took about 12 hours. However, I received 423 Reais on my Pix account, which is considerably better than the Western Union transfer.
Summary:
Amount sent: 65 Swiss francs, approximately 434 Reais according to the exchange rate that was published on different websites that day.
1. Direct international transfer from account to account with an IBAN: 426 Reais received
2. Money transfer via Western Union, using a credit card to pay for it (I don鈥檛 know if Western Union accepts other forms of payment, credit card seems to be the standard): 414 Reais received, minus 3 Swiss francs (about 20 Reais!) that got charged to my credit card in addition to the 65 that I was transferring. Had I taken this into account beforehand and transferred 62 instead of 65, I would have received about 394 (!) Reais.
3. Transfer of 65 francs from my Swiss bank account to my Pix account, by using the Wise app: received 423 Reais, after about 12 hours (which is a very minor inconvenience, considering how much cheaper it was).
I didn鈥檛 do a transfer via Remessa Online, I might still do that (and will update the thread if I do).
All in all, it seems that Wise is only slightly more expensive than a direct (account to account) international transaction, and almost as fast and convenient. Western Union is the fastest by far, which can be useful if you need to pay something and don鈥檛 have enough money on your Pix account, but this is obviously rarely an issue. Given how much more expensive it is, it鈥檚 well worth planning ahead and sending your money to Brazil via Wise, if you do not have (yet) a Brazilian account with an international account number (IBAN).
I hope that this is as useful to some people as it is to me, please share your experiences if you have something to add.
