Wire transfers can be an expensive way to move money from one bank account to another, with typical outgoing fees of $25 per transfer within the U.S.
If you’re sending a lot of money or need a transfer to happen quickly, it might be your best or only option. You can find a few banks that offer free wire transfers, but if you don’t need a wire, there are cheaper ways to send money.
- Skip to see banks that offer free wire transfers
- Skip to see other, cheaper ways to send money
Nerdy Perspective
If you only send wire transfers occasionally, don’t let your bank’s fees be a dealbreaker.I’ve only ever sent one wire transfer in my whole life when I moved money into escrow for the down payment on my house. The fee I paid was so small compared to the total that I don’t remember what it was. But if I lived a life that required moving large sums of money around often, I’d get an account with fee-free wire transfers. The math doesn’t work out for me to do this, but does it work out for you?
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Do you really need to send a wire transfer?
A wire transfer makes sense when you’re sending large amounts of money (think many thousands), like for a real estate transaction.
It also makes sense if you want to send that large amount of money quickly since domestic wire transfers can be completed within the same day. International wire transfers can take several business days but that's still probably the fastest way to move that money.
Do yourself a favor before sending a wire and check your bank’s limits for other types of transfers, like ACH (Automated Clearing House). ACH transfers are usually free, but tend to have lower limits and be slower than wires.
Which banks offer free wire transfers?
Of the banks we researched, only Fidelity had $0 options for all four types of wire transfers. But there are other banks that offer some wire transfers for free.
Banks with free incoming domestic and international wire transfers
- Alliant Credit Union
- Ally Bank
- Axos Bank
- BMO Bank
- Boeing Employees Credit Union
- Capital One 360
- Connexus Credit Union
- EverBank
- Fidelity
- Navy Federal Credit Union
- Pentagon Federal Credit Union
- Security Service Federal Credit Union
- State Employees’ Credit Union
- USAA
- Wells Fargo
Banks with free incoming domestic wire transfers only
- Charles Schwab Bank
- Synchrony Bank
Banks with free outgoing domestic wire transfers
- Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Banks with free outgoing international wire transfers
- Bank of America, if sent in foreign currency
- Chase, if sent in foreign currency and transfer is $5,000 or more
- Wells Fargo, if sent online in foreign currency
» Going abroad? Check out NerdWallet's best banks for international travel
How much does a wire transfer cost at your bank?
This list only includes fees charged directly by banks and credit unions on their standard accounts (some premium accounts offer free wire transfers). If intermediary banks or a teller help you process a wire transfer, you may be charged an additional fee.
If you want to compare, the median wire transfer fee for the institutions we surveyed is:
- $15 for incoming domestic wire transfers,
- $25 for outgoing domestic wire transfers,
- $15 for incoming international wire transfers and
- $45 for outgoing international wire transfers.
Here are the wire transfer fees for a few banks. You'll find more banks and their fees in the tables below. Note that not all banks offer every type of wire transfer.
Ally Bank wire transfer fees
- Incoming domestic: $0*.
- Outgoing domestic: $20.
- Incoming international: $0*.
- Outgoing international: Not available.
Bank of America wire transfer fees
- Incoming domestic: $15.
- Outgoing domestic: $30.
- Incoming international: $15.
- Outgoing international: $0 if sent in foreign currency; $45 if sent in U.S. dollars.
Chase wire transfer fees
- Incoming domestic: $15 ($0 if coming from Chase).
- Outgoing domestic: $25 online; $35 in a branch.
- Incoming international: $15 ($0 if coming from Chase).
- Outgoing international: $5 if sent in foreign currency (or $0 for transfers of $5,000 or more); $40 if sent online in U.S. dollars (or $50, with banker assistance, in either foreign currency or U.S. dollars).
Wells Fargo wire transfer fees
- Incoming domestic: $0.
- Outgoing domestic: $25; $40 in a branch.
- Incoming international: $0.
- Outgoing international: $0 if sent online in foreign currency; $25 if sent online in U.S. dollars; $40 in a branch for either U.S. dollars or foreign currency.
Wells Fargo also offers a remittance transfer service called ExpressSend, which mainly works with Latin American and Asian countries. You can use Wells Fargo’s cost estimator to see if using this service would be cheaper than sending a wire with the bank.
» Ready to send funds? Get the details on how to wire money
🤓Nerdy Tip
OK but why do some banks charge for wire transfers when others don't?Banks charge for wire transfers because they're doing work on your behalf to process the money. A free wire transfer at a bank is a perk, essentially. Incoming/outgoing domestic wire transfer fees | Incoming/outgoing international wire transfer fees |
|---|---|
Incoming domestic: $0*. Outgoing domestic: $25. | Incoming international: $0*. Outgoing international: $50. |
Incoming domestic: $0*. Outgoing domestic: $30. | Incoming international: $0*. Outgoing international: $40, only available in-branch. |
Incoming domestic: $0*. Outgoing domestic: $25. | Incoming international: Not available. Outgoing international: Not available. |
Incoming domestic: Not available. Outgoing domestic: $0*. | Incoming international: Not available. Outgoing international: Not available. |
Incoming domestic: $15. Outgoing domestic: $25-$30. | Incoming international: $15. Outgoing international: $5-$40, depending on the currency. |
Incoming domestic: $0*. Outgoing domestic: $25. | Incoming international: Not available. Outgoing international: Not available. |
*Intermediaries:* At some banks, an intermediary bank may be used to facilitate the transfer, and that institution may charge a fee. | |
+ Click to compare fees at over 20 more national and online banks and credit unions
Cheaper ways to send money
If you don't have to send a wire, consider one of these cheaper ways to send money.
- Venmo or Cash App, and other nonbank providers that charge fewer fees. But only use these to transfer money to friends and family. And they’re only for domestic transfers.
- Zelle is a peer-to-peer app like Venmo and Cash App but it’s only available through your bank, not as a third-party app (see which banks use Zelle).
- Money transfer service providers might offer better exchange rates for sending money abroad. Look at companies like Wise or PayPal’s Xoom and others listed in our roundup of the best ways to send money internationally. These methods each have limitations to how much you can send.
- ACH transfer is another way to send money from bank to bank and it’s usually free. The limit on what you can send will be lower than with a wire transfer, and it might take longer too, though the ACH governing body Nacha said in 2023 that about 80% of ACH transfers take about one business day.
Ways to cut wire-transfer costs
If you do need to send a wire, here are some other ways you could cut down on the fees:
- Initiate the wire transfer yourself online. Doing it yourself online tends to be the cheapest way. Requesting the transfer at a branch or on the phone can add $10 or more to your fee. The Chase wire transfer fee, for instance, is $35 for domestic wire transfers set up for you by a banker and $25 for the same transfer if you do it yourself online.
- Send your wire in foreign currency. Some banks offer lower fees if you let them convert U.S. dollars into a foreign currency before transferring the funds rather than simply sending U.S. dollars abroad.
- Do it a lot. Some financial institutions, like Citizens Bank, let you send a recurring wire transfer for a few dollars less per transfer. Before you do this though, check if you can use your bank’s bill pay or other transfer service, as it’ll likely be a cheaper option. The amount you’re transferring will likely be what decides it for you: Wire transfers can handle larger amounts.
Why is it more expensive to send an international wire than a domestic one?
Domestic wire transfers are cheaper and faster, since they can be completed through one payment system, such as that provided by the Federal Reserve, and no money has to be converted from one currency to another.
» See if your bank uses FedNow, a real-time transfer service
International bank wire transfers involve more parties, including a U.S. bank, a foreign bank and wire processing systems in both countries. Banks also charge other banks what’s called a midmarket — or interbank — rate for trading large amounts of foreign currency. But when banks convert money for consumers, they charge you a markup. That markup is a percentage of the amount being sent. You can see how much more your bank is charging you above the midmarket rate by comparing rates on currency platforms such as Bloomberg or Reuters.
If your bank doesn’t convert your money for an international money transfer, then a foreign bank will do it and usually charge its own markup. The best way to avoid high markups is to consider using a nonbank option. (Compare international money transfer providers.)
Don’t wire money unless you’re sure who it’s going to
Wiring money is like giving someone cash. A lot of it. You usually can’t get it back (imagine the person you handed cash to just ran away and is a lot faster than you). That’s why wires are commonly used in scams. Check all the information you have before sending a wire transfer and be wary of anyone trying to rush you into wiring them money.
» Scammers are getting more sophisticated. Here’s how to protect yourself.
METHODOLOGY
We looked at nearly 35 financial institutions: the largest U.S. banks based on assets, debit card volume and internet search traffic; the nation’s largest credit unions with broad-based membership requirements; and other notable and/or emerging players in the industry. For calculating medians, financial institutions that don't provide domestic or international outgoing wire transfers were excluded from the relevant fee category. If there were two or more fees for a certain type of wire transfer, we took the average. In the case of international wire transfers with different fees based on currency conversion or processing, we also averaged each bank's fees first.
Details on how data for the table was gathered: These are standard fees for wire transfers based on each financial institution’s disclosures and policies. If there are multiple ways to perform a wire transfer, the price of the cheapest way, which is usually through online banking, is shown first. If a bank asked for a ZIP code, we used the ZIP code for the bank's headquarters.
