The price of sending $200
What does it cost to send $200 home? The World Bank measures it every quarter in its Remittance Prices Worldwide survey, and the UN’s SDG database carries the global averages.
| Third quarter of | Global average cost of sending $200 |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 9.30% |
| 2015 | 7.52% |
| 2020 | 6.75% |
| 2023 | 6.18% |
| 2024 | 6.62% |
| 2025 | 6.36% |
At 6.36%, about $12.72 of a $200 transfer went on costs. Governments have set a lower bar. Sustainable Development Goal target 10.c says that by 2030 the world should “reduce to less than 3 per cent the transaction costs of migrant remittances” and end corridors costing more than 5%.
How big is the flow? The World Bank says remittances to home countries came to about $656 billion in 2023, roughly the GDP of Belgium.
What the average counts
The number is wider than the fee printed on a receipt. According to the indicator’s metadata, updated March 27, 2026, the price is the fee charged to the sender plus the margin by which the exchange rate sits above the interbank rate. Researchers collect it by mystery shopping, a one-week exercise each quarter, across 365 corridors from 48 sending to 105 receiving countries.
A provider that hides its rate is marked as not transparent. Comparing quotes by fee alone is the classic mistake, because the FX spread is the part of the cost a fee line leaves out.
The legal meaning in the US and the EU
In US law, a remittance transfer under 12 CFR 1005.30 is an electronic transfer requested by a sender to a recipient abroad and sent by a remittance transfer provider, whether or not the sender has an account there. Amounts of $15 or less are excluded.
Two rights follow. Under section 1005.34, a sender can cancel within 30 minutes of paying, as long as the money has not been picked up or deposited, and must get a full refund, fees included, within three business days. Section 1005.33 gives 180 days after the disclosed availability date to report an error.
Since January 1, 2026, cash costs more. The IRS said in April 2026 that a 1% tax applies when the sender pays the provider in cash, by money order, by cashier’s check or with a similar physical instrument. The sender owes it, and the provider has to collect it.
EU law defines money remittance in Article 4(22) of PSD2 as a payment service in which funds are received “without any payment accounts being created in the name of the payer or the payee,” purely to pass them on.
Where stablecoins fit
A stablecoin moves on a blockchain rather than through banks, but the World Bank’s yardstick still applies at the other end.
The recipient needs to turn the coins into local money, and the exchange’s fee and rate at that off-ramp are the same two parts the survey measures. Add both before comparing a crypto route with a money transfer company’s quote.