International Property Payments

The cost of moving money across borders for a property purchase is rarely the transfer fee. It is the exchange rate. Providers quote a rate that includes a margin over the interbank rate they can trade at themselves, and on a sum large enough to buy a house that margin dwarfs any fixed fee - which is why a transfer advertised as fee-free is not the same thing as a cheap one. The only meaningful comparison is the total amount that lands in the destination account, quoted at the same moment by each provider.

Two further things decide whether a transfer completes cleanly. The first is regulatory status: check the provider is authorised in the jurisdiction you are sending from, and how client money is held - safeguarded funds and a bank deposit protection scheme are different protections. The second is timing. A property completion is a fixed date, and large transfers routinely trigger source-of-funds checks that take time to satisfy, so the documentation matters as much as the rate. Ask what evidence will be required before you commit to a completion date, not after.