Money across borders
Guides
What it costs to move money across borders, and how to work out your own numbers. Explanations and methods, not recommendations about which provider to use.
Cost of getting paid
Why did I receive less than I invoiced?
Where cross-border payments lose money, why the exchange rate spread is rarely presented as a fee, and what to agree before your next invoice.
Who pays intermediary bank fees on a wire transfer?
What the charge code on a payment decides and what it does not, how the OUR/BEN/SHA labels map onto their Charge Bearer equivalents, and how to ask a client to change the setting.
What is this transfer actually costing me?
A method for reducing fees and exchange rate markup to one comparable figure, using only the amount sent, the amount received and the mid-market rate.
When should I convert the money I receive?
What is knowable about conversion timing and what is not, and how splitting a conversion trades extra fees for lower variability.
What does it cost to hold money in a foreign currency?
Holding a balance usually carries no fee, so it feels free. Two costs apply anyway: the exchange-rate exposure you carry, and the return you give up while the money sits idle.
How much should I budget for exchange rate movement?
How to size an exchange-rate buffer from the range your pair has actually traded in, and why a small move in the rate becomes a much larger cut to the part of your budget you can adjust.
Which currency should I invoice in?
Billing in your own currency moves the exchange-rate risk to your client, but the currency is only half the decision. Payment terms move your exposure more, and a deposit removes it entirely.
How to work out what a year of getting paid cost you
A method you run on your own bank statements once a year. It ends with a single number, expressed as a share of your income and as hours of your own time, and no recommendation about who to use.
What your bank statement tells you when an international payment arrives
Your client sent one number and your statement shows another, with no fee to explain the gap. How to read the entries, find the rate you were given, and reconcile the two figures.
My client says they paid but nothing arrived. What can I do?
Almost everything written about missing international payments is for the sender. If you are the one waiting to be paid, your options are narrower and different. Here is what they are.