Skrill vs CurrencyFair: Fees, rates and transfer times
Skrill is an online payments platform that has been in operation since 2001. They offer worldwide money transfers to 45 countries as well as having a prepaid Mastercard. Since 2015, Skrill has been a part of the multinational online payments company Paysafe Group.
For anyone looking for an alternative to Skrill or seeking to compare what Skrill charges for overseas money transfers, this comparison could help.
Below we compare an international money transfer with Skrill versus CurrencyFair by comparing:
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Exchange rates
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Transfer fees
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Transfer times
Comparison of Skill versus CurrencyFair
Let’s compare what the fees and total costs are to exchange GBP to EUR with Skrill versus CurrencyFair:
(Data gathered on 15 Jan 2020)
(Data gathered on 15 Jan 2020)
Comparing a bank transfer of £5 000 to Ireland, to exchange with Skrill the recipient receives €5 777.21 and pays a fee of £50. So the total to pay with Skrill is £5 050. In comparison, sending £5 000 to Ireland by bank transfer with CurrencyFair, the recipient receives €5, 809.16 and the sender pays a €3 transfer fee. That means at the time of the comparison, sending £5 000 to Ireland with CurrencyFair gives almost €32 more with CurrencyFair. Also the currency equivalent of our €3 fee is £2.50–this is a saving of £47.50 on your fee with CurrencyFair compared to Skrill.
EXCHANGE RATES
Comparing the exchange rates available with Skrill versus CurrencyFair, as of the 15 January, 2020, the currency exchange rates with Skrill now have a fee of 3.9% added to the currency market rate.
(Data gathered on 15 Jan 2020)
This means that while the exchange rate is the same as what customers see on Google, a currency conversion fee is now being charged.
CurrencyFair adds a margin to the exchange rates offered to our customers–this is typically just 0.45% away from the currency market rate.
FEES
Skrill allows customers to deposit money for international currency exchange by bank transfer, debit card and credit card. Skrill customers in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands can use Klarna to deposit by bank transfer and customers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden can use Rapid Transfer.
As mentioned above, after the 15 January 2020, money transfers with Skrill that require a currency conversion will now incur a conversion charge of up to 3.99% of the amount transacted.
(Data gathered on 14 Jan 2020)
Plus the fee to deposit money with Skrill from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) will be 2.50%.
To compare the fees on a money transfer with Skrill versus CurrencyFair, our transfer fee is €3 (or the currency equivalent). It is free to deposit money by bank transfer to a CurrencyFair account.
CurrencyFair customers with verified accounts can also avail of our transfer fee Express Deposits feature to deposit CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, NOK, PLN, and SEK into their CurrencyFair account. For Express Deposits, there is a fee as a percentage of the amount transferred in to CurrencyFair to be exchanged.
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0.25% for danish krone (DKK), norwegian krone (NOK), swedish krona (SEK), euro (EUR), pound sterling (GBP), polish zloty (PLN).
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0.5% for swiss francs (CHF)
TRANSFER TIMES
After exchanging, Skrill customers can transfer money to 45 countries. CurrencyFair customers can transfer to over 150 countries.
Example GBP transfer times with Skrill
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Send GBP to Australia by bank transfer: up to 4 days
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Send GBP to Ireland by bank transfer: up to 3 days
CurrencyFair customers can avail of Faster Payments to send in money or transfer out GBP in under one hour.
Example GBP transfer times with CurrencyFair
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Send GBP to Australia by bank transfer: 0-1 business day to deposit and 1-2 to transfer
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Send GBP to Ireland by bank transfer: 0-1 business day to deposit and 1-2 to transfer
See full processing times for CurrencyFair here.
Anyone looking to send money overseas must consider many factors before choosing the provider to use to complete an international money transfer.
