How to send money overseas from Australia

What you need before you send

The recipient's account details depend on which country you're sending to. Many countries use an IBAN (International Bank Account Number) to identify the account; others — including Australia on the receiving end — use a routing or sort code plus an account number instead. For a bank wire, you'll also generally need the recipient bank's SWIFT/BIC code; National Australia Bank's own page on receiving money from overseas confirms Australian banks are identified this way rather than by IBAN (nab.com.au, as published September 2026).

Most providers also ask for a purpose of payment — family support, property purchase, tuition, business payment — as a standard part of the anti-money-laundering information they're required to collect, not because anything about your specific transfer looks unusual. Having the recipient's full legal name exactly as it appears on their account, their address, and (for some corridors) their date of birth or an identifying document ready in advance avoids the most common cause of a delayed transfer: a mismatch between what you entered and what the recipient's bank expects.

You'll also need your own identity verified before most providers will process a first transfer — a driver's licence, passport, or similar government-issued ID, and sometimes proof of your Australian address. This is a standing requirement under the same anti-money-laundering framework that applies to purpose-of-payment questions, not something specific to a first-time or unfamiliar sender, and it's generally a one-off step rather than something repeated on every subsequent transfer with the same provider.

The three ways to send

Your own bank is the most familiar option: you initiate the transfer through your existing online or mobile banking, using account details you may already have set up. Banks generally charge a flat fee and set their own exchange rate, and publish their fee schedule and daily limits on their own site — the specifics vary a lot by bank and are covered in the bank-by-bank guides linked below. Commonwealth Bank's own fee page, for example, states a $30 fee for a branch or manual-instruction transfer but waives its fee for a genuine currency conversion sent via NetBank or its app (commbank.com.au, as published September 2026) — a concrete illustration of how the same bank can charge differently depending on how you actually send.

A specialist FX provider is built specifically for currency transfers rather than general banking. Providers in this category, such as OFX and Wise, generally publish more of their pricing structure than a bank does, and several hold an Australian Financial Services Licence specifically for arranging the transfer or the foreign exchange. OFX's own FAQ page, for instance, states a AU$15 fee applies only to transfers under AU$10,000, with a stated minimum transfer of AU$250 in major currencies (ofx.com/en-au/faqs/what-is-the-minimum-transfer-amount/, as published September 2026).

A remittance app or cash-pickup network — Western Union, Ria and similar services — focuses on smaller, more frequent transfers and offers pickup as cash at a physical location as well as bank deposit, which matters for a recipient without their own bank account. Ria's own site, for example, describes delivery as typically taking "anywhere from a few minutes to five business days" depending on the method chosen (riamoneytransfer.com, as published September 2026), with cash pickup available in some cases within minutes. Reviews of specific named providers, with what each discloses about its own fees and regulation, are linked from the comparison page below.

What it actually costs

Every transfer carries two cost components: the fee shown at the point of sending, and the exchange rate margin — the gap between the rate you're given and the mid-market rate you'd see on a currency site. The margin is usually the larger of the two and the harder one to see. Wise's own public comparison, fetched 2026-09-11, illustrates the shape of this: sending AUD 1,000 to a USD account showed Wise's quote at a AUD 5.06 fee and a 0.71715 rate (USD 713.52 received), against a National Australia Bank quote at no separate fee but a 0.699318 rate (USD 699.32) and a PayPal quote at a AUD 5.99 fee and a 0.686024 rate (USD 681.91) — all captured on Wise's own page, dated to the minute, and reproduced here as Wise's own published data rather than an independent finding.

A visible "no fee" advertised by a provider doesn't mean the transfer is free — it usually means the cost sits inside the exchange rate instead. PayPal's own fee table is a useful illustration of the opposite trap: its capped send fee ("5.00% of the send amount, but no lower than 0.99 AUD, and no higher than 5.99 AUD") looks contained on its own, but PayPal separately charges a currency conversion fee of 3–4% on top, depending on the transaction type (paypal.com/au/digital-wallet/paypal-consumer-fees, as published September 2026) — the two figures need to be added together, not read in isolation, to see the real cost of a currency-converting transfer.

The only reliable comparison is the amount that actually lands for your specific amount and currency, on the day — a fuller explanation of the method, and more of these worked examples, is linked below.

Limits and what AUSTRAC actually requires

There's no legal ceiling on how much you can send electronically — your bank or provider sets its own daily or per-transaction limit for its own risk management, and these differ widely. NAB's own help page, for example, states a default international transfer limit of $5,000 per day with a maximum of $300,000 via Internet Banking (nab.com.au/help-support/daily-limits-online-payments, as published September 2026) — figures that another bank's own page can set quite differently, which is why checking the specific institution's own limit page matters more than assuming one number applies everywhere.

Separately, a $10,000 figure gets repeated often online as the point at which a transfer supposedly starts attracting attention. That figure genuinely exists in the law, but it belongs to a different rule: the AML/CTF Act's threshold-transaction provision, which covers physical cash, not an electronic transfer. Every electronic international transfer is, instead, notified by the provider under its own separate obligation, at any amount, within 10 business days, per the current Act (compilation current to 4 June 2026, legislation.gov.au). You don't file anything yourself either way. Both topics have dedicated pages, linked below, working through the specifics bank by bank and the AUSTRAC distinction in full.

How long it takes

Timing depends on the method and the corridor rather than a single figure. Commonwealth Bank's own published guide describes most international payments as generally reaching the beneficiary within one business day of the instruction being received (as published September 2026), while a bank wire in a less common currency can take longer once correspondent banks are involved. Specialist providers and remittance apps sometimes advertise faster delivery for specific corridors, and cash pickup can be available within minutes of sending — subject to the recipient's ID and the pickup location's hours.

Cut-off times also matter more than most senders expect. A payment submitted after a bank's own daily cut-off is generally processed on the next business day rather than the same one, and weekends and public holidays in either Australia or the destination country can add further delay regardless of which method you use — a transfer that "should" arrive in one business day can effectively sit for several calendar days if it's started on a Friday afternoon. A dedicated breakdown by method, including how to check a specific transfer's current status, is linked below.

When you're sending a large amount

A larger transfer tends to trigger the same source-of-funds and purpose-of-payment questions across every provider — this is an industry-wide anti-money-laundering requirement rather than one company being unusually cautious. If the payment is tied to a future date rather than needed today — a property settlement or a fixed relocation date, for example — a forward contract is a real product some specialist FX providers offer to lock in today's rate for that later date. OFX's own business FX page states forward contracts "typically start at AU$10,000 but lower amounts may be considered" and can lock a rate for up to 12 months (ofx.com/en-au/business/fx-solutions/forward-contracts/, as published September 2026). This describes a mechanism that exists, not a recommendation for your specific transfer — the full detail is linked below.

Common problems when sending

The most common issues are a transfer taking longer than the quoted estimate, a transfer being placed on hold for additional identity or source-of-funds checks, and a recipient receiving less than expected because a correspondent bank deducted a fee in transit. All three have a standard, provider-published explanation rather than indicating something has gone wrong with your specific transfer.

A less obvious but common issue is a payment rejected or delayed by the receiving bank, rather than by anything on the Australian end — a mismatch between the recipient's name as entered and the name on their account, an inactive or closed account, or a receiving country's own compliance check can all hold up a payment after it has technically already left Australia. Because the sender is usually the only party able to trace a payment while it's still in transit, keeping the transaction reference or confirmation number from your own provider is worth doing as a matter of habit, not just when something looks wrong. Dedicated pages working through what to do in each case — including how long to wait before escalating with the provider — are linked below.

Sending to a specific country

The exact process, typical fees, and any country-specific rules on the receiving end vary by destination — some countries impose their own limits on inward remittances, require a specific purpose code, or route payments through particular local networks. A country's own settlement system on the receiving end can also change what's actually available to a sender in Australia: some corridors support near-instant local payment rails once the money reaches the destination country, while others only settle through the ordinary banking system, regardless of how fast the Australian side of the transfer is.

This site carries dedicated, corridor-specific guides for sending from Australia to a number of destination countries, including the UK and India, each covering what the receiving country's own rules require and what providers who publish serving that corridor state about their own fees and timing. Other corridor guides on this site cover destinations across Asia, the Pacific, Africa and the Americas — find the guide for your specific destination via the corridor pages linked below rather than assuming the general process above covers every local requirement, since a requirement genuinely specific to one country (a purpose code, a recipient-side tax withholding, a documentation rule) won't appear in a general explainer like this one.

What information do I need to send money overseas from Australia?

The recipient's account details in the format their bank uses (an IBAN for many countries, or a routing/sort code and account number for others), the recipient bank's SWIFT/BIC code for a wire, the recipient's full legal name and address, and a stated purpose for the payment — this last item is standard anti-money-laundering information every provider collects, not something specific to your transfer.

Is it cheaper to send through my bank or a specialist provider?

It depends on the amount, the currency and the day — there's no fixed answer. The reliable way to check is to compare the amount that actually lands in the destination currency for your specific transfer, not the headline fee each provider advertises. A dedicated method page covering this comparison is linked from this article.

Do I need to report a transfer over $10,000?

No — that figure is the physical-cash declaration threshold, not an electronic-transfer rule. Every electronic transfer, of any amount, is reported by the sending bank or provider under a separate obligation; you don't file anything yourself.

Can I send money to a country that isn't listed in Migratio's corridor guides?

Yes — the corridor guides on this site cover a number of specific destinations in depth, but providers generally publish which countries they serve on their own site. Check the provider's own coverage list for your specific destination if it isn't one of the corridors covered here.

What happens if I send the wrong account details?

The receiving bank will typically reject the payment and return it to the sender rather than crediting the wrong account, though this can take several days depending on the currency and method. Correcting the details before sending is far faster than waiting for a return.

Is there a minimum amount I can send overseas?

Some providers set their own minimum transfer size as a matter of commercial policy — for example, OFX states a minimum transfer of AU$250 in major currencies on its own FAQ page (as published September 2026). This varies by provider; check the specific one you're using.