Do you know how much it will cost you to send 1,000 dollars from the US to Indonesia?
The amount varies, but it can be from 10 dollars up to 150 dollars. Such huge differences stem from the services you choose for the purpose. If you want to avoid paying high charges and hidden exchange rate fees, take a look at the tables below.
Next time you have to send money to Indonesia from the US, Western Europe, Canada or Australia, you’ll know what the best method is. Keep in mind that some of the stated services have limitations. For example, in the US Ria Money transfer is the cheapest way to send money to Indonesia. It is available only from the United States and not the other way around. OFX offers good prices for money transfers, but you have to send at least 500 dollars.
We have a remote team with people in 19 different countries around the world. The two transfer methods we use the most are:
| Table 1 – Sending $1000 from the US to Indonesia | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transfer Method | Stated fees to send $1000 USD | Hidden currency conversion cost | Total cost | Time for the transfer to arrive | ||
| OFX (previously USForex)* | $0 | $7.5 | $7.5 | 1-2 days | ||
| TransferWise | $15 | $0 | $15 | 1-2 days | ||
| Ria Money Transfer (slow) | $5 | $12 | $17 | 3-5 days | ||
| XE Trade | $0 | $24 | $24 | 3-5 days | ||
| Ria Money Transfer (fast) | $15 | $12 | $27 | Minutes | ||
| Payoneer | $3 | $28 | $31 | 3-5 days | ||
| WorldRemit* | $14 | $25 | $39 | 3-5 days | ||
| Transfast (slow) | $5 | $36 | $41 | 3-5 days | ||
| Xpress Money | $18 | $26 | $44 | 3-5 days | ||
| MoneyGram (slow) | $25 | $25 | $50 | 3-5 days | ||
| Western Union (slow) | $25 | $37 | $62 | 3-5 days | ||
| Transfast (fast) | $30 | $36 | $66 | Minutes | ||
| Wire transfer | $25-55 | $10-30 | $35-85 | 3-5 days | ||
| MoneyGram (fast) | $81 | $25 | $106 | Minutes | ||
| Western Union (fast) | $81 | $37 | $118 | Minutes | ||
| Travelex | $0 | $154 | $154 | 3-5 days | ||
| Table 2: Sending Money to Indonesia from Different Countries. The TOTAL Cost in Percentages including the HIDDEN currency exchange fees. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transfer Method | From the US | From the UK | From Canada | From Western Europe | From Australia | |
| OFX (previously USForex), UKForex, CanadianForex, OFX (previously OzForex) | 0.75% | 0.75% | 0.75% | 0.75% | 0.75% | |
| TransferWise | 1.5% | 1.5% | 1.5% | 1.5% | 1.5% | |
| Bamboo Exchange | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available | 1.5% | |
| Ria Money Transfer | 1.7% | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available | |
| Kangaroo Service | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available | 1.9% | |
| OrbitRemit | Not available | 1.6% | Not available | Not available | 2.7% | |
| XE Trade | 2.4% | 2.3% | 1.4% | 2.2% | 2.3% | |
| Payoneer | 3.1% | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available | |
| WorldRemit | 3.9% | 3.1% | 3.3% | 3.9% | 2.8% | |
| Transfast | 4.1% | Not available | 3.3% | Not available | Not available | |
| Azimo | Not available | 3.2% | Not available | 4.1% | Not available | |
| Xpress Money | 4.4% | 4.3% | 4.9% | 6.8% | 7.8% | |
| Western Union | 6.2% | 3% | 5.9% | 2.8% | 8.8% | |
| Exchange4free | Not available | 4.6% | 4.8% | 4.6% | 4.5% | |
| Wire transfer | 2.5 – 5.5% | 2 – 4.5% | 2.5 – 5.5% | 2 – 4.5% | 3 – 6.5% | |
| MoneyGram | 5% | 9.9% | 8.7% | 8.1% | 7.1% | |
| Travelex | 15.4% | 9.6% | 15% | 15.4% | 9% | |
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I used Transferwise for sending my to Bali and worked perfectly. I love their service and didn’t expect them to be available in Indonesia.
Terima kasih, we need to save money while transfer. Banks make lot money from us. Hope we find good options soon. My find till now is
transferwise.com/u/fc49f4
as it gives you fee free conversion service. Enjoy from me, also share to friends for benfit. I not affiliated to provider, using the service and had no problem. Hati hati.
I think your table is outdated or even incorrect. I regurarly send money using Western Union for years and later Worldremit for the past 2 years. The column with hidden cost triggered me as I was in the assumption that Worldremit was a good deal. As of today I compared Forex with Worldremit and this is the outcome for sending 350 Euro:
Forex 5.361.436 Rp
Worldremit 5.631.488 Rp
I am about to get away from Worldremit as I think they are not responsive to my calls/ emails and they are not willing to give promocode so sometimes I just missed by 1 day which is stupid as I am a regular client. What I also found is that currently transfering from my bank is even as competitive as with these moneytransfer companies. The only drawback is the error margins. If you just slighly put a wrong bankcode and/or branch code, they will return the money but with extra fees which can be 50 Euro at times. So you don’t get the money there but you loose 80 Euro’s: 15 to send, 50 ‘fine’ and another 15 should you want to try again on an amount around 400 Euro’s
I usually receive my payment via Paypal. My only complain with them is the abysmal currency exchange rate.
Great info.
I am trying to send money from Oz to a local Indonesian bank. Adi says PayPal is the most commonly used way.
Can you give me any more details pls
Thx
You can use PayPal, the fee is usually 4% plus there is no method to withdraw locally in Indonesia so they would need to find a way to receive the money to their bank account. I would check out the other options in the post.
I just know 3 transfer method that commonly used by Indonesian.
1. Wire Transfer
2. Western Union
3. MoneyGram
wire transfer & western union is available almost in every place and we just see MoneyGram in big cities.
Then like what I said, forgot about another transfer method except my list above.
Ah, and one thing. The most commonly payment method that used from another country to Indonesia is PayPal.
cheers