Who Pays Wire Transfer Fees: Sender, Recipient, or Intermediary Bank

On a typical wire transfer, both parties pay a fee, but the sender pays more. The sender’s bank charges an outgoing fee of roughly $25 to $30 for a domestic wire and $40 to $50 for an international one, while the recipient’s bank often deducts an incoming fee of $0 to $15 from the arriving funds before crediting the account. International wires can also pass through intermediary banks that take their own cuts, and which side absorbs those charges depends on an instruction the sender chooses when sending. Here is how the costs break down, and how contracts and bank policies shift them from one party to the other.

What the Sender Pays

The person initiating the transfer pays an outgoing fee to their own bank, deducted from the account balance at the moment the wire is authorized. For domestic wires sent through online banking or a mobile app, large banks generally charge $25 to $30. Bank of America charges $30 for a domestic outgoing wire; Wells Fargo charges $25 when the wire is sent digitally.¹

Walking into a branch costs more. Wells Fargo’s in-branch domestic wire fee rises to $40, roughly $15 above its digital rate.²

International outgoing wires run higher. Sending U.S. dollars abroad typically costs $40 to $50; Bank of America charges $45 for an international wire sent in U.S. dollars.¹ Some banks waive or sharply reduce the fee when you send in a foreign currency instead, because they earn revenue on the exchange rate markup. Wells Fargo, for instance, charges $0 for consumer wires sent in foreign currency through its digital platform.²

Make sure your account holds enough to cover both the amount being sent and the outgoing fee itself. Otherwise an overdraft charge can land on top of the wire fee.

What the Recipient Pays

The recipient often pays a separate incoming wire fee, charged by their own bank and deducted from the arriving funds before the money hits the account. The deposit the recipient sees is slightly less than the sender dispatched, and the fee is independent of whatever the sender’s bank charged on the other end.

Several major banks charge $15 for an incoming domestic wire on standard accounts. Bank of America and Citibank both charge $15 per inbound wire on their base-level accounts.¹³ Wells Fargo takes a different approach, charging no incoming wire fee at all for consumer accounts.² International incoming wire fees are typically in the same $15 range at banks that charge them.

If you expect to receive wires regularly, check whether your bank offers a premium tier that waives the incoming fee. Many banks drop the charge for customers who keep higher balances. Citibank waives the fee for Citigold-level customers and above; Wells Fargo waives it across all consumer accounts.³²

Intermediary Bank Fees on International Wires

International wires often pass through one or more intermediary banks that bridge the sender’s bank and the recipient’s bank. Each intermediary in the chain can deduct its own processing fee, often $10 to $50, before forwarding what remains. With multiple intermediaries involved, those deductions stack up and can leave the recipient with noticeably less than the sender intended.

Who absorbs those middle-of-the-chain costs is decided by a code the sender picks when initiating the transfer, built into the SWIFT messaging system:

OUR: the sender pays everything, including intermediary and receiving bank charges, so the recipient gets the full intended amount.
BEN: the recipient pays everything. All intermediary fees and the receiving bank’s fee come out of the transferred amount.
SHA (shared): the sender pays only their own bank’s outgoing fee; the recipient absorbs intermediary and receiving bank charges.

SHA is the common default, but OUR or BEN can usually be requested when initiating the transfer.⁴ If the recipient needs an exact dollar amount, such as a contractual payment, OUR is the safest choice.

When a Contract Decides Who Pays

Bank fee schedules set the default, but in many transactions a contract overrides them. Real estate closings and business-to-business invoices are the two most common examples.

Real Estate Closings

The Closing Disclosure, the standardized form required for most residential mortgage transactions, breaks down every cost by whether the buyer or the seller is responsible. Wire fees for the earnest money deposit and the final funding transfer are itemized in the closing cost details, with separate columns for borrower-paid and seller-paid charges.⁵ If the purchase agreement negotiated the allocation of wire fees, the Closing Disclosure should reflect that. Review it carefully before closing.

Business Invoices

When a business owes a specific invoice amount under payment terms like Net 30 or Net 60, the sender is generally expected to deliver the full invoiced sum. That means the sender absorbs all outgoing and intermediary fees so the recipient’s deposit matches the invoice. For international B2B payments, this usually means selecting OUR as the fee instruction. If intermediary fees cut the delivered amount below the invoice total, the shortfall can constitute a breach of the payment terms.

How to Lower What You Pay

Wire fees are not fixed. A few straightforward steps can cut what you owe or eliminate it.

Send online rather than visiting a branch. Most banks charge $10 to $15 less for wires submitted through their website or app than for an in-person request.²
Upgrade to a relationship or premium account. Many banks waive wire fees for customers who keep higher combined balances across deposit and investment accounts. The qualifying balance varies widely, from roughly $20,000 at some banks to $200,000 or more at others.
Consider an online bank or brokerage. Some online-focused institutions charge significantly less than traditional banks, and certain brokerages charge nothing at all for outgoing wires.⁶
Send international wires in foreign currency. Some banks waive the outgoing fee when you send in the recipient’s local currency rather than U.S. dollars, though they earn revenue on the exchange rate markup instead.²
Ask if the recipient’s bank waives the incoming fee. If you are on the receiving end and expect regular wires, a different account tier or a different bank may cost you nothing to receive.

One more consideration before sending. If same-day settlement matters, Fedwire operating hours now run until 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on weekdays, but individual banks set their own earlier cutoffs, often between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. local time.⁷ Submit well before your bank’s posted deadline, or the wire, and its fees, will carry over to the next business day.

1
Bank of America. Send Wire Transfers in Online Banking or Our Mobile Banking App
2
Wells Fargo. Consumer and Business Account Fees
3
Citibank. Wire Transfer Services and Online Money Transfer
4
Deutsche Bank. Corporate Bank Payments Formatting Guide
5
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.38 – Content of Disclosures for Certain Mortgage Transactions (Closing Disclosure)
6
Fidelity. How to Choose Between an EFT or a Bank Wire
7
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Expansion of Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service Operating Hours