A Guide on the Best Way to Send Money to Brazil

When it comes to sending money to Brazil, you want to pick a money transfer service provider that offers the best exchange rates and the lowest transfer fees.

But with all the options available online, how do you narrow down your choices?

We’ve made it easy in this guide to sending money to Brazil as we compare some of the more popular methods and their fees.

Disclaimer: This article may include links to products or services offered by ExpatDen's partners, which give us commissions when you click on them. Although this may influence how they appear in the text, we only recommend solutions that we would use in your situation. Read more in our Advertising Disclosure.

Good to Know

Depending on your home country’s laws, you may have to let your government know when you have over a certain amount of money in a foreign bank account.

Americans, for instance, have to report any amount over US$10,000, even if that amount was only in a foreign bank account for one day.

To do this, Americans have to file FinCEN form 114 when doing their annual taxes. If they don’t, and the IRS finds out, they could have to pay hefty fines.

So, check whether your government has the same laws, and if so, make sure to follow them if you send over that amount to Brazil.

What to Watch Out for When Sending Money to Brazil

Sending money to Brazil isn’t just a matter of choosing any old money transfer service and going through them. In fact, you have to consider three important things:

• transfer fees
• exchange rates
• transfer speeds

Having said that, let’s dive into transfer fees first.

Transfer Fees

Transfer fees are what you pay to transfer money from a bank account outside of Brazil into a bank account inside the country and usually come in three forms:

• fixed fees
• percentage fees
• combination fees

The next section breaks down each one.

Fixed Fees

Fixed fees are not the only type of fees you pay for international money transfers into Brazil. But when sending large amounts of cash, they are the fees you should be going after.

A fixed fee means that no matter how much you send into the country, the fee remains the same, whether that transfer amount is US$200 or US$20,000.

One U.S. bank known for its low fixed fees is Bank of America. It only charges US$45 per international money transfer into Brazil.

With fixed fees covered, let’s move on to percentage fees.

Percentage Fees

Percentage fees are a little different than fixed fees. While fixed fees don’t change with the amount of money you transfer into Brazil, percentage fees do.

For example, if you use a money transfer service provider that charges 5 percent for international transfers, then you’d pay US$50 on a US$1,000 transfer; US$100 on a US$2,000 transfer, and so on.

This doesn’t make much sense as the transfer amount increases because you lose money.

So, only use money transfer service providers who charge percentage fees when sending under US$10,000. Wise is a good choice for expats in this case.

However, for transfers of tens of thousands of dollars, always go with a bank transfer. See our guide to the best US banks for international wire transfers if you need to compare bank options.

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Combination Fees

Combination fees are a mix between fixed and percentage fees, so transfers sent to Brazil under this fee structure tend to cost the most.

Some money transfer service providers who use this fee structure are PayPal and Western Union, which is why they are usually on the more expensive side for international transfers.

However, some banks charge combination fees too, so be sure to ask about their fee structure before sending money into Brazil.

With all the fee structures covered, let’s move on to exchange rates.

Exchange Rates

If you want to get the most BRL in your Brazilian bank account, look for a money transfer service provider that offers the lowest fees and the best exchange rates.

Exchange rates are the average amounts that a bank is willing to buy or sell currency for and can be found on XE.com. This is a great website to use if you want to make sure the money transfer service provider you use is offering mid-market rates.

Mid-market rates don’t always predict a higher amount on the receiving end, however. You have to consider both fees and exchange rates to walk away with the most BRL.

With transfer fees and exchange rates dusted and done, let’s move on to transfer speeds.

Transfer Speeds

Lastly, you want to think about transfer speeds when sending money to Brazil. Transfer speed is how many minutes, hours, or days it takes for your money to arrive in your Brazilian bank account.

Obviously, if you don’t have time to waste and need emergency funds, you can go with Western Union. However, be prepared to pay hefty fees and miss out on mid-market exchange rates.

If time isn’t an issue, you can use Wise, or even a bank for that matter. You’ll get better exchange rates and pay fewer transfer fees.

If using Wise, most transfers to Brazil now arrive in seconds to a few minutes via Pix — Wise partnered with Nubank in 2026 to improve this further. A small number of transfers take 1-3 business days if a compliance review is triggered.

Expats who send to a Nubank account report the best results: one recipient described transfers from the US landing in their Nubank account in under 20 seconds. For those using traditional Brazilian banks, processing is still quick but typically takes a few hours rather than seconds.

With that covered, we can now look at your options for sending money to Brazil.

Money Transfer Service Options

When sending money to Brazil, you have quite a few options. I’ll cover some of the most popular ones below.

Wise

Wise is your best choice when sending money – anything under US$10,000 – to Brazil.

For a US$1,000 transfer into the country Wise offers mid-market exchange rates and charges the following fees:

• Connected bank account (ACH) fee: US$1.70
• Wise fee: US$6.13
• IOF tax: varies significantly — Brazil raised the IOF rate on foreign exchange to 3.5% in May 2025, so check Wise’s calculator for the current figure
• Total: check Wise’s calculator before transferring — the IOF change means fees are higher than they were before mid-2025

The amount your recipient gets changes with exchange rates and Brazil’s IOF tax. Use Wise’s calculator before each transfer to see the current total — figures change frequently.

Check out our in-depth review of Wise to find out how it can save you money on your next international money transfer.

Xoom (PayPal)

PayPal’s Xoom is another online money transfer service provider available to expats but be wary when using it as they tend to be more expensive than most of the other methods on this list.

If you use Xoom to send money to Brazil using your debit or credit card, you pay a US$9.99 transfer fee. If using your PayPal balance or bank account, you pay US$4.99.

It doesn’t sound too expensive yet, but then Xoom also charges a 2 percent to 4 percent exchange rate fee on average. In fact, on its website Xoom says that it rounds to the nearest BRL0.05 when calculating exchange rate fees.

So, on a US$1,000 transfer into Brazil through Xoom, you get BRL4,946 into the receiving bank account. Considering this, Xoom ranks just above Western Union but below Wise.

Western Union

Western Union has been around longer than most of the other money transfer service providers on this list, but it isn’t the cheapest of the bunch.

For exchange rate fees, Western Union charges around 2.5 percent of the mid-market exchange rates found on XE.com. When it comes to its transfer fees, they are as follows:

• credit card — US$30.50
• debit card — US$5.50
• bank debit — US$1.99

With that, if you send US$1,000 through Western Union you get BRL4,994 in your Brazilian bank account, ranking them fairly low on this list.

ATM Withdrawals

You can withdraw cash at most Brazilian bank ATMs without being charged by the bank. However, commercial ATMs will charge you a fee. These commercial machines don’t usually have brand names on them, but rather say caixa (cash).

Regardless of which method you choose, remember that your home country bank also charges you for ATM withdrawals in Brazil. That is unless you have an account with TD Bank or Charles Schwab in the U.S. or Canada, or Metro Bank in the U.K.

These banks reimburse for all international ATM fees.

One thing to keep in mind: Brazilian banking strikes occasionally disrupt settlement timelines. An April 2026 central bank workers’ strike caused multi-day delays on transfers from several services, even ones that typically deliver same-day. It’s worth avoiding large transfers during known strike periods if timing is critical.

Most ATMs in Brazil allow withdrawals of up to BRL2,000 to BRL2,500 during the day. After 10 pm, that limit is reduced to BRL300 to BRL500 to deter flash robberies — specific limits vary by bank.

The Best Method to Send Money To Brazil

Wise is your best choice when transferring US$1,000 into your Brazilian bank account. For transfers of US$10,000 or more, a bank transfer can be another good option.

Expats who send money to Brazil regularly tend to stick with Wise once they’ve tried it. The combination of mid-market rates, Pix delivery to Nubank accounts, and transparent fee display makes it easy to confirm what your recipient will get before you commit to the transfer.

Method	Speed	US$1,000	US$10,000
Wise	1 to 2 business days	~BRL4,900–5,100	~BRL49,000–51,000
Xoom	Minutes to 1 day	~BRL4,750–4,950	~BRL47,500–49,500
Citibank	2 to 4 business days	~BRL4,850–5,050	~BRL48,500–51,000
Western Union	Minutes to 2 days	~BRL4,750–4,950	Varies by payout method

With some general recommendations out of the way, let’s dive into some country-specific advice.

Now, on to You

By now, you should know which money transfer service method is the cheapest for sending money to Brazil.

Knowing this helps you make the best decision for your financial scenario and hopefully yields the highest amount on the receiving end.

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