Ultimate Guide for Managing Recurring Charges / Subscriptions
Subscriptions or recurring charges can be cumbersome to manage — it doesn't have to be. Wise shares tips to avoiding unwanted subscriptions and managing them.
If you’re looking for an online wallet which lets you send and receive money within the UK and worldwide, Skrill could be a good choice. It’s an established money transfer service with over a million users¹, and its mobile wallet is known to be fast, easy to use and flexible.
But how much does a money transfer cost with Skrill, and how long does it take for an international payment to arrive? We’ll give you the lowdown on Skrill fees and transfer times below, including exchange rates and anything else you need to know.
Plus, we’ll find out how Skrill stacks up against money transfer specialists such as Wise and its powerful multi-currency account. In particular, we’ll focus on comparing exchange rates, as well as transfer fees - as together, this can affect how much an international payment costs overall.
But first, let’s take a look at how Skrill works, and how to set up your first money transfer.
Skrill is a popular mobile or digital wallet service available in a number of countries worldwide. Once you’ve signed up for an account, you can use the Skrill homepage or mobile app to send money to over 180 countries worldwide² - in a choice of 40 different currencies³.
Before you can get started, you’ll need to fund your account with a deposit. Then, you can use your Skrill account to pay online at around 150,000 different websites⁴, send money worldwide and even buy and sell cryptocurrency if you want to.
To make a money transfer with Skrill, you’ll only need the recipient’s email address or mobile number. The payment is either funded by your Skrill balance (if you top up your account using a debit/credit card payment or bank transfer) or drawn straight from your bank.
Skrill also offers the option of a prepaid Mastercard, which you can load up with funds and use to spend when you travel.
Skrill lets you top up your account and power your money transfers with all kinds of local and global payment methods. For UK users, the full list includes the following⁵:
There are deposit fees to pay depending how you choose to fund your account. We’ll look at this in just a moment, in the fees section of this guide.
If you’re a new Skrill user, you’ll need to know how easy or tricky it is to set up a transfer to another country. Here’s what you need to do⁶:
The time it takes for money to be sent with Skrill depends on the payment method you use.
Debit and credit cards are the quickest methods, as payments typically arrive in the recipient’s account the same day⁷.
If you opt for bank transfer, it can take anywhere between 2 and 5 days for the money to arrive⁷.
Now we come to the crucial bit - how much does Skrill charge for international transfers? Here are the fees you need to know about for sending money and using your Skrill account in general:
Transaction | Skrill fee |
---|---|
International transfer using debit card, bank transfer or Sofort/Klarna | Free |
International transfer using credit card | Up to 2.99% |
International transfer in the same send and receive currency | Up to 4.99% |
Domestic transfer | Up to 2% |
Send money to other Skrill users | 2.99% |
If you’re eligible to level up your account and become a True Skriller or VIP Skriller, you won’t pay any fees to make Skrill-to-Skrill transfers⁸. You’ll also get a free Skrill Prepaid Mastercard and other VIP perks depending on the level of your account.
In terms of other account fees, you’ll pay 1% for depositing funds in your Skrill account - no matter which payment method you use. And if you want to withdraw funds, you’ll pay up to 7.5% depending on the payment method.
For any transactions involving a currency conversion, Skrill adds a fee of 3.99% to its exchange rates.
The good news is that receiving money with Skrill is always free for recipients.
Whenever you send money internationally, it’s not only the transfer fees you need to compare.
It’s also important to look closely at the exchange rate used, as this can include a mark-up on the mid-market rate - this is the rate that banks use, also known as the ‘real’ exchange rate. Any markup on this rate can make your transfer more expensive, just like a kind of hidden or extra fee.
Skrill international transfers have a mark-up of 4.99% per transaction⁵. You could find that it’s much cheaper to use services such as Wise, which offers the real, mid-market exchange rate. We’ll look at this in more detail next.
Not keen on paying nearly a 5% mark-up on the real exchange rate to make an international money transfer? In that case, you may want to consider using Wise instead.
With the Wise multi-currency account, you’ll get the real, mid-market exchange rate, no matter where you’re sending from or to. This could make it much cheaper than services such as Skrill, even when the initial transfer fee seems higher.
To illustrate this, let’s take a look at an example. Imagine you want to send £1,000 GBP to a friend in France (EUR), using bank transfer to fund your payment.
Use Wise and your friend will receive £1,153.81⁹. There’s a fee of £3.69 to pay, but the exchange rate has no mark-up added on. The money should arrive in about 3 hours.
Use Skrill instead, and your friend gets £1,123.49¹⁰. There’s no transfer fee to pay but as you can see, the cost is around £30 more than using Wise because of that 4.99% mark-up on the exchange rate. The payment should arrive in up to one day.
This is why you should always compare exchange rates as well as fees before sending money worldwide - it could save you a bundle!
As well as being the cheaper option, Wise transfers are just as quick, secure and convenient as using Skrill. What’s more, Wise is FCA regulated and uses sophisticated security and anti-fraud measures to keep your money safe.
Join Wise and start saving today
So, that’s pretty much it - all the essentials you need to know about making a Skrill money transfer.
We’ve looked at how long transfer times take and all the fees you need to take into account when comparing providers. This includes deposit and withdrawal charges, currency conversion fees and the actual transfer fee. There’s a lot to think about! And crucially, the exchange rate, which can make a big difference to how much a transfer ends up costing you.
After reading this guide, you should be all set to decide whether Skrill is the mobile wallet for you, and be one step closer to sending money all over the world.
Sources used for this article:
Sources checked on 24th May-2021.
This publication is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended to cover every aspect of the topics with which it deals. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content in this publication. The information in this publication does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from TransferWise Limited or its affiliates. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.
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