Skrill money transfer: fees, rates and transfer times

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.

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But first, let’s take a look at how Skrill works, and how to set up your first money transfer.

How Skrill works

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.

What payment methods does Skrill accept?

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:

• Bank transfer
• Fast bank transfer
• Paysafecard
• Trustly
• Rapid Transfer
• Debit or credit card - including Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club, UCB card and American Express.

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.

How to make a money transfer with Skrill - a step-by-step 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:

1. Register for a free Skrill account - follow the steps to verify your ID and set up your account, and make your first deposit
2. All signed up? Login to Skrill on the website or mobile app and select the ‘Money Transfer’ option
3. Choose whether you want to send money to a bank account, mobile wallet, mobile number or email
4. Enter the amount you want to send and the recipient’s details - if sending to a mobile number or email address, this should be all you’ll need
5. Submit your payment details - this is how you’ll be funding the payment
6. Confirm the amount, check the fee and exchange rate and hit ‘send’.

How long does it take to transfer money with Skrill?

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.

Skrill money transfer fees - how much does it cost?⁵

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.

What exchange rate does Skrill use?

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.

Get the mid-market exchange rate and low money transfer fees with Wise

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.

Join Wise and start saving today

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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.

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Sources used for this article:

1. Monito - how Skrill works
2. Google Play - Skrill
3. Skrill - transfer money
4. Skrill - wallet
5. Skrill - fees
6. Skrill - how to send money
7. Skrill - terms and conditions
8. Skrill - True Skriller
9. Wise - money transfer
10. Skrill - transfer money

Sources checked on 24th May-2021.