What do we mean by the top provider? The top provider is the money transfer service that we believe is the most suitable for the country you’re sending money to. In order to keep our service free we factor in the commercial agreements we have with partners into this ranking. How do we choose providers to display? We make sure that each table displays the most relevant brands to the country you are sending money to and from. We consider many factors when choosing the providers to display in the table.All of the providers we display are fully regulated to provide money transfer services in the jurisdiction you are searching, relevant regulatory authorities are the FCA, ASIC, Fincen, FINTRAC & AMF. Alongside being regulated the services are manually checked by our team for both quality of service and online trust from such platforms like Trustpilot and Google reviews.We base our rankings primarily on the quality of the service provided, the benefit to the consumer and to keep our service free - the commercial agreements we have. How do we order our comparisons? We are affiliated with some of the partners displayed in the tables. However, the order of the providers is based on the quality of the service for the particular country corridor followed by the commercial agreement in place. You don’t pay any extra and the deal you get isn’t affected by our commercial agreement with the money transfer provider. We may receive a commission when you click through to a listing or when you make a transaction.We aim to find the balance between the quality of the service, customer satisfaction and the commercial agreements we have, and continue comparing services in a transparent way.If you have any questions about our listings, please don’t hesitate to email us at contact@moneytransfers.com

Send Money To Ireland

Q: What’s The Overall Best Way To Send Money To Ireland?

Here at MoneyTransfers.com we believe that the overall best way to transfer funds to Ireland is through TransferWise. TransferWise offers the most well-rounded deal for sending money to Ireland. Because it is so cheap and easy to use, it can make your life easier in multiple ways. The 1-2 day waiting period isn’t the best, but that’s significantly faster than you’d get with the more expensive competition.

Q: What’s The Easiest Way To Send Funds To Ireland?

TransferWise is the easiest way to send money online to Ireland. As a peer-to-peer money transfer service, it is safe and easy to use from most locations. TransferWise has a simple three-step process for sending money. First, you tap in the amount of money you want to send. Next, you tap the destination. Lastly, you pay TransferWise for the transaction, at which point the money is off to its Irish destination. The transfer takes a day or two to be completed.

Q: What’s The Cheapest Way To Send Money Online To Ireland?

The cheapest way to send money online to Ireland is through OFX . OFX only charges a small currency exchange fee that depends on the amount of money being sent. If you are sending many thousands of dollars at a time, we can guarantee you that you will not find a better deal anytime soon. On the lower end, OFX takes 1% of the transfer. However, as you send more money, this rate declines to the eventual lowest possible rate of 0.4%. The only catch is that the amount being transferred must meet their requirements for minimum transaction size. If you can’t abide by a minimum transfer rate, TransferWise is usually as cheap as OFX for smaller transactions. Furthermore, TransferWise only has a minimum transfer amount of USD $0.01. However, you still need to send at least a couple hundred American Dollars for it to be economical.

Q: What’s The Fastest Way To Transfer Money Online To Ireland?

The fastest way to send funds to Ireland is through the fast options offered by companies such as Western Union. Due to how ubiquitous and trusted the service is, we will use Western Union’s fast option as the example (being ubiquitous also contributes to speed). With Western Union’s fast option, you pay significantly more money than usual. Regardless, you can expect your money to reach its Irish destination in a matter of minutes.

Q: Current Exchange Rates For Ireland

The current exchange rate for the Euro (EUR) is 0.84028 EUR per American Dollar (USD). The EUR reached a high of 0.8530 EUR per USD, and a low 0.8191 EUR per USD during the last 90 days. The average exchange rate over the last 90 days was 0.8329 EUR per USD. The average volatility rate of the EUR against the USD was 0.27% over the last 90 days. This is a moderately high volatility rate when you consider that the Euro hasn’t been very consistent against the American Dollar for the last two years. Going forward, you can reasonably expect the exchange rates to fluctuate moderately, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

As expected, the remittances to Ireland come in hundreds of thousands of transactions of varying amounts through different money transfer channels. Therefore, it helps to know the various channels senders use, the information required when sending and receiving money and the factors to consider when sending. This guide explores all these areas and more.

How To Send Money To Ireland

Sending money to Ireland is simple and easy. Follow these steps to get started.

Find a Trusted Provider

Our comparison table for sending money to internationally looks at your specific transfer needs to and from any country in the world. Use this to find a provider that provides the best all-round service for you.

Register with your chosen provider

Most providers will be completely free to sign up to, simply requiring your name, address and contact information. In most cases, you’ll also need to upload a picture of a valid photo ID to verify your identity.

Transfer Money

As soon as you're ready, you can start sending money online.

Ways To Send And Receive Money In Ireland

There are multiple ways to easily send and receive money in Ireland but these will largely depend on the provider you decide to use. Below you will find everything you need to know about the best ways to send money to Ireland.

Sending Money To Ireland

Receiving Money In Ireland

Ways to Send Money to Ireland

If you want to send money to your friends, family, and business associates in Ireland, there are various options you can use such as banks and online transfer services.

Depending on the method you choose, you may either pay more transfer fees, take a shorter time to transfer or not pay fees at all. Let us look at the most common ways open to sending money to Ireland.

Through the Banking System

Most people sending money to Ireland have traditionally been using the banking system. International bank transfers are safe and can handle large amounts of money. If you are transferring money from the UK, banks such as Barclays, NatWest, Llyods, and Nationwide are some of the commonly used institutions.

The banks you use will determine how fast the transfer will be processed. If you are sending money from the United States, using banks that have a presence in Ireland can save you a lot in fees and time. Banks such as Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo are among the best choices for Irish nationals sending money from America.

The downside with banks is that the transfers are often processed at very low rates and may take a little longer to be finalised. Most banks charge between 2.5 and 3.5% in exchange rate margins to transfer funds from the UK to Ireland.

Also, both you and the recipient must have bank accounts to use the bank system to send your transfer.

Online Money Transfer Services

Specialised online money transfer services such as WorldRemit, Xoom, TransferWise, OFX, XE, WorldFirst, and Ria are some of the best ways of transferring money to Ireland. They are low-cost, offer competitive rates, and transfer your money faster.

For instance, TransferWise doesn’t charge any exchange rate margin meaning all transfers to Ireland are done at the mid-market rate. XE and OFX, on the other hand, do not charge any transfer fees.

All it takes to send money through online money transfer providers is to sign up for a free transfer account with a provider of your choice, input the details of the recipient and pay for the transfer. Depending on the provider, you can pay via ACH, a credit card, or debit card.

When sending money to Ireland using online money transfer providers, you can opt for any of the following payout methods.

Cash Pickup- The recipient gets the money in cash from designated agents. Xoom has 46 agents across Ireland from which recipients can collect their money. Cash pickups are convenient for small transfers and emergency needs.
Bank deposits – All online money transfer services offer direct-to-bank deposits as a payout option. It takes between 1-3 days for the cash to be deposited in the recipient’s account in Ireland. You can transfer to all banks in Ireland.

Online money transfer services have the advantage of speed, flexibility, affordability and availability across many sending countries. You don’t need to have a bank account in the sending country to do your transfer.

In-Store Transfer Services

Cash transfer services such as Western Union and Money Gram allow you to send money to Ireland from physical walk-in agents. From the UK, you can send up to 50,000.00 GBP to Ireland through direct bank deposits or up to 5,000.00 GBP for cash pickup. MoneyGram allows you to send up to 6,000.00 GBP irrespective of the payout option.

You can pay for your transfer through a debit card, credit card, bank transfer or cash. The money arrives in minutes.

What is Needed to Send Money to Ireland

If you want to send money to Ireland, you will be required to provide certain information for your transfer to be executed. The information varies from one provider to another. Typically, you’ll need to provide the following:

A government issued-ID document. Depending on the country you are sending from, you can use a passport, social security card or driver’s license.
The recipient’s name as it appears on their legal documents
The recipient’s physical address and phone number
If you are sending directly to a bank account, the recipient bank details (bank name, branch and account number)
The amount of money you want to send, the transfer payment option and payout methods

Common Reasons for Sending Money to Ireland

Just as there are hundreds of thousands of transactions to Ireland, the reasons behind the remittances are widely varied as well. Below are some of the reasons Irish nationals in the diaspora send money home.

Family Support

Irish nationals send regular payments to help their families cater for expenses such as food, medicare, and other basic costs.

Mortgage Repayment

In Ireland most first time home buyers take up mortgages to finance their purchases. The current rules allow for mortgage facilities of up to 3.5 times the borrowers combined income.

Income repatriation & Savings

Some Irish nationals especially those who work on contract abroad, often send their earnings home instead of banking them in their host countries. Also as part of prudent financial management, Irish diaspora transfer money into savings accounts back in Ireland. Whether they are anticipating to return someday or not, such buffers always come in handy.

Investment

Whether it is investing in financial assets or physical assets such as real estate properties, Irish diaspora is keen on building an investment portfolio back in their home country.

Why Send Money with a Money Transfer Service?

The choice of whether or not to send money with an online money transfer provider is influenced by factors such as the urgency, cost, exchange rate, availability and many others. Below are some of the top reasons why you should consider sending money through money transfer providers.

Ease of Set-Up

Signing up for an online money transfer account and the verification process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of hours. In the subsequent transfers, there is nothing required other than keying in the recipient details and sending the transfer. Banks usually require a lot of documentation and they submit their customers to lots of KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures.

Exchange Rates

Online money transfer providers generally charge lower exchange rate margins giving senders high rates. Providers such as TransferWise use the mid-market rates for transfers, it doesn’t charge any margin.

Multi-Currency Support

With remittances coming from countries as far as Mongolia, Nicaragua, Malta, and St. Kitts and Nevis, the multi-currency feature is indispensable. Thanks to money transfer operators like WorldRemit, TransferWise, OFX, and XE, you can send money in 60+ currencies across the globe.

Security and Reliability

Most money transfer operators have put in place industry-grade security features and two-factor or multi-factor authentication security layers. This level of security helps in ensuring customer information and funds transfers are protected all at times.

Speed of Transfer

Depending on the transfer route, your funds may be available in Ireland the same day or the following business day. Cash pickups are normally delivered within minutes.

Transfer Fees

Apart from exchange rates, providers charge fees for the payment method chosen and other transfer fees. Typically, these fees are lower than what main street banks charge.

Things to Consider When Sending Money to Ireland

Every country has its own rules and laws regarding the handling of money and foreign income. In Ireland, you need to be aware of the following factors as you send money home.

Double Taxation – Ireland has over 70 double taxation agreements. When repatriating income that has already been taxed abroad, check the relevant agreements so that you don’t end up paying income tax twice.
Irish Rental Income – If you invest in property back in Ireland, you will be taxed on your rental income irrespective of whether you are domiciled in Ireland or not.
Daily Spending and Withdrawal Limits – Debit cards issued by the different banks have varying withdrawal and spending limits. Depending on the amount you are sending, the recipient may either opt for over-the-counter withdrawal or direct bill payment online. The average card spending limit is €5,000 while cash withdrawal limits can be as low as €500.

Sending money to Ireland can be a simple process with the right providers. Always watch out for exchange rates, transfer fees, and hidden fees. Doing a cross-comparison helps.

Your Questions Answered

What’s The Overall Best Way To Send Money To Ireland?

What’s The Easiest Way To Send Funds To Ireland?

What’s The Cheapest Way To Send Money Online To Ireland?

What’s The Fastest Way To Transfer Money Online To Ireland?

Current Exchange Rates For Ireland

How we compare?

Looking to Send Money Somewhere Else?

Sending money anywhere else in the world is as easy as sending money to Ireland. If you’re looking to send money to another country, here is the list of the most popular destinations.

Written by
Jonathan Merry

Jonathan is the founder and editor of MoneyTransfers.com. Jonathan is highly experienced in the currency transfer market, having previously worked in the FX trading industry, alongside being an avid traveller. Using his knowledge he identified a need for transparency and further education to help people save money on their money transfers, leading to the creation of MoneyTransfers.com