Send Money To Ukraine

Ukraine and Russia have a unique bond not just in political arrangements but also in terms of economic relations. The Crimea annexation tension notwithstanding, many Ukranianians call Russia home. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry notes that about 3 million of its nationals live and work in Russia. Therefore, it doesn’t come as a shock that over 50% of the $7.9 billion Ukraine receives in remittances comes from Russia.

The rest of the remittances come from countries such as the United States, Germany, Kazakhstan, Italy, Poland, and Belarus. Most Ukrainians in Russia predominantly use Western Union to send their money home. Those in the United States use a combination of providers and institutions such as MoneyGram, Western Union, Ria, Xoom, and Walmart2World.

The Ukrainians in Italy use a mixture of banks and money transfer operators such as MoneyGram, Western Union, Azimo, Ria, TransferWise, Extrabanca, Poste Italiane, Unistream, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A.

With lots of options available to send money to Ukraine, you may be wondering which is the best method. Not every channel is suitable for you, there is some background information you need to enable you to make the right decision.

This guide will help bring onto the surface issues such as the information needed when sending money to Ukraine, transfer channels available, factors you need to bear in mind when transferring money to Ukraine and so forth.

How To Send Money To Ukraine

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

Find a Trusted Provider

Use our comparison table to find the best provider for your needs.

Sign Up and Deposit

Sign up with the provider and deposit the amount you want to transfer.

Transfer Money

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

Ways To Send And Receive Money In Ukraine

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

Ways to Send Money to Ukraine

There are three main ways through which you can send money to Ukraine. You can use the banking system, online money transfer providers, or in-store cash transfer methods.

Bank-to-Bank Transfers

As long as the recipient has a bank account and you have an account in the host country, you can make these transfers. For instance, if you send money from Banca Intesa SanPaolo in Italy to a local bank in Ukraine, it will take about 2-3 days for the transfer to get there.

Walmart2World, international wire transfer service, takes minutes to get the money to Ukraine. This is because of its unique partnership with MoneyGram. Generally, banks take a little longer, up to 5 days, to deliver transfers to Ukraine. They also charge more in transfer fees and exchange rate margins, thus making them unattractive options.

Online Money Transfer Services

The bulk of the transfers to Ukraine from many of the countries with the exception of Russia are made through online money transfer service providers. Talk of Azimo, TrnsferWise, Xoom, Ria, and WorldRemit, all these providers are frequently used on the Ukraine transfer corridors.

Sending money through these providers is simple and fast. All you need is to sign up for an account, pay for your transfer and send. There are lots of options when paying for your transfer. You can make a bank transfer, use a debit card, pay via a credit card or other country-dependent payment options.

Online money transfer methods enjoy a wide sending and disbursing network coverage, have faster transfer speeds, and competitive fees. For instance, TransferWise supports 55+ countries including Ukraine and Xoom supports 30+ countries.

When sending money to Ukraine through online money transfer providers, there are three payout options you can choose from:

Direct-to-Bank Deposit - All major banks in Ukraine support these transfers
Cash Pickup – The funds are transferred through a network of agents. Xoom has 8,819 agents across Ukraine. WorldRemit has 3,000 cash pickup locations in Ukraine thanks to its partnership with the CONTACT payment system.
Mobile Reloads - Through Xoom, you can gift your family and friends talk time. The service supports 8 carriers in the country: 3Mob, Intertelecom, Kyivstar, Lifecell, Peoplenet, Travel Sim, Vodafone, and Yezzz. Mobile reloads are instant.

In-Store Cash Transfer

Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria, and Unistream are some of the money transfer companies that allow for cash deposits at stores in the sending countries. If you are sending money from the United States to Ukraine through Western Union, you can pay cash in-store or online. The only payout option available is cash pickup and the maximum you can send is 5,000.00 USD.

When sending your transfer from the UK to Ukraine through MoneyGram, the maximum amount you can send is 6000.00 GBP and the payout option is cash pickup.

What is Needed to Send Money to Ukraine

Money transfer providers require that you give the following information when sending money to Ukraine.

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 the Basic Bank Account Number)
The amount of money you want to send, the transfer payment option and payout methods

Common Reasons for Sending Money to Ukraine

The lack of well-paid jobs and security concerns have led to a lot of Ukrainians to leave their country. Some of them leave their families behind. Combined with other reasons, this situation explains why many Ukrainians send money home.

Household Consumption

Remittances supplement household spending in many Ukranian migrant families. The funds are used for basic expenses such as food, medication and utilities.

Investment in properties

Cash from Ukrainians living abroad has found its way into the local property market. Strategic places like the prairies of western Ukraine have become a magnet for diaspora investors. The high-rise apartment complexes around Lviv are financed by cash from Ukrainians living abroad.

Paying Employees and Freelancers

With remote working now becoming a normal way of life, overseas clients send money regularly to freelancers working from Ukraine. For those with businesses, sending money for operations and wages is a common practice.

Education

Some of the funds sent are for paying tuition fees. Ukraine has placed a premium on education and everyone strives to get the best qualification they can afford.

Savings

A bigger percentage of the over 5 million Ukrainians in the diaspora still plan on coming home someday. To prepare for this, some of them put aside money in savings accounts and time deposits.

Why Send Money with a Money Transfer Service?

When sending money to Ukraine, few people use the banking system. In fact, a significant percentage still use informal channels including crossing the border with hard cash. Instead of risking your hard-earned cash or exposing it to the high fees and lower rates offered by banks, opt for money transfer services to enjoy the following benefits:

Low Transfer Fees

Money transfer providers charge a percentage of what banks charge to send the same amount of money to Ukraine. The providers have minimal operating costs and the savings realised are passed over to their customers in the form of low fees.

Better Exchange Rates

The exchange rate margins money transfer providers charge, range between 0.5-3%. Banks can charge as high as 5% off the mid-market rate. With high exchange rates, you get more of the destination currency for every unit of the host currency.

Faster Transfer

Funds sent through money transfer providers take 1-2 days to be delivered. Cash pickups arrive in minutes and this can help sort out any emergencies or pressing needs.

Simple to Sign Up

The account sign up and verification process can take a few minutes or a couple of hours depending on the provider. However, this is a one-off process that you’ll not repeat in future, hence going forward the sending process becomes even simpler.

Multi-Currency Support

The fact that you can send money to Ukraine from lots of countries in 60+ global currencies gives every sender a wide range of choices. This privilege may not be readily available when making transfers through the banking system.

Security

Online money transfer providers have invested heavily in industry-grade security to protect information and identities of their customers online. Security features such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) help safeguard user information. In addition, most money transfer services are regulated by global organisations such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).

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Things to Consider When Sending Money to Ukraine

There are certain factors that you need to look at before you hit the ‘Send’ button on your transfer to Ukraine. This guide cannot exhaust them all but will give you an overview of what is important.

Payments within Ukraine - All payments within Ukraine are made in the local currency, Hryvna (UAH). The only exception is when paying for foreign investments in Ukraine or repatriating income from Ukraine.
Financial Monitoring - Transactions with a value exceeding UAH 150,000 are monitored with respect to their integrity. The source, as well as the destination of such funds, are closely examined.
Customs Declarations - Export or import of foreign currency exceeding EUR 10,000 requires the recipient to declare the transaction with the customs authority. Supporting documents may be required to back up the explanations.
Cash withdrawals from ATMs - All cash withdrawals from ATMs are supposed to be done in Hryvnas. This means that transfers in euros or USD have to be converted by the local banks in Ukraine to enable the recipient to access the funds.

Sending money to Ukraine can be quite expensive if you don’t use the right channel. Money transfer providers have made the process simpler, faster, and more affordable even to people sending small amounts to their families back home.

Your Questions Answered

What’s The Fastest Way To Send Money To Ukraine?

The fastest way is through either Ria Money Transfer’s fast service or Western Union’s fast service. The former costs far less than the latter, but Western Union is more popular and easier to use. Regardless, both of these options will see to it that your money reaches its Ukrainian destination in a matter of minutes.

What’s The Cheapest Way To Send Money To Ukraine?

The cheapest way is to go with Ria Money Transfer’s slow option. While this isn’t always the case, Ria Money Transfer doesn’t carry any hidden currency conversion costs for either the slow or fast version. The upfront fee for Ria Money Transfer’s slow option is very low, and in the end, it is the cheapest option available to you.

The main drawback to Ria Money Transfer’s slow option is that it’s… wait for it…slow. You can expect to wait 3-5 days for your money to reach its Ukrainian destination.

What’s The Easiest Way To Send Money To Ukraine?

The easiest way is using TransferWise. The peer-to-peer money transfer system makes it very easy to transfer money. All you need to do is tap the amount of money and the destination. After that, you need to pay TransferWise, and from that point, the money should get to its destination in a day or two.

It should be noted that the stated fees for using TransferWise to send funds to Ukraine are higher than they are for many other countries.

Current Exchange Rates For Ukraine

The currency exchange situation for the Ukrainian Hryvnia is fairly stable now but has been unpredictable in recent years, during which time serious fluctuations in currency exchange rates have occurred. All things considered, Ukraine is not the easiest or most stress-free country for money transfers, but there are some great options available to you.

The current exchange rate for the Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH) is 24.4247 per American Dollar (USD). The average exchange rate over the last 90 days was 24.0202 UAH per USD. The UAH reached a high of 25.1264 UAH per USD, and a low of 23.2170 UAH per USD during the last 90 days.

The average volatility rate of the UAH against the USD was 0.51% for the last 90 days. This is a moderate volatility rate; however, the currency exchange rates have gone through larger-than-average fluctuations during the last few years. Going forward, you can reasonably expect the exchange rate to fluctuate moderately, barring unforeseen circumstances. It should be noted that Ukraine has experienced many unforeseen events in the last few years, and they have affected the exchange rates.

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

The overall best way to transfer money to Ukraine is through Ria Money Transfer’s fast option. While it isn’t the most convenient method, the balance between speed and cost is quite good. You pay more for Ria Money’s fast option than you do for their slow option but the difference in timing is under an hour versus 3-5 days. For these reasons, Ria Money Transfer’s fast option is the best choice for sending funds to Ukraine.

How we compare

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

Looking to Send Money Somewhere Else?

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