Question: How much does receiving a SWIFT transfer cost?

Answer: Qonto is among the first business accounts to add receiving SWIFT transfers to its service portfolio. 🎉   We’re thrilled to support you as you grow your business internationally by offering you the option to receive, directly on your Qonto account, transfers in more than 50 different currencies, and from many countries.  More information here :  List of accepted currencies and unauthorized countries   We’ve designed a unique pricing system for this service in order to provide you with lower rates than those offered by the traditional players on the market.   This pricing includes three types of fees: Receipt fees Fixed fees (which are avoidable) Exchange fees (depending on who handles the funds conversion into euros) Keep reading for more details on what you pay (and to whom) and for tips on how to avoid certain fees.   Receipt fees   On all Qonto plans,  a unique fee of €5 excluding taxes is applied to each SWIFT transfer received, in addition to the monthly cost of your plan.     Fixed fees Unfortunately, we have no control over the fees that may be charged by the various banks responsible for sending the transfer to your current account and for converting the funds. These fees are added to the cost of the transfer directly and typically range from €10 to €50.   These fees can be avoided, however, if your sender chooses the right option:   When sending you a SWIFT transfer, the issuer (your client or partner) has three options: OUR, BEN or SHA.   The chosen option is indicated on the proof of transfer (MT103), provided by the issuing bank.   The SHA (shared) option : the fees are shared between the beneficiary and the sender of the transfer. The fees from the issuing bank are paid by the person sending the transfer. The intermediary and beneficiary bank fees are deducted from the transfer amount (and thus charged to the beneficiary).   The BEN (beneficiary) option : The transfer beneficiary pays all the fixed fees, which are deducted from the transfer amount.   The OUR option : this is the only option that ensures you pay zero fees, as they are all taken care of by the party sending the transfer.   💡  We recommend you to ask your client or partner to select the OUR option to ensure that you receive the amount you are expecting. Also, it’s better to specify this in your business contracts !   Exchange fees The exchange rate is calculated based on the interbank exchange rate. These exchange rates vary constantly. They're frozen during the weekend and banking holidays - when the markets are closed - but they can fluctuate drastically as of the beginning of the week and over the course of a single day.   The exchange rate used to convert SWIFT transfers into euros is never the interbank rate. One of the banks (issuing, intermediary/intermediaries and/or beneficiary) converts the funds (for example, from USD to EUR) and charges a commission, which is calculated as a percentage of the interbank exchange rate.   Although you have no control over the matter, you should know that two scenarios are possible: The issuing bank or one of the intermediary banks converts the transfer Qonto then receives the transfer in euros. Since the conversion has been completed beforehand, we have no control over the fees added to the exchange rate displayed on your screen.   The beneficiary bank converts the transfer If the beneficiary bank receives the transfer in a currency other than euros, it will apply its exchange fees to convert the funds.   When transfer funds need to be converted, Qonto entrusts this task to a correspondent bank rather than handling it directly.   With our correspondent bank, we have negotiated a fee equal to about 2% of the interbank exchange rate. This is just an estimate. This rate may be higher or lower depending on the date, the transfer amount and the currency.