Your best options to send money to Ukraine

If you plan to start a business in Ukraine or have freelance employees working in the country, you will have to transfer money on a regular basis.

Some of the most popular money transfer services operate in the European country but their conditions aren’t necessarily the best ones. The following tables reveal the most accessible services that will cost you less in comparison to your bank’s money transfer fees.

We acknowledge that as of this time there is an ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and support the resolution of the conflict. Explore these resources to discover ways you can help.

Update: Can you use skrill as an alternative for receiving money in Ukraine?

Skrill has been reported as an alternative payment method for Ukraine. Although it is tested, some people report problems with money withdrawals.

Here is a short guide on how to use Skrill for money transfers:

You need an international internet virtual card – for that purpose, create an account via PrivatBank.
Connect the card with your account in Skrill.
Now you can withdraw US dollars to the virtual account first. It will cost you approximately four dollars per every withdrawal, in addition to a 0.5 percent fee for placing dollars in your account.
The sender of the money via Skrill will have to pay a one percent fee. • Once you have the money in the virtual account, you can transfer it to the credit card. The transaction will cost you 0.5 percent of the sum.
To withdraw the money in cash, visit you bank and withdraw the dollars. Keep in mind that there are restrictions about the total amount of money you can withdraw per day. It is 15,000 UAH which is less than 700 dollars.

Table 1 – Sending $1000 from the US to Ukraine
Transfer Method	Stated fees to send $1000 USD	Hidden currency conversion cost	Total cost	Time for the transfer to arrive
Ria Money Transfer (slow)	$5	$0	$5	3-5 days
Western Union (slow)	$12	$0	$12	3-5 days
Moneygram (slow)	$12	$0	$12	3-5 days
Ria Money Transfer (fast)	$15	$0	$15	Minutes
Wise, formerly TransferWise	$20	$0	$20	1-2 days
Payoneer	$3	$28	$31	3-5 days
Moneygram (fast)	$48	$0	$48	Minutes
Western Union (fast)	$48	$0	$48	Minutes
Wire transfer	$25-55	$10-30	$35-85	3-5 days

Notes:

All of these methods above are for the recipient to receive the money in USD. If needed, they may have to convert the money from USD to Hryvnia.
These conversion fees are around 1% depending on who they use to convert USD to Hryvnia.

Table 2: The TOTAL Cost including HIDDEN currency exchange fees for sending money from different countries to the Ukraine
Transfer Method	Receiving Currency Option	From the US	From the UK	From Canada	From Western Europe	From Australia
Ria Money Transfer	USD	0.5%	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Small World FS	EUR	Not available	7%	Not available	0%	Not available
Xendpay	EUR	Not available	0%	2.6%	Not available	2.6%
Wise, formerly TransferWise	USD & EUR	2%	2%	2%	2%	2%
Exchange4free	USD & EUR	Not available	3%	3%	0%	3%
Payoneer	USD	3.1%	Not available	Not available	Not available	Not available
Western Union	USD & EUR	1.2%	3%	6.7%	1.9%	9.9%
Azimo	USD	Not available	3.2%	Not available	3.2%	Not available
Send Money 24	USD	Not available	7.7%	Not available	Not available	Not available
Moneygram	USD & EUR	1.2%	9.3%	7.8%	3%	9.6%
Wire transfer	USD Only	2.5-5.5%	2-4.5%	2.5-5.5%	2-4.5%	3-6.5%

Note:

If you’re not sure what I mean by “hidden currency exchange fees” check out our explanation in this article.
Western Union Method and Moneygram are offering only a ‘Fast Method’ for United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Australia, in which they transfer the ‘Money in Minutes’.
If a transfer method is marked “Not Available”, that means that country is not serviced by that company.
Most methods will only transfer in USD or EURO to Ukraine. In this chart, we are assuming that if you’re sending money from Europe the recipient will receive EUROs, but if you’re sending from the USA, UK, Australia or Canada the recipient will receive the money in USDs.
There will be an additional fee of up to 1% charged to the recipient for the purpose of conversion into Ukraine Hryvnia (UAH), but it also depends on the currency exchange dealer being used.
The companies which are charging 0% fees (e.g. Small World FS from Germany charging 0% fees), they may be charging only for first transaction, which means charges may differ from second transaction and so on.

Important:

Ukraine’s government has instituted Foreign Exchange Controls.

From Wikipedia:

Foreign exchange controls are various forms of controls imposed by a government on the purchase/sale of foreign currencies by residents or on the purchase/sale of local currency by nonresidents. Often, foreign exchange controls can result in the creation of black markets to exchange the weaker currency for stronger currencies.

This leads to a situation where the exchange rate for the foreign currency is much higher than the rate set by the government, and therefore creates a shadow currency exchange market.

The official rate was UAH 15.77/USD as of Dec 16, 2014. The interbank rate was at UAH 16.0–16.25/USD, and the black market rate exceeded UAH 20/USD.

This means that if you exchange money via a bank the currency exchange rates will be significantly worse than receiving money in USD for example and then exchanging via the black market.