The Weekend Rate Gap

RemitRoutes Data Desk · Published 2026-10-02 · 2026-06-19 – 2026-10-01 · Preliminary edition

Preliminary edition — 105 days of data (2026-06-19–2026-10-01); updates weekly as more data accumulates.

Key findings

• Traditional providers averaged 1.8% all-in cost on weekends vs 1.76% on weekdays — a 0.04 pp gap. G7: not reliable (73.3% of 15 weeks, p=0.1185).
• Crypto rails showed a 0.05 pp weekend discount (-1.17% weekend vs -1.12% weekday). G7: not reliable (73.3% of 15 weeks, p=0.1185).
• BNZ showed the largest individual weekend premium at 1.54 pp across 9 corridors (provider panel, 2 weekends from 2026-09-20).
• Provider panel is preliminary — 2 weekend(s) of data from 2026-09-20 (6 required for full edition). Long-series G7 uses the full corridor aggregate window.

Average all-in cost (%) — weekend vs weekday by provider type. G7 sign test: traditional does NOT pass (p=0.1185, 73.3% of 15 weeks).

Provider Type	Day Type	Avg Cost (%)	Median Cost (%)	Corridors	Samples
Crypto	Weekday
Crypto	Weekend
Traditional	Weekday
Traditional	Weekend

Per-provider weekend gap (mid-band, ≥5 corridors, 2 weekends, data from 2026-09-20) — preliminary; not used for the headline.

Provider	Type	Weekday Avg (%)	Weekend Avg (%)	Gap (pp)	Corridors (weekday)	Weekday Quote Age (h)	Weekend Quote Age (h)
BNZ	traditional
Monese	traditional
Bithumb	crypto					n/a	n/a
VALR	crypto					n/a	n/a
National Australia Bank	traditional
China Construction Bank HK	traditional
Hang Seng	traditional
Citibank Singapore	traditional
OFX	traditional
CoinDCX	crypto					n/a	n/a
HSBC HK	traditional
Bank of East Asia	traditional
Swedbank AB	traditional
OCBC Wing Hang Bank	traditional
Binance P2P	crypto					n/a	n/a
Indodax	crypto					n/a	n/a
Wells Fargo	traditional
Coincheck	crypto					n/a	n/a
Binance P2P Sandwich	crypto					n/a	n/a
Kraken	crypto					n/a	n/a
Chase (US)	traditional
KiwiBank	traditional
Luno	crypto					n/a	n/a
OKX	crypto					n/a	n/a
Rabobank	traditional
Santander UK	traditional
Zürcher Kantonalbank	traditional
Royal Bank of Canada	traditional
OKX P2P	crypto					n/a	n/a
LaCaixa	traditional
HSBC Malaysia	traditional
BNC	traditional
HSBC Singapore	traditional
Sabadell	traditional
ASB NZ	traditional
Barclays	traditional
Commerzbank	traditional
Maybank	traditional
TD Bank	traditional
ABN AMRO Bank	traditional
BMO	traditional
Migros	traditional
Bitkub	crypto					n/a	n/a
Hata	crypto					n/a	n/a
Hong Leong	traditional
Westpac NZ	traditional
BTCTurk	crypto					n/a	n/a
HSBC	traditional
Instarem	traditional
La Banque Postale	traditional
Lloyds	traditional
PayPal	traditional
Quidax	crypto					n/a	n/a
Remitly	traditional
NatWest	traditional
RBS	traditional
Wise	traditional
Coins.ph	crypto					n/a	n/a
HashKey	crypto					n/a	n/a
Nationwide	traditional
Western Union	traditional
WorldRemit	traditional
SBI Remit	traditional
Commonwealth Bank of Australia	traditional
Moneygram	traditional
Public Bank Berhad	traditional
BNP Paribas	traditional
Skrill	traditional
ANZ	traditional
HDFC Bank	traditional
HSBC Australia	traditional
Upbit	crypto					n/a	n/a
MUFG Bank	traditional
PRESTIA	traditional
Coinbase	crypto					n/a	n/a
SMBC	traditional
Bitso	crypto					n/a	n/a
State Bank of India	traditional
MAX Exchange	crypto					n/a	n/a

Frequently asked questions

Why do transfers cost more on weekends?

Our mid-market reference (ExchangeRate-API, open.er-api.com) repeats Friday's close on weekends — it publishes once a day around 00:00 UTC and does not update on Saturdays and Sundays. Whether individual providers adjust their own rates on weekends is measured in this study.

How big is the weekend premium in practice?

In this study window, the measured traditional gap was 0.04 pp. Whether this effect is reliable is assessed via sign test — see the headline for the current finding. On a USD 1,000 transfer, 0.04 pp corresponds to roughly USD 0.4.

Does this apply equally to all corridors?

The weekend gap varies by corridor and provider. The per-provider panel (table 2, from 2026-09-20) shows individual provider gaps; the long-series aggregate (table 1) covers the full window.

Is this study updated regularly?

Yes — the data file is regenerated each time the snapshot script runs against the production DB. Check the edition date for the current measurement window.

Methodology

Leg 1 (long series, headline): RemitRoutes daily corridor cost aggregates (2026-06-19–2026-10-01, first date with non-NULL values; 105 days). Outliers outside [-25%, 50%] excluded: 104/102231. G7 sign test: traditional 15 weeks, 11 positive, p=0.1185. Headline value is the mean weekly gap in bps (1 pp = 100 bps). Leg 2 (provider panel, preliminary): per-provider daily quotes, amount_band='mid', all_in_cost_pct, date >= 2026-09-20 (G1: earlier rows had incorrect is_first_hand flag). Outlier filter [-25%, 50%] applied (G5). Providers with ≥ 5 corridors only. 2 weekends in panel. Fee-only field excluded (G2). Mid-market reference: ExchangeRate-API (open.er-api.com) daily USD rates, published once a day around 00:00 UTC; cross rates are derived via USD. Intraday currency moves between publications add noise to all-in cost estimates. See remitroutes.com/methodology.

Full methodology: /methodology.

Cite this study

RemitRoutes Data Desk. (2026). The Weekend Rate Gap [Dataset]. RemitRoutes. https://remitroutes.com/data/studies/weekend-gap

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