Your bank's "exchange rate" almost never matches the real mid-market rate — and that gap is a hidden fee that never appears on your receipt. Enter your bank's quoted rate and this tool grades exactly how much extra you're paying.
Enter the exchange rate your bank quoted for your transfer, plus the amount.
The tool compares your bank's rate to RemitRoutes' live measured mid-market rate for the same currency pair.
It calculates the percentage markup, assigns a letter grade, and shows the dollar amount lost to that markup on your specific transfer.
Markup% = |mid-market rate − bank's quoted rate| / mid-market rate × 100.
Grade bands: A under 0.5% (excellent), B 0.5–1.5% (good), C 1.5–3% (below average), D 3–5% (poor), F over 5% (significantly overpaying).
Dollar cost = markup% × transfer amount. A $25 wire fee combined with a 3% FX markup on $1,000 costs $55 total, not the $25 the bank advertises.
Worked example: Sending $1,000 from USD to MXN, the cheapest measured route today is Xoom at 1.12% better than the mid-market rate (a measured premium, not a cost) — about $11.20 more than a mid-market transfer on $1,000, as of August 23, 2026. Rates are refreshed every 6 hours from live provider data.
Banks add a markup (typically 1.5-4%) on top of the mid-market exchange rate — the real rate you see on Google or Reuters. They call it "our exchange rate" without disclosing the difference. On a $1,000 transfer, a 3% markup means $30 less delivered to your recipient, on top of any visible wire fee.
Most banks charge $15-50 per international wire transfer. But the wire fee is only part of the cost. The real expense is usually the exchange rate markup, which can be 2-5x larger than the visible fee. A $25 wire fee with a 3% FX markup on $1,000 actually costs you $55 total.
For a typical $1,000 monthly transfer, switching from a bank (3% markup + $35 fee) to Wise (0% markup + ~$5 fee) saves roughly $60/month or $720/year. Crypto rails can save even more — often under $5 total per transfer with near-zero FX markup.
We grade your bank's exchange rate from A to F based on how far it is from the mid-market rate. A (under 0.5%) means excellent — near the real rate. B (0.5-1.5%) is good. C (1.5-3%) is below average. D (3-5%) is poor. F (over 5%) means you are paying significantly more than you should.
The mid-market rate is the fairest benchmark — it's the midpoint between buy and sell prices on global currency markets. No provider can offer exactly this rate (they need to make money), but the best providers like Wise use the mid-market rate and only charge a small, visible fee. If your rate is more than 0.5% away, you're paying a hidden premium.
Compare live rates across 370+ corridors on RemitRoutes · methodology.