Providers change their pricing quietly. A fee moves, a margin widens, a free tier gets a threshold — announced in an email you skim once, or not announced at all. Nobody keeps a record.
This page is that record. Every entry is dated, sourced, and recalculated by us. It grows over time, and it is deliberately never finished.
If you spot a change we have missed, tell us.
How to read this
We track the true cost — advertised fee plus exchange-rate margin, combined into one number — because a provider can leave its fee untouched and still charge you more by widening the rate. Our Methodology explains the calculation.
A change in the mid-market rate is not a price change: that is the market moving, and it affects everyone equally. What we watch is the margin over mid-market, which is the provider’s decision.
2026
30 August 2026 — Western Union prices USD→INR in tiers
Recording the first structural finding in the archive, rather than a single price. Sending to India, Western Union’s exchange rate does not move smoothly with the amount — it holds flat, then steps.
| You send | WU exchange rate | WU margin | Wise | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | 94.8600 | 0.786% | 0.685% | Wise |
| $2,500 | 94.9553 | 0.686% | 0.701% | Western Union |
| $5,000 | 94.9553 | 0.686% | 0.560% | Wise |
| $10,000 | 95.1460 | 0.487% | 0.489% | Western Union |
| $20,000 | 95.1460 | 0.487% | 0.454% | Wise |
The same rate appears at two very different amounts, twice — 94.9553 at both $2,500 and $5,000, then 95.1460 at both $10,000 and $20,000. Three rates across five amounts. Neither provider publishes where these boundaries sit, so we are recording the rates we observed rather than the thresholds we infer.
Consequence: the cheaper provider changes hands four times across this range. Full workings in The Cheapest Provider Changes Four Times.
Mid-market reference 95.6112. Captured 30 August 2026; the $1,000 row carried over from the 28 August capture.
28 August 2026 — baseline established
First readings recorded. These are the numbers every future entry is measured against.
| Provider | Corridor | True cost on $1,000 | As % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wise | USD→PHP | $7.46 | 0.75% |
| Western Union | USD→PHP | $30.71 | 3.07% |
| Wells Fargo | USD→PHP | $32.61 | 3.26% |
| PayPal | USD→PHP | $52.65 | 5.26% |
| Wise | USD→INR | $6.85 | 0.69% |
| Western Union | USD→INR | $7.86 | 0.79% |
| Wells Fargo | USD→INR | $30.91 | 3.09% |
| Chase | USD→INR | $35.78 | 3.58% |
| Wise | USD→MXN | $7.67 | 0.77% |
| Wells Fargo | USD→MXN | $30.57 | 3.06% |
| Wise | USD→NGN | $7.78 | 0.78% |
| Western Union | USD→NGN | $15.13 | 1.51% |
| Wise | USD→VND | $8.84 | 0.88% |
| Remitly | USD→VND | $12.06 | 1.21% |
| Western Union | USD→VND | $14.96 | 1.50% |
Full workings: the $1,000 comparison and the five-corridor comparison.
27–28 August 2026 — Western Union margin on USD→PHP, no change of substance
Between our two captures the mid-market USD/PHP rate rose 0.564%, from 61.9631 to 62.3125. Over the same period Western Union’s margin over mid-market moved from 2.911% to 2.877% — a change of 0.034 percentage points.
Its true cost on $1,000 fell from $31.05 to $30.71, but almost all of that is the rate moving, not the provider repricing. Wise’s fee was $7.46 on both days, unchanged.
Verdict: no meaningful price change. Recorded because a baseline needs a second reading to be worth anything, and because a stable margin is a finding too — it is what a real repricing will stand out against.
Why this page exists
A single price tells you what something costs today. A record of prices tells you what a provider does when it thinks nobody is watching — whether the cheap launch rate held, whether the margin crept after the marketing stopped, whether “no fees” survived contact with a quiet update.
That is not information anyone else has an incentive to keep. So we keep it.
finance404 — The numbers they leave out.
This page is financial education, not financial advice. Figures are recalculated from published rates at the times stated. See our Methodology and Disclaimer.