Payment fee guide
SWIFT fees vs exchange-rate markup: what is the difference?
Understand SWIFT fees in South Africa, OUR, SHA and BEN charge codes, and how transfer charges differ from exchange-rate markup.
By FX Fee Finder · Updated
Two charges to look for on a confirmation
A transfer fee is an explicit charge associated with moving a payment. An exchange-rate markup is a margin included in the conversion rate. A payment can involve either or both. Seeing a transfer fee on the receipt does not mean that the conversion itself had no cost.
People often call an international bank transfer charge a SWIFT fee. SWIFT provides financial messaging; the charges on a customer payment depend on the banks and payment providers involved. Read your provider’s confirmation and terms to understand the charge actually applied.
Who pays SWIFT charges: OUR, SHA and BEN
Charge codes describe how transaction charges are allocated. OUR generally assigns the charges to the sender. BEN assigns them to the beneficiary. SHA shares charges between sender and beneficiary. The exact handling depends on the payment route and the applicable provider terms.
These codes do not describe the exchange-rate margin. A payment marked OUR can still involve a currency conversion at a quoted customer rate. Ask your provider what its charge arrangement covers and whether intermediary or receiving-bank deductions can apply.
Why the recipient may receive less than expected
An international payment can pass through more than one bank. Charges taken along the route can affect the amount that reaches the recipient. A difference between the amount instructed and the amount received therefore needs investigation before it is attributed entirely to the exchange rate.
As a synthetic example, a sender instructs USD 1,000 and the recipient sees USD 980. That difference alone does not identify the cause. Check the payment instruction, the charge code and the receiving confirmation. Do not assume that an unlabelled USD 20 difference is a confirmed fee.
Keep the comparison consistent
Compare quotes for the same currency pair, payment direction and amount at a similar time. Ask for the full debit amount, the quoted conversion rate, each disclosed fee and the amount expected to reach the recipient. Check whether a fee is already included before adding it again.
In FX Fee Finder, confirm the disclosed transfer fee or choose No fee only when appropriate. The estimate keeps the confirmed fee separate from the FX spread. Missing fee information can make a payment look cheaper than it really was; an estimate cannot discover every possible intermediary deduction.
Read a synthetic payment-shortfall example
Illustration only. The difference is deliberately left unexplained until the provider confirms it.
| Confirmation line | Example | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Payment instructed | USD 1,000 | The original instruction is a useful starting point. |
| Amount received | USD 980 | A smaller receipt does not identify which party made a deduction. |
| Charge arrangement | SHA | This describes sharing of transaction charges, not the conversion rate. |
| Reason for difference | Not confirmed | Request the charge breakdown; do not turn an unexplained difference into a confirmed fee. |
Common questions
- Does an OUR payment have no exchange-rate markup?
- OUR describes the allocation of transaction charges. It does not establish the currency conversion rate or remove a margin from that rate.
- Can a receiving bank deduct a charge?
- Charges can arise at different points in a cross-border payment chain. Check the charge arrangement and ask the relevant providers to explain deductions.
- Should I add a fee that is already in the account debit?
- Keep the converted amount and separate fee distinct. If you use a debit that already includes the fee as the conversion amount, the cost assessment can count it twice.
Sources and further reading
General information, not financial advice. Examples are synthetic. Provider terms and payment routes differ; confirm charges with your provider.