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A method, in five steps, that survives contact with real rate cards.
Last reviewed
One: fix the amount and the corridor, because the answer changes with both. Two: list only the rails that actually operate in the destination market, since a cheaper rail you cannot use is not an option. Three: compute the total cost, explicit fee plus exchange margin, not the headline rate.
Four: check the bounds. A cap or a floor may reorder everything at your amount. Five: check the settlement speed and whether the money can be reversed, because the cheapest rail is often the slowest and the least recoverable.
Some of the cheapest rails are irreversible by design. If the payment is to someone you do not know, the dispute protection on a more expensive rail is worth the difference, and buying it knowingly is a reasonable trade.
Speed is the other axis. Instant domestic rails often cost a fraction of a card payment but only exist within one market, and same-day settlement can be worth more than a few tenths of a percent.
Prices change. Everything here is explained against live fee data, so you can check any of it directly.