Multi-currency business accounts and FX fees: how UK small businesses pay and get paid abroad

A UK business that invoices overseas customers, buys from foreign suppliers or pays contractors in another currency meets charges that never appear on a domestic tariff: a per-payment fee for sending abroad, a percentage taken through the exchange rate, deductions by banks in the middle, and sometimes a fee for receiving. The Bank of England’s summary is that “In some instances, a cross-border payment can take several days and can cost up to 10 times more than a domestic payment.” This guide explains the mechanics: the two account models, how exchange-rate mark-ups work, SWIFT against the local payment rails, how receiving works, and what a percentage “above the mid-market rate” means in pounds. Every figure is from a provider’s published tariff or a payment-system operator’s own page, read on 5 September 2026, as our methodology requires.

Key facts

• “The more intermediaries that are involved in a cross-border transaction, the slower and more expensive it will be.” (Bank of England, cross-border payments)
• Barclays’ conversion charge over its Reference Exchange Rate “will be no more than 2% for business customers”; a Barclays International Payment costs £15 in the app (Barclays tariff).
• Wise Business charges “From 0.24%” to send or convert and says “we don’t inflate the mid-market exchange rate” (Wise Business pricing).
• The SEPA region “consists of 41 European countries, including countries which are not part of the euro area or the EU” (ECB); Lloyds’ brochure describes the SEPA community as “the EU member states plus several other countries including the UK” (Lloyds).
• Lloyds charges “£24 each year” for a Euro Current Account and “£60 each year” for a Foreign Currency Account alongside a sterling account (Lloyds).

Two ways to hold and move foreign currency

A sterling account with international payments. Your balance is in pounds. When you pay a euro invoice, the bank converts at its own rate and charges a per-payment fee. When a customer pays you in dollars, the bank converts on arrival, whether you wanted it to or not. Monzo’s fee information puts it plainly: “We convert any payments you get in EUR to GBP before the money appears in your account.” Mettle charges inbound international payments a “£4 fixed fee, plus a 1.5% fee if we need to convert from a foreign currency into GBP”. Every crossing of the border is a conversion, so a business that receives dollars and later pays dollars converts twice and pays the margin twice.

A multi-currency account. The account holds balances in several currencies, often with local account details in each so that customers can pay you as if you were domestic. Wise Business lists “Holding money in your account: Free” and a one-off charge of “50 GBP” for “Getting account details to receive in 22 currencies”. HSBC’s Business Price List prices its Global Wallet at “Receive like a local £5.00 per transaction”, “Pay like a local £5.00 per transaction” and “Pay SWIFT (international) £17.00 per transaction”. Lloyds takes a different route: a separate Euro Current Account at “£24 each year” and a Foreign Currency Account at “£60 each year”, each running beside the sterling account. Allica routes outgoing international transfers through Wise, where the “Wise transfer fee and exchange rate applies. No Allica Bank fees”.

The distinction in one line: a sterling account converts every time money crosses the border; a multi-currency account lets you choose when, or whether, to convert.

How exchange-rate mark-ups work

Wise’s explanation of the mid-market rate is a good starting definition: “Generally speaking, bankers are willing to pay a certain price for a currency, and they’re willing to sell it for a certain price. The midpoint of these prices is the mid-market rate.” It goes on: “Banks and money transfer services use the mid-market rate when they trade between themselves, but they rarely pass it on to you. Instead, they often mark it up to make extra money.”

The banks’ tariffs describe the same mechanism in their own words. Barclays: “If we need to convert the payment into another currency, we’ll use our latest Barclays Reference Exchange Rate and will apply a currency conversion charge. The conversion charge we apply will be no more than 2% for business customers.” It adds that “The Barclays Reference Exchange rates are set by us and based on market exchange rates” and that “For transactions above £25,000, the conversion charge will reduce as the amount increases.” Lloyds defines the “Lloyds Bank Foreign Exchange Rate” as “The currency exchange rate applied to convert payments which is set by Lloyds Banking Group”, and does not publish the size of the margin. Metro Bank says “a foreign exchange (FX) margin will be applied to your exchange rate”.

The e-money providers and app-based banks tend to express the same cost as a visible percentage. Wise: “Sending money: Fee varies by currency, From 0.24%” and “Converting money: Fee varies by currency, From 0.24%”. ANNA: “1% currency conversion fee for transfers” on its Free, Grow and Business plans and 0.5% on Big Business. Monzo: until 31 October 2026, a fixed amount of “no more than £9” plus a variable amount “between 0% and 1.80%”; from 1 November 2026 the fixed part changes.

A margin inside the rate and a stated percentage on top of the mid-market rate are the same cost presented two ways: the gap between what your money would have bought at mid-market and what it actually bought. The difference is only whether you can see it.

What “0.5% above the mid-market rate” costs: a worked example

Take an illustrative mid-market rate of £1 = €1.15. This is a round number for the arithmetic, not a quoted rate from any provider. A business sends £10,000 to a supplier in Germany.

• At mid-market, £10,000 buys €11,500.00.
• At 0.24%, the lowest figure Wise advertises for sending (it “varies by currency”): the fee is 0.24% of £10,000 = £24.00, so £9,976.00 is converted at the mid-market rate and the supplier receives €11,472.40. Cost: £24.00.
• At a 0.5% margin in the rate: the rate offered is 1.15 x (1 - 0.005) = 1.14425, so £10,000 buys €11,442.50. That is €57.50 less than mid-market, which at 1.15 is £50.00. Cost: £50.00.
• At 2%, the maximum Barclays states for business customers: the rate is 1.15 x 0.98 = 1.127, so £10,000 buys €11,270.00, which is €230.00 or £200.00 less than mid-market. Add Barclays’ per-payment fee: £0.35 for a SEPA credit transfer in euros, or £15 for a Barclays International Payment in other currencies. Cost: up to £200.35 on a euro payment.

The rule of thumb is that a percentage mark-up costs the amount multiplied by the percentage: 0.5% of £10,000 is £50, 1% is £100, 2% is £200. The percentage scales with the payment; a fixed fee does not. On a €300 payment a £15 fixed fee outweighs a 2% margin (about £5); on a £50,000 payment a 2% margin is £1,000 and the fixed fee is noise.

SWIFT and correspondent banks versus local rails

Most international payments from a UK bank travel by SWIFT messaging through a chain of banks. The Bank of England’s cross-border payments page explains why that chain is expensive: “not every bank has a direct relationship, so sometimes they need to transact via an intermediary, a ‘correspondent’ bank.” Then: “The more intermediaries that are involved in a cross-border transaction, the slower and more expensive it will be.” And: “At each bank in the chain, fees will be taken for processing and foreign exchange”.

Bank tariffs show that chain in their small print. Lloyds: “For most international services, we work through our worldwide network of correspondent banks. They will make a charge for the service they provide.” It offers three charging codes, “SHA/SHAR, OUR/DEBT and BEN/CRED”, and if you choose OUR (you pay everything) it levies a Correspondent Bank Fee of £12 for Zone 1 (the USA, the EEA, Canada, Switzerland and others) or £20 for the rest of the world. If you do not, “any correspondent banks involved in processing the payment may deduct the charges from the amount of money you send to the Payee”. HSBC’s price list says the same of money coming in: “Incoming international payments may be subject to charges by the sender or intermediary banks. These will have been deducted before we receive the payment and credit it to your account.”

The SWIFT fees on the tariffs in our comparison: Metro Bank £25; Virgin Money M Account £17.50 online or £25 in branch; HSBC Global Wallet “Pay SWIFT (international) £17.00 per transaction”. On receiving, Wise charges 2.16 GBP, 2.39 EUR or 6.11 USD for a SWIFT or wire payment into the corresponding currency.

Local rails avoid the chain by moving money inside one currency’s domestic system.

• SEPA (euro). The ECB: “Thanks to the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), customers can make cashless euro payments to anywhere in the European Union, and to a number of non-EU countries, in a fast, safe and efficient way, just like within their own country.” The region “consists of 41 European countries, including countries which are not part of the euro area or the EU” (status 22 May 2025). UK banks are in it: Lloyds describes the SEPA community as “the EU member states plus several other countries including the UK”. A SEPA payment needs the recipient’s IBAN and, per Lloyds and HSBC, must use the shared (SHA) charging code. The fees are a fraction of SWIFT: Barclays £0.35 in the app, HSBC 24p, Metro Bank £0.20, Lloyds £5, Virgin Money and the Co-operative Bank no charge.
• ACH (US dollar). Nacha, which governs it, describes “ACH, or the Automated Clearing House Network” as the US system behind “Direct Deposit, direct pay or electronic check”. It is reachable only with US account details, which is why a multi-currency account with local USD details can receive an ACH payment while a sterling account cannot. Wise’s pricing shows the gap: receiving USD by domestic transfer is free; by wire or SWIFT it is 6.11 USD. The same logic runs in reverse for sterling: Wise prices a GBP payment received by local transfer at free and by SWIFT at 2.16 GBP.

The fee gap on a single tariff makes the point: HSBC’s £5 to “pay like a local” against £17 by SWIFT; Metro Bank’s £0.20 by SEPA against £25 by SWIFT; Barclays’ £0.35 by SEPA against £15 by its international payments service.

Receiving payments from abroad

Receiving is not free either, and the charges are easy to miss because they are taken from money arriving rather than leaving.

On the bank tariffs: Barclays charges £6 for “Receiving BIPS of £100.01 or more” but nothing for a SEPA credit transfer or a euro payment from the EEA. Lloyds charges £2 for an electronic payment from abroad up to £100 and £7 over £100, with “no charge for Euro payments received from the EEA or UK”. Mettle charges the “£4 fixed fee, plus a 1.5% fee if we need to convert” on inbound payments above £10. Monzo charges a “1% currency conversion fee (capped at £1,000)” on foreign currency received and converts it to sterling on arrival. On the multi-currency side, Wise lists receiving by domestic transfer in AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HUF, NZD, PHP, SGD and USD as free, after the one-off 50 GBP charge for the account details, and HSBC’s Global Wallet charges £5.00 per transaction to “Receive like a local”.

A worked receiving example, using a payment worth £4,000 from a US customer. Into a Wise USD balance by domestic transfer: no receiving fee, and the dollars stay as dollars until you choose to convert (from 0.24%). Into Mettle: £4 + 1.5% of £4,000 = £4 + £60 = £64, arriving in sterling. Into Monzo: 1% of £4,000 = £40, arriving in sterling. Into Barclays: a £6 receiving fee plus a conversion charge of up to 2%, which on £4,000 is up to £80, so up to £86 in total. Among the banks in the comparison, Mettle and Monzo are the only ones to publish an inbound conversion percentage.

Paying by card in a foreign currency

Card spending abroad is a separate charge with two layers: the card scheme’s wholesale rate and the bank’s percentage on top. Lloyds’ brochure defines the first as the “Payment Scheme Exchange Rate”, “The foreign-exchange wholesale rate applied to card payments in foreign currencies”. The second is the non-sterling transaction fee: 2.75% at Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and the Co-operative Bank; 2.75% (minimum £1.50) at Virgin Money, with 3.75% (minimum £1.50) on cash withdrawals; 2.99% at Metro Bank outside its listed European countries and on Zempler’s Business Go; 2.75% on Tide’s Free plan and 0% on its paid plans; £0 at Monzo; “no fees from us” at Starling; and at Allica “Foreign exchange charged at Visa exchange rate, no Allica fee”.

What to check before choosing

This guide explains; it does not recommend. But the cost of foreign-currency banking follows from a short list of questions, each answerable from a provider’s own tariff before an account is opened.

1. Which currencies, in which direction, how often, and in what size? Fixed fees dominate small, frequent payments; percentage margins dominate large ones.
2. Is the exchange-rate margin published? Barclays publishes a ceiling (2%). Wise publishes a floor (0.24%, varying by currency). Lloyds and Metro Bank say a margin is applied and show the rate at the time. ANNA and Monzo publish a percentage.
3. Which rail, and who pays the intermediaries? Local details and SEPA are cheap on every tariff; SWIFT is not, and the SHA/OUR/BEN choice decides whether the recipient gets the full amount.
4. How is the money protected while it sits there? Wise, ANNA and Tide are e-money institutions; the rest are banks. See FSCS protection vs e-money safeguarding.
5. When did you last read the tariff? Monzo’s international fees change on 1 November 2026, and Barclays’ conversion charge falls above £25,000. The documents under Sources are the place to check.

For the domestic side of the same tariffs - monthly fees, UK payments, cash and cheques - see Business bank account fees explained, and for the provider-by-provider figures see our comparison.