Which apps actually send to Syria, and which quietly do not
The list of apps that work from the UK in October 2026 is thinner than it was in July.
MoneyGram UK's route to Syria is paused this month. MoneyGram's own 
Syria page says the service to Syria is currently unavailable due to a technical issue, and that MoneyGram will update the page when service resumes.
The pause is UK-specific in the sense that the equivalent Syria pages for Norway, France, and a handful of other European countries are still open, but the UK, Ireland, Canada, and New Zealand pages all carry the same banner. MoneyGram has not published a restoration date.
If a family member in Syria told you MoneyGram was the way to send, that was true in the summer. It is not working this month. Check MoneyGram's UK Syria page the morning you want to send: if the banner is gone, MoneyGram is the easy answer again; if the banner is still there, read the Western Union section below.
Western Union is the remaining operator route to try, and it is not simple. WU UK's online send flow does not offer Syria as a destination, and the in-agent route through Post Office UK branches is not something WU or the Post Office publishes a clear public confirmation for. Walk into a Post Office WU counter and ask them to run a UK to Syria send in front of you. If it goes through, WU has a cash pickup network on the ground in Syria in Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Latakia, and smaller towns, and the counter prints a tracking number. If it does not, you are down to hawala until MoneyGram comes back.
That is the practical shortlist from the UK this month: MoneyGram paused, Western Union possibly at a Post Office counter, hawala as the de-facto route a lot of UK Syrian households already use. The household-name apps tell you plainly, or tell you at the last screen after you have already put the money in.
Wise refuses. Syria is not on the list of countries Wise sends to from the UK, and its own help centre confirms this. If you try, the destination selector does not offer it. Wise has not said when this changes.
Revolut refuses. Revolut runs a page for "send money to Syria" that turns up in search results, but you cannot actually send. The service is not available for this destination from the UK.
Monzo refuses. Monzo's international transfer is powered by Wise, so a Wise refusal cascades straight through.
Starling international does not appear to send to Syria. Neither its public help pages nor its supported-country list publishes a Syria row we could pull. If you use Starling, open the destination picker in the app and try the send flow yourself before you count on it.
Instarem UK is the same story: we could not confirm a Syria row on Instarem's public destination list, and the destination picker in the UK web flow does not offer it in our test. Open the app on your side and try before you rely on it.
Small World, which many people used to use for this route, closed down in 2024. Do not go looking for it.
If someone tells you they send with Wise, ask again. They may be sending to a Wise account holder in a country that is not Syria, or they may be confusing Wise with WU. Wise from the UK does not send to Syria in October 2026.
Why the pound on the receipt is not the pound the family will spend
Syria has two exchange rates at the same time, and this is the single most important thing to understand before you send anything.
There is the official rate, set by the Central Bank of Syria, which is what the apps quote when they show you what your pounds turn into. On 11 October 2026 that was about 122 new Syrian pounds to a US dollar, almost the same number as in July. Post-conversion into GBP, about 162 to the pound.
There is the parallel rate, which is what changers on the street actually pay for a US dollar in Damascus and Aleppo. We could not pull a fresh sp-today.com reading on the morning this page was last refreshed. The last read in July was about 9 percent above the official rate; in practice the gap sits somewhere between 5 and 15 percent in a normal week, and widens when the political news is bad. Check sp-today.com or allira-sy.com the morning you send.
What this means in practice: the money arrives at the official rate. The family collects it in Syrian pounds. Then they walk to the changer around the corner and turn some of those Syrian pounds back into dollars, or spend them at prices the shop set by looking at the parallel rate, not the official one. The family lives at the parallel rate. The app cannot show you that number, because the app has to use the official one.
If the family needs dollars in hand, the money is worth about 9 percent more this week if you can find a route that pays out in dollars directly, rather than one that pays out in Syrian pounds. In a bad week that gap widens; in a calmer week it narrows. Some MoneyGram and Western Union payout locations in Syria will pay in US dollars, at the location's discretion and subject to availability of dollar notes at the counter that day. Ask the family to check with the specific branch before they travel to it.
If the family is going to spend the money on food, rent, and household goods in Syrian pounds anyway, the "loss" against the parallel rate is real but less sharp, because shopkeepers are also pricing to the parallel rate. It still matters, and it is worth explaining to a sender who thinks the receipt tells the whole story. It does not.
There is one more thing to know about the currency itself. On 1 January 2026 the Central Bank of Syria launched a new pound and took two zeros off the old one. One hundred old Syrian pounds is now one new Syrian pound. Old notes still circulate in a transition period that was originally 90 days and has been extended.
Some rate tracking websites still print figures in old pounds, and some in new. If a number does not have "new" or "old" next to it, and it is in the tens of thousands, it is old. If it is around 100 to 200 for a dollar, it is new. Do not let this confuse you: it is the same money, just written with fewer zeros.
What the pickup looks like, and what ID the family needs
Cash pickup is how most of this route ends. The family walks to a MoneyGram or Western Union agent, gives the reference number you send them, shows their ID, counts the money, and leaves. Bank deposit is possible at some Syrian banks and moving in a direction where more banks accept it every quarter. Mobile wallet is available in narrow cases and depends on the operator's local partner.
The ID rules are the friction point.
The recipient needs a government-issued photo ID whose name matches the transfer record exactly. In practice that is a Syrian national ID card or a passport. The name spelling has to line up with what you typed in the UK. If you send to "Ahmad" and the ID says "Ahmed", the counter can refuse to pay out, and you or the family will need to contact the operator to correct the record.
Post-Assad, Syria is in the middle of standing up its own new set of documents through the transitional government, and issuance is patchy. Most families still hold the old Syrian government national ID, and most operator counters still accept it. If your relative has only a UNHCR document because they were a refugee returning briefly, or a temporary paper issued by the transitional government, ask the specific agent branch before you send. Some accept these; some do not. The agent finder on the MoneyGram or Western Union website lists branches near a town, and the family can walk in and ask what ID they accept before you send anything to that branch.
This is not a check on you, the sender. It is the counter making sure the money reaches the right person.
What the UK still blocks, and what it does not
The short version, for a person sending a monthly transfer to family: sending is allowed, and the operator does the compliance work.
The UK eased Syria sanctions in stages through 2025 and 2026. The Central Bank of Syria was removed from the sanctions list in March 2025, along with the state-owned banks that a normal transfer route runs through. The Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior, and a further set of state entities were removed in April 2025. Sanctions on transport, energy, and finance sectors were lifted the same year. In April 2026 the UK removed further restrictions on trade in gold, precious metals, diamonds, and luxury goods.
Several hundred individuals and entities linked to the former Assad regime remain on the UK sanctions list. It is illegal to knowingly make funds available to a person on that list. In practice, the operator screens the recipient's name against the list when you set up the transfer, and if there is a hit the operator refuses the transfer. That check happens once, at the sender side, and it is the operator's job.
For a UK-based individual sending £100 to £500 a month to family in Syria in October 2026, that check is invisible unless there is a name match. There is no monthly limit, no special licence needed, no form to fill in beyond what MoneyGram or Western Union asks for at signup.
Hawala, and where it fits
Some UK Syrians use hawala. A shop or an office in a UK city takes your cash and a name; a matching shop in Damascus or Aleppo pays the family in the local currency at what is often a better rate than the formal apps quote, sometimes at close to the parallel rate. There is no formal receipt. The whole thing runs on trust between the two ends and the personal relationship of the operator to your family.
For the reader who is used to this, it is not a warning. It is how a lot of money has moved in and out of Syria for a decade, and the people running these networks are usually well known in the diaspora communities that use them. The trade-off is real and worth being clear-eyed about: no receipt, no dispute route if something goes wrong, and some UK-side businesses will quietly refuse to send an inbound transfer to a hawala firm on their compliance grounds.
If you already use a trusted route, this page is not asking you to change it. If you have never used one and are curious, ask someone in your community who has, not a stranger and not an online forum.
What £300 looks like this month
Numbers pulled on 12 October 2026. Every rate has a day next to it because rates move. Do not treat these as this month's numbers if you are reading this later than this month.
Real market rate the same day for GBP into US dollars: about 1.32. So £300 is around 397 US dollars before anyone takes anything.
MoneyGram, UK sender: paused this month, see the shortlist section. When MoneyGram UK sends to Syria again, the shape is a fee under £5 on £300 and a rate margin roughly 7 percent below the real GBP to USD rate on the day, with cash pickup in Damascus and other cities in Syrian pounds at the official rate, or in US dollars at the agent's discretion. We can bring the full worked example back when the route is open. Until then, the £300 that would have arrived through MoneyGram is not arriving through MoneyGram.
Western Union, UK sender: if the Post Office WU counter accepts the UK to Syria send in front of you (see the shortlist section), expect a fee and margin similar to MoneyGram's when it was running. Cash pickup is in Syrian pounds at the official rate at the counter in Damascus, Aleppo and other cities, or in US dollars at the branch's discretion if it has dollar notes.
On £300, that puts the family somewhere between about 339 and 370 US dollars of value depending on whether they take the payout in pounds and change at the street rate, or take it in dollars at the counter. The online UK to Syria route is not offered by WU in October 2026.
This month, what moves the outcome by 10 percent or more is first whether you can find a working route at all, and second whether the family collects in dollars or in Syrian pounds and then converts at the changer. MoneyGram UK sending to Syria again would be the simplest answer to the first question. Until then, Post Office WU counter or hawala.
When to re-check
Three things about this route can change quickly, and any of them flips the practical answer.
MoneyGram UK's Syria route can reopen or stay paused. The company has not said how long the technical issue takes to fix, or what sits behind the word "technical". The MoneyGram UK Syria page is where to look: if the service-unavailable banner is gone, the easy answer is back.
Sanctions can be re-imposed if the UK government judges the transitional government has broken its part of the deal. The eased position rests on political conditions, and the government has said openly that the changes are reversible. If that happens, more operators will refuse the destination again.
The gap between the official rate and the parallel rate moves with the political news and with foreign currency reserves at the Central Bank. In a bad week the gap widens to 25 percent or more; in a calm week it narrows below 10.
Reasonable habit: check MoneyGram's UK Syria page and the numbers on whichever app you plan to use the morning you send, check the parallel rate on a site like sp-today.com or allira-sy.com the same morning, and if the piece you are reading is more than three months old, ask a family member in Syria what the changer is paying that week. The number they give you is the true one.
From London the practical move is this: check that the route is actually open the morning you send, pick the operator the family can collect from without an ID problem, and if the family would rather have dollars than Syrian pounds, ask the branch before you send which payout it will offer that day. Then phone the family and ask them to go in person, so the name on the ID at the counter is the name on the transfer.
Corrections
- 2026-10-12: An earlier version of this page used a GBP/USD real market rate of about 1.34, carried over from a July figure. On 12 October 2026 the real rate was about 1.32 (daily range 1.3219 to 1.3261). The £300 opener has been rebuilt from the correct rate: £300 is around $397, not $402; the Syrian-pound payout against the pound is about 162 to the pound, not 164; and the dollars-of-value band on £300 is about $339 to $370, not $343 to $373.
- 2026-07-14: An earlier version of this page used a GBP/USD real market rate of about 1.28. On 14 July 2026 the real rate was 1.34. Every downstream figure in the £300 worked example (the pound-to-dollar conversion, the Syrian-pound payout at the counter, the dollar payout at the agent, and the dollars-after-changer) has been rebuilt from the correct rate.
- 2026-07-14: An earlier version of this page said the parallel rate was running at around 144 new Syrian pounds to a dollar, about 18 percent above the official rate. sp-today.com's reading on the same day is closer to 133 new Syrian pounds to a dollar, a gap of about 9 percent, and the two-rate section has been restated to that figure.
- 2026-07-14: An earlier version of this page listed Western Union alongside MoneyGram as a working online route from the UK. WU UK's online send flow does not offer Syria in July 2026. The section now flags WU as usable in person via the Post Office only if the counter accepts the send.
- 2026-07-14: An earlier version of this page said 348 individuals and entities remain on the UK Syria sanctions list. That figure came from a 2025 designations document and was not re-verified against the current list. It has been replaced with "several hundred" pending a fresh count against the live gov.uk designations page.