On a monthly send the fee still shows on the receipt every month, and the amount arriving is not quite the same as the month before.
The word "recurring" hides three different things behind it, and only one of them sends the money without you. The fee you see on the receipt may not be the biggest cost you are paying. And how you push the money into the app in the first place can quietly cost you more than the transfer itself.
What "monthly transfer" is actually doing
Three different things sit under the same label. Ask which one your provider is running before you trust it.
A standing order from your bank into the app, then a manual send
Your UK bank fires a fixed sterling amount from your current account into your Wise, Revolut or provider account on the same day every month. This is usually free on a personal account. But the provider does nothing automatic with the money once it arrives. You still have to open the app and press send. So the funding is automatic, but the transfer is not.
A scheduled transfer inside the provider
You set it up once inside the app: send this amount, to this person, on this day, monthly. In Wise, the money comes out of your Wise balance on the day and goes. You do nothing month to month, but if the balance is short, the run fails. The exchange rate used is the rate on the morning the transfer fires, not the day you set it up. Wise supports this end to end for a monthly send. If you fix the exact amount your family gets, Wise's help page tells you to keep an extra 3% in your balance, because the rate can move before the send date.
A target rate that fires when the market hits it
You set a rate you want and an amount, and the app fires when the real exchange rate hits your target. Wise's version of this converts money inside your balance but does not send it onward to your family; you would still need a separate scheduled transfer to move it.
Xe runs a monthly payment for UK customers too, called regular payments, and it can fix the exchange rate for up to 24 months. You set it up with Xe's staff, not in the app. You pay one month up front, and it runs for 6 to 24 months. Revolut has a scheduled transfer, but its help pages do not say if it covers sends abroad. On 4 November 2026 we found no monthly schedule on the pages of Sendwave, Remitly or WorldRemit, so expect to open those apps each month.
Where the fee hides
The fee on the receipt is one of three things you can pay, and which one is largest depends on the app. At Wise the fee is nearly the whole cost. At Sendwave the fee can be zero, and the app makes its money from the exchange rate.
The first is the named fee, the one you see on the screen: £1.99 at Western Union and £2.24 at Wise, on £300 to Nigeria on 5 November 2026.
The second is the gap between the rate the app gives you and the real rate. The real rate is what Google shows for "GBP to NGN". Many apps give you a worse one and keep the difference. On £300 to Kenya this gap runs from nothing at Wise to several pounds at a bank. Revolut's UK fees page says its exchange fee is variable and depends on when you send, and the app shows it. This gap is the "arrival amount changing" you have been noticing: the real rate moves month to month, and the app's cut moves with it.
The third is how the money gets into the app. A bank transfer or a standing order from your UK bank in sterling is usually free on a personal account. A debit card costs more: at Wise it was £0.95 on £300 on 4 November 2026.
A credit card top-up is a percentage fee, often 1% to 2%, which on £300 a month can be more than the named fee itself and adds up to a lot over a year. Sendwave in the UK only accepts debit cards for this exact reason. If your app lets you pay with a credit card and you pick it because it is convenient, you are paying an extra fee for the convenience, and it is easy to miss.
How to set it up so it costs the same every month
The right answer depends on where the money is going. Take the mechanic first (which app), then the funding method (how the money gets into the app), then check what the recipient side costs.
To Nigeria
Set up a monthly scheduled transfer in Wise if the money is going to a Nigerian bank account. Fund it with a UK bank standing order into your Wise sterling balance a day or two before the send date. Wise's rate is usually within half a percent of Google's, and what arrives is high: ₦552,803 on £300 on 4 November 2026. Sendwave delivered a little more that day, ₦553,482 into a bank account, but you open it each month. The July Friday number for Nigeria shows what each app delivered on £200 on 7 July. It is not updated.
To the Philippines
Use a Wise scheduled transfer to a bank account in the Philippines. Wise also pays GCash wallets, but its schedule page does not say if a scheduled transfer can go to one, so check in the app. The July Friday number for the Philippines shows what each app delivered on £300 on 17 July.
To Kenya
Use a Wise scheduled transfer for a bank account in Kenya. For M-Pesa, Sendwave delivered KES 52,107 on £300 on 4 November 2026, but you open it each month. Wise pays M-Pesa too, so check in the app if its schedule can go there. The July Friday number for Kenya shows what each app delivered on £300 on 24 July. Then read the note below on what M-Pesa itself takes when the money is cashed out.
To India
Use a Wise scheduled transfer to a bank account in India for £300 a month. The fee is small, the rate is close to Google's, and Wise supports the schedule end to end.
To Pakistan
Use a Wise scheduled transfer to a bank account in Pakistan. The July Friday number for Pakistan shows what each app delivered on £300 on 31 July, and the shape of the market after the government withdrew the scheme that had been paying banks to make these transfers feel free.
To Ghana
For a bank account in Ghana, use Wise. For a mobile wallet, Sendwave pays MTN, AirtelTigo and Telecel, and it delivered GHS 4,696 on £300 on 4 November 2026. You open Sendwave each month. Check the wallet's limit first, because MTN's lowest wallet level has a daily limit of 3,000 cedis, which is less than £200.
On every route
Where the receiver has a bank account, Wise's scheduled transfer plus a UK standing order into the Wise balance is the answer that fires by itself each month and costs the same each time within a small margin. Where the receiver takes mobile money, Wise pays wallets in Kenya and the Philippines, but we could not get its price into a wallet. So if Wise's schedule works for your wallet, read what arrives on each app, then choose: no monthly tap, or a tap each month. Some apps add the fee on top of the amount you enter, so check what you pay as well as what arrives.
The catch on the receiving side
The money arriving in the wallet is not the money in your family's hand. If the transfer arrives in M-Pesa in Kenya or MTN Mobile Money in Ghana, the person cashing it out pays a fee to turn it into notes, and that fee is on a table the app does not show you.
It is small on small amounts and rises in bands. On a monthly £300 to Kenya this can be another pound or two on top of everything above, taken at the counter or the agent kiosk. That is fully covered in what M-Pesa really costs to cash out; it is worth reading before you tell your family to expect the arrival amount as their spending amount.
If the transfer arrives in a bank account, there is no agent fee. But ask the bank if it charges to receive money.
The one thing to check every three months
Providers change their pricing quietly. The named fee moves. The gap between their rate and Google's widens or shrinks. A promotion runs out. Remitly's new-customer rate is for your first transfer only, up to a cap: on 4 November 2026, £250 for Nigeria and £1,000 for the Philippines and India. A monthly sender gets it once, even on a send below the cap. Once a quarter, pull a £300 quote in two apps for your route and check what you pay and what arrives on each. Two minutes of checking every three months protects you against the drift.
The rest of the pieces on living between two banking systems, and the pattern of transfers that fire without you thinking, are collected under between systems.
Corrections
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said that at Sendwave the cost sits in the rate. Sendwave says it makes money from the exchange rate, and that this may include a small margin, so the page now says only that it makes its money from the rate.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page told you to compare what arrives, with no word that some apps add the fee on top of the amount you enter. It also gave the £300 Ghana wallet figure with no word on the daily limit on MTN's lowest wallet level, which is lower. The page now says both. It also said bank receiving fees are usually zero or close to it, so what the app shows is what your family has. We found no source for this on these routes, so the page now tells you to ask the bank. It also said the named fee is fixed or capped for small sends. At Wise it rises with the amount you send, so that line is gone. It also gave £2.42 as a named fee. We found no source for that figure, so the page now gives dated fees from Western Union and Wise.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the other well-known apps do not run a true monthly transfer, and that Revolut cannot send naira from the UK. Xe runs monthly regular payments for UK customers, and Revolut's UK page quotes naira, so both lines are gone.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the fee on the receipt is always the smallest cost, that Wise's fee to Nigeria is usually the lowest, and that a debit card costs a few pence at most. At Wise the fee is nearly the whole cost, other apps charged less than Wise to Nigeria on 4 November 2026, and a debit card cost £0.95 on £300 at Wise.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said a monthly send to the Philippines or India takes a few months to use up Remitly's promotion. The promotion ends with your first transfer, whatever you send.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Wise's schedule can take money from a linked card or bank, that Wise tells every sender to keep an extra 3%, that a target rate is the closest thing to locking a rate, and that Revolut adds 1% at weekends. Wise takes it from your balance, the 3% is for a fixed amount received, Xe can fix a rate, and Revolut's UK fees page gives no weekend figure.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Sendwave pays mobile wallets in Nigeria, and that a mobile wallet in Kenya or the Philippines means a tap each month. Sendwave pays bank accounts in Nigeria, and Wise pays those wallets too.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page gave "this week's" number for Nigeria, the Philippines, Kenya and Pakistan, but each link went to one July issue, and the Nigeria issue was for £200, not £300. Each line now gives the date of the issue and the amount it covers.
- 2026-08-01: An earlier version of this page said Remitly's promotional rate applies to the first £500 on some routes. Remitly's own UK pages show the ceiling is £250 for Nigeria and £1,000 for the Philippines and India routes; £500 does not match any route checked. The example and amounts have been corrected.
- 2026-08-01: An earlier version of this page said Revolut's scheduled-transfer feature was only for transfers to another UK account, not international ones. Revolut UK's own help page for scheduled transfers does not spell out that limit, so the sentence has been rewritten to say what can be checked. A link to what M-Pesa really costs to cash out was also broken (it pointed to
/cashing-out-mobile-money/, which returns a 404) and has been fixed.