For £300 today, if your family has a bank account, open Wise or Remitly. On 4 November they were about £1 apart: about 111,070 rupees arrived with Wise and about 111,400 with Remitly. Wise shows a small fee and a rate close to what Google shows. Remitly shows no fee on £300, so its cost is in the rate.
If you want the money in an Easypaisa or JazzCash wallet in minutes instead, check the wallet's limit first, because £300 is probably too much for one transfer. Taptap Send is free on any send of £125 or more and usually arrives in under five minutes. Xoom also pays into the wallets in minutes, on up to 45,000 rupees (about £120).
What you should not do this month is open your own bank's app and let it send pounds straight to a Pakistani bank. The fee on the screen is only part of the cost. The rest hides in the rate. On £300 the bank can quietly keep more than any of the apps above.
Why the fee has been zero for so long
For years, sending money to Pakistan has been unusually cheap, and the apps were not the reason. The Pakistani government was paying the banks to make it look free.
The scheme was called the TT-Charges Incentive Scheme. It worked like this: when someone abroad sent at least 200 US dollars home to Pakistan through a bank or a bank-linked app, and nobody along the way charged a fee, the State Bank of Pakistan paid that bank about £4 worth of Saudi riyals for the trouble. The bank did not charge the sender a fee, because it was being paid at the other end.
That £4 is the number that was quietly making your transfer to Karachi feel free. So the "fee zero" line on the app was true as far as it went: you paid no fee because the State Bank was paying the bank.
On 1 July 2026, that stopped. The State Bank has said publicly that the eligible transfers should still arrive free of charge to the sender and the family. But the £4 that used to make that easy is gone. The bank is now supposed to swallow it.
What is likely to happen next
The banks said in July that they were unhappy, and they said it to the Pakistani press. By 4 November, the fees on Wise, Remitly, Xoom and Taptap Send had not moved. Nothing needs to change immediately either - a bank can absorb the cost for a while to keep the customer.
Watch for one of three quiet changes. The visible fee may come back: the "0.00" on the screen becomes something like 1.99 or 2.99 on a £300 send. That is the plainest of the three, and the easiest to spot. The rate may get a little worse instead: the fee stays zero but the exchange rate the app quotes drops a fraction below what Google shows - on £300, a one percent worsening is £3 you never see. Or the minimum goes up, or the free option quietly narrows to certain banks or certain arrival methods, and you notice it only as a new sentence buried in the help page.
An app may not tell you when one of these happens. The check further down shows you how to see it yourself.
The apps, and what they are good for
If your family has a bank account and can wait a working day, Wise is the plain workhorse. It uses the real exchange rate, shows a small fee on the screen, and usually puts the money into HBL, Meezan, MCB, UBL or Bank Alfalah inside a day. But Wise cannot pay into a Meezan Bank Express or Allied Bank Express account: those transfers are rejected or get stuck. Wise itself says 95 percent of its transfers arrive in less than a day.
Remitly also pays into bank accounts, and it shows no fee on £300. Instarem does the same route. Its page says a transfer is usually instant but can take one to two working days, and first-time senders get a special rate and no fee on up to £1,500. It is worth opening as a backup for the days a Wise transfer gets held for review.
If your family uses JazzCash or Easypaisa and you want the money there in minutes, Xoom (owned by PayPal) and Remitly both pay into the mobile wallets and into cash pickup branches. Xoom says wallet money normally arrives in minutes, but it will not pay more than 45,000 rupees (about £120) into a wallet. Before you send with Remitly, check the arrival time on its screen and check that it accepts your amount. Read how many rupees will arrive. The reason to pick either of them is the wallet payout.
Remitly offers new customers a better rate on the first transfer, so read the terms on the screen before you send: the regular rate is on the second transfer, not the first.
Taptap Send is a similar app-first option for mobile wallets, and on any send of £125 or more it charges no fee at all.
Every wallet has a limit on each transfer, and the limit depends on how verified the wallet is. Taptap Send's help page gives these limits. The pounds are at its rate on 5 November.
- Basic wallet: 25,000 rupees (about £67.50) on each transfer, and no more than that in a month.
- Wallet verified with a CNIC: 50,000 rupees (about £135) on each transfer.
- Fully verified wallet: 100,000 rupees (about £270) on each transfer.
At that rate £300 is about 111,000 rupees, so it is over all three limits. A basic wallet cannot take £125 either, so it cannot get the free send. Ask the family to check their limit in the wallet app. Then send less, or send to a bank account.
If your family collects cash at a branch, Western Union is longer running than any of the others, and it suits a family member who does not use a bank or a mobile wallet. Its price changes with how you pay and how the money is collected, so read the screen.
One more name worth knowing: HBL Konnect. This is a Pakistani mobile-wallet account the person at home opens at a Konnect shop. It is not a UK-side sending app. HBL's list of UK partners for Konnect names Habib Bank UK, ACE Money Transfer and Small World, among others. It does not name Wise, Remitly or Xoom. The family gives you their Konnect mobile number, and you use it on the form in place of an account number. When money from abroad arrives in a Konnect account, HBL currently adds a small mobile-balance top up.
The other option: hold the money in Pakistan yourself
There is a second thing worth knowing about, especially if you send every month.
Meezan Roshan Digital Account is a bank account in Pakistan you can open from the UK, without going to a branch. It takes about 48 hours to open. You need a valid Pakistani CNIC, NICOP or POC. You can hold pounds, US dollars, euros or Pakistani rupees inside it. You transfer from your UK bank into the Roshan account, and from there to your family's account inside Pakistan.
Why do this instead of sending each time through Wise? Two reasons. One, you can move money into rupees at your own timing rather than at each transfer. Two, if you are supporting family monthly, an account at Meezan you control makes bills, school fees and utility payments straightforward from your phone.
HBL and Bank Alfalah offer their own Roshan Digital accounts too. Meezan's account follows Islamic banking rules, if you want that. Do not open a Roshan account for a one-off transfer; the point is that you send often.
One catch since October 2026: money that goes through a Roshan Digital Account does not count for the Pasban prize draw described below. If your family wants to be in the draw, at least some of the money has to go straight into their own account in Pakistan.
What to check, and when
Next time you send, screenshot the fee, the exchange rate quoted, and how many rupees arrive at the other end. Save it. This is your baseline.
A month later, send the same £300 through the same app and compare. If the fee has moved from 0.00 to a small number, that is the price coming back onto the screen. If the fee is still zero but the rate has moved further below Google's, the change is hiding in the rate.
If nothing has changed on your screen, the app you are using is either eating the cost quietly or has found another way. Fine. If two checks in a row show a worse total, it is time to try the other apps on this list and pick the one that has moved least.
Google's own converter is the reference point. Search "300 GBP in PKR" the same minute you are about to send, and compare that number to the rupees the app is offering to send. The gap is the true cost.
What we have seen so far
We checked the same £300 on Wise, Remitly, Xoom and Taptap Send in early August, in late September, on 21 October and on 4 November. Use these results to read your own screenshots.
At each check Wise showed its small fee, which was £2.49 on 21 October and on 4 November. Remitly, Xoom and Taptap Send showed a fee of zero on £300. Taptap Send was free on any send of £125 or more.
If your app now shows a higher fee on £300, or Taptap Send's free minimum has gone up, something has changed since our last check. Compare the rupees on the other apps on this list before you send. Our next check is early December 2026.
If your family wants to be in the Pasban prize draw
Pasban is a prize draw for the family in Pakistan. It does not change your fee, your rate or the rupees that arrive, so it is no reason to change apps.
The first draw is on 15 January 2027. It counts money received from 1 October to 31 December 2026. To be in it, the family's account needs at least one transfer of 100 US dollars or more in each of those three months. If no transfer of that size arrived in October, they cannot be in this first draw. The draw runs every quarter, so they can aim for a later one.
Here is what to do each time you send. The full rules are in the 
scheme's terms.
- Send £80 or more. 100 dollars was about £75 on 4 November. The rules turn the rupees that arrive back into dollars at the State Bank's rate on the day, so £80 leaves room for a small move in the rate. Each transfer has to reach 100 dollars on its own: two smaller ones that add up to 100 dollars do not count. A £300 send is about 400 dollars, which earns four entries.
- Send rupees straight into the family's own personal account or wallet in Pakistan. Mobile wallets and accounts at microfinance banks can count. A basic JazzCash or Easypaisa wallet cannot take a transfer of this size: its limit is 25,000 rupees (about £67.50) on each transfer. Money that goes through a Roshan Digital Account does not count, even if you then move it on to the family. Money paid into a foreign-currency account does not count. Cash collected at a branch or an agent does not count either, even if the family has an account.
- Check 1LINK's list of participating banks on the day you send. A bank on that list has to handle the money when it enters Pakistan. Almost every large Pakistani bank is on it, including HBL, Meezan, UBL, MCB and Bank Alfalah, but the list can change.
- Ask the family to watch for a message. The rules say the bank or wallet must send one each time a transfer earns an entry. If a transfer of 100 dollars or more arrives and no message follows, the family should ask their bank or wallet.
You can send through a bank, an exchange company or a licensed money transfer firm. But no UK app says which Pakistani bank handles its payouts, so we cannot promise that a transfer through Wise, Remitly, Xoom or Taptap Send counts, into a bank account or into a JazzCash or Easypaisa wallet. The message is how you find out.
The family does not need to register or pay anything. The State Bank has said participation is free, and the transfer itself creates the entry. If anyone asks them to pay to enter, do not pay.
What to open today
If your family has a bank account and can wait a working day: Wise or Remitly. On £300 on 4 November they were about £1 apart.
If your family uses JazzCash or Easypaisa and you want the money there in minutes: Taptap Send or Remitly, or Xoom on up to 45,000 rupees (about £120). Check the wallet's limit first. £300 is over every wallet limit on one transfer that Taptap Send gives.
If your family collects cash at a branch: Western Union.
If you send every month and you want to hold rupees in a Pakistani account you control: a Roshan Digital Account at Meezan, HBL or Bank Alfalah. Money sent through it does not count for the Pasban prize draw.
None of the above is a permanent answer. The scheme change on 1 July was real. What the apps do next is not decided yet. Send this month with the app that is straight with you today, and check again in early December.
Corrections
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said wallets can count for the Pasban prize draw and said to send £80 or more, with no warning that a basic wallet cannot take that much. A basic JazzCash or Easypaisa wallet takes 25,000 rupees (about £67.50) on each transfer, so the page now says so.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said £300 is over every limit Taptap Send gives. That is true of its wallet limits on one transfer, but some of its daily and monthly limits are higher, so the line now says one transfer.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said a Taptap Send transfer usually arrives inside a minute. Its help page for Pakistan says under five minutes to a wallet, so the page now says that.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said Wise usually pays into a Meezan account, with no warning that it cannot pay into a Meezan Bank Express or Allied Bank Express account. The page now says so.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page offered Xoom for a mobile wallet with no limit, under advice for £300. Xoom will not pay more than 45,000 rupees (about £120) into a wallet, so the page now says so.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page offered Taptap Send for a mobile wallet on £300 and gave about 110,700 rupees. That figure named no way of being paid, and Taptap Send's help page gives wallet limits below that amount. The figure is gone, the page now gives those limits, and it no longer offers £300 into a wallet as one transfer.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said you pay a little more to collect cash with Western Union. On 5 November its price for cash ran from above the real exchange rate online to well below it at an agent, so the line is gone.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page told you to open Wise alone for £300. On 4 November Remitly put about 330 rupees (about £1) more in the account than Wise, so the page now names both.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the fee on Xoom and Remitly was a little higher than Wise's, and that Western Union's fee was higher and its rate worse than the apps. On £300 on 4 November, Xoom and Remitly showed no fee, Western Union's £1.99 fee was below Wise's £2.49, and Western Union's rate was better than Xoom's. The page now tells you to read the rupees that arrive.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said you could send from Wise or Xoom into an HBL Konnect account. HBL's list of UK partners for Konnect does not name them, so the page now gives names from that list.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Instarem charged a small percentage and took about two working days, said 95 percent of Wise's transfers to Pakistan arrive within 24 hours, and said a bank's screen shows a small fee or none. Instarem's page says usually instant, up to two working days, with no fee on a first transfer; Wise's 95 percent covers all its transfers; and bank fees can be larger, so that line is gone.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said there was still time before 31 October for a Pasban transfer, told you to check again in August, and gave other check dates that had passed. Those lines are gone, and the next check is early December 2026. The August, September and October check sections named in the older notes below are now one section, "What we have seen so far", and the Pasban rules have their own section.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Western Union was the option most people mention, said Meezan's Roshan Digital Account was the most commonly recommended and the better digital experience, and called four apps the ones most UK-to-Pakistan senders open first. We have no count or source for these, so the lines are gone.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the State Bank paid the bank every time someone sent 200 dollars, and that Wise, Remitly, Xoom, Western Union, HBL Konnect and the rest all fed into banks paid this way. The State Bank's rule paid a bank only if nobody along the way charged a fee, and we have no source for which apps' transfers were claimed, so the list of apps is gone. The page also said the International Monetary Fund forced Pakistan to end the scheme and that it cost about a hundred billion rupees a year. The State Bank's own papers do not give the IMF as the reason, and reports of the cost disagree, so those lines are gone.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the money arrives with Wise inside a day, told you not to pay Western Union prices for what Wise can also do, told you to try Taptap Send first with Xoom as the fallback, and said the State Bank launched Pasban. Wise says usually, not always. We could not read Xoom's price for a wallet. Pakistan's banks launched Pasban, and the State Bank's governor opened it. Those lines are gone.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page said 27 banks take part in Pasban. 1LINK's list of participating banks changes: on 24 October it showed 26 banks on one check and 27 on another. The page no longer gives a number and points to 1LINK's current list instead. The rule itself is unchanged: a bank on that list has to handle the money when it enters Pakistan.
- 2026-10-21: An earlier version of this page said that sending into a Meezan Roshan Digital Account would enter the family into the Pasban prize draw. That was wrong: the scheme's published rules leave out Roshan Digital Accounts, foreign-currency accounts and cash collected over the counter, and the money must arrive in rupees straight in the family's own account or wallet. The late-September section has been corrected, a line has been added to the Roshan Digital section, and a new "October check, 2026" section has the latest £300 figures and the scheme's rules on wallets and apps.
- 2026-09-26: The piece asked the reader to run a second baseline check on £300 in early September. This is us running it. A new section, "Late-September check, 2026", has been added before the August check so the reader sees the newest one first. Findings on the four apps most UK-to-Pakistan senders open first (Wise, Remitly, Xoom, Taptap Send): no change since August. Wise still shows its small fee on the screen at a rate close to Google's; Remitly, Xoom and Taptap Send still show a fee of zero on £300; Taptap Send's £125 free-send threshold is unchanged. Separately, on 25 September the State Bank of Pakistan launched the Pasban scheme, a bank-funded prize draw for families in Pakistan receiving at least 100 US dollars a month for three months in a row into a Pakistani bank account. The scheme does not change the sender's fee or rate. The State Bank has not yet published a list of which UK-side apps count. First draw is 15 January 2027; the piece's next check is re-set for early October 2026. No numbers in the July or August body have been changed.
- 2026-08-09: The piece asked the reader to run a baseline check on £300 in early August. This is us running it. A new section, "Baseline check, early August 2026", has been added just before "What to open today". Findings: none of the three predicted quiet changes has appeared on Wise, Remitly, Xoom or Taptap Send yet. The State Bank of Pakistan has told the banks to keep the transfer free of charge at the sender's and family's end even after its reimbursement scheme ended on 1 July; banks say in public that they are absorbing the cost for now. Next check re-set for early September 2026. No numbers in the original body have been changed.
- 2026-07-20: An earlier version of this page grouped Xoom and Taptap Send together under "the fee is a little higher" than Wise on a £300 send. Taptap Send's own
published fee schedule is free on any UK send of £125 or more, so on £300 the fee is zero, not higher than Wise's. The paragraph 2 sentence and the Taptap Send entry in "The apps, and what they are good for" have been rewritten to name that threshold plainly. The narrower point stands: Xoom's fee on this route is still a little higher than Wise's.