Post Office international money transfer - what it really costs, and when to open something else

Who is behind the counter

The Post Office runs its international money transfer service through Western Union, and only Western Union. It is available at around 4,000 of about 11,700 Post Office branches in the UK. It also sits online at postoffice.co.uk. Western Union also runs the send page there, but that page has its own prices. They are not the prices on westernunion.com. On its own page, the Post Office says it plainly: Post Office International Money Transfer is provided by Western Union.

Western Union Payment Services GB Limited is the company that holds your money. It is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and its company number is 11326797. Post Office Limited is the shop. Problems go to Western Union, not to the Post Office. The customer care line and the email address on the Post Office pages both route there. Call them if a transfer holds, a refund gets stuck, or something else goes wrong.

When you read reviews of the service, read reviews of Western Union as well as the Post Office, because Western Union runs it.

What it really costs, on £300

These prices are from the afternoon of 5 November 2026. Each one is for paying £300 in all, with the fee taken out of the £300. The Wise and Western Union online prices come from the Wise public comparison feed. Western Union online means you pay on its website and the money goes to a bank account. Post Office online means the send page that the Post Office website opens. We read those prices with no account. The Post Office calls its online rates indicative, and you see the final price before you confirm.

That afternoon the Post Office website was about £1 behind Wise on all three routes. It put more home than Western Union's own website on the Philippines and India. Those are Western Union's regular prices. That afternoon its website gave a first-time sender a better price on both routes. When there is no fee, the cost is in the exchange rate, so look at the amount that arrives. These are the figures from one afternoon, and the gap moves. If you are about to send, check the amount your family will actually receive on each option before you press send.

What we know about the counter

We did not read a price at a Post Office counter, and we found no published fee table for it. Do not take the online prices above to the counter. The Post Office send page says fees at agent locations may differ from online fees.

Western Union's own website shows a price for paying at one of its agents, with cash pickup at the other end. That is not a Post Office price, and the Post Office counter may charge more or less. That afternoon, Western Union's agent price was:

• Philippines, on £300: £7.90 fee, and about 23,659 pesos arrive. That is about 1,620 pesos less than Wise, or about £19.
• Nigeria, on £150: £5.90 fee, and about 264,642 naira arrive. That is about 10,400 naira less than Wise, or about £5.60.
• India, on £300: £3.90 fee, and about 37,403 rupees arrive. That is about 510 rupees less than Wise, or about £4.

Before you pay, ask the person at the counter for the fee and the amount that will arrive.

When the Post Office is genuinely the right thing to open

Your family member has no working bank account or mobile money account they can trust, and they need cash in hand. Somewhere near their village or town, there is a Western Union agent they know how to reach. In this case the money can be picked up as cash, in minutes. For Nigeria, read the rule under "When to open something else" first.

If that is your send and you can pay by card or bank transfer, look at the Post Office website first, because it shows the price before you pay. Cash pickup there had a £1.90 fee on all three routes on 5 November. On £300 in all, about 24,777 pesos or 37,163 rupees arrived. That is less than the same send to a bank account, because of the fee and a lower rate.

At the Post Office, the counter is the only way to pay in cash. It can also make sense when you are already near the branch you use, the queue is short, and the money needs to go today. It can also make sense if you would rather not put your bank card into a new app, and you want a paper receipt and a person you can ask questions.

When to open something else

On most other sends, open Wise and compare the amount your family will actually receive. Send from your phone, pay in from your bank, and your family gets the money into their bank or e-wallet, usually within a working day and often within minutes.

On the Philippines this means Wise into a Philippine bank account, or into GCash if your family uses that. If the receiver has neither, use Wise into a bank account they can share with you, and it arrives within hours on most weekdays. See how to send money to the Philippines from the UK for the deeper answer on that route.

On Nigeria the picture is more mixed. If your family has a working Nigerian bank account with a NIN attached and no recent restrictions on it, Wise is usually the first choice.

Western Union cash pickup has two limits. In Nigeria, a transfer worth more than $200 (about £150) must be paid into an account, not in cash. Western Union also says it pays cash in Nigeria only to a receiver with a bank account. A receiver without one can use a referee, a person with a bank account in Nigeria who can confirm who they are. See how to send money to Nigeria from the UK, and be sure it arrives for the fuller picture on the receiver-side friction.

On India, Wise, State Bank of India, the Post Office website and Remitly were within about £1.30 of each other on 5 November 2026, with the fee taken out of the £300. Each put about 70p to £2 more in rupees home than Western Union online did that day. Pick whichever of them you already have set up.

The small print worth carrying with you

You can send up to £799.99 through Western Union without verifying your identity. Above £800 on any transfer, you are asked to upload a photograph of your identity document, once, before the money moves. You only have to do that once.

At the counter, bring one of three kinds of ID. A passport from any country works. So does a driving licence from the UK, the EU or the EEA. So does a national identity card from the EU or the EEA.

Your online limit rises to £4,000 every three days once your identity is verified with a card, and up to £50,000 if you pay in from a UK bank account.

For help with a transfer, call the Western Union customer care line on the Post Office page, not the branch where you handed over the money. That line deals with a transfer that holds, money your family cannot cash out, and a refund that does not come through.

The verdict

For most sends from the UK to a family bank account or a phone e-wallet abroad, Wise gets more of the money home than the Post Office. On 5 November 2026 the Post Office website was about £1 behind Wise on the Philippines, Nigeria and India. If you want the Post Office, check its website before you walk to the branch.

The Post Office, with Western Union behind it, is still the right thing to open when your family needs cash in hand and no app delivers the money where they live. We could not read a counter price, and it may differ from the online price, so ask for the fee first. On Nigeria, cash works for up to about £150 a send; above that, the money must go into an account. The receiver also needs a bank account or a referee, Western Union says.

Whichever way you send, look at the pesos, naira or rupees that arrive at the other end, and send on whichever route puts more of them there.

Corrections

• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page gave Western Union's online prices as the Post Office's, called the website Western Union with a Post Office skin, and said the counter was close to those prices, so the extra was small. The website has its own prices, which the page now gives, and we did not read a counter price, so Western Union's agent price now appears under its own name.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page offered the Post Office counter and Western Union cash pickup to a family in Nigeria with no working account. Western Union says it pays cash in Nigeria only to a receiver with a bank account or a referee, and the page now says so.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page gave the number of Post Office branches as roughly 11,600. The Post Office's report for March 2026 gives 11,718, and the page now says about 11,700.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page did not say that Remitly's India figure had the fee taken out of the £300. It now does, and the prices on this page were read again on 5 November.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said no app can deliver cash the way Western Union can, that having no trusted account is common in Nigeria and parts of Ghana and Pakistan, that cash pickup comes with a receipt on your phone, that the person at the counter fills in the form and cannot change the rate, that a Western Union profile finds you in seconds, and that Western Union holds your money for a few minutes and a first counter send takes a few minutes more. We could not source these lines, so they are gone, along with the yearly Nigeria figure of about £90.
• 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page gave £300 prices from 10 and 11 July 2026 as today's figures. On 24 October the Post Office was about £2.50 behind Wise on India (not under 50p), about £5.70 on the Philippines (not £2.40) and about £7.50 on Nigeria (not £5), and the Nigeria fee was £1.99 (not £2.99). The prices, the yearly Nigeria figure and the India comparison now use the 24 October quotes and name that date.
• 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page said the counter accepts only a UK, EU or EEA passport. The Post Office accepts a passport from any country, a UK, EU or EEA driving licence, or an EU or EEA national identity card.
• 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page offered Western Union cash pickup for Nigeria without saying that in Nigeria a transfer worth more than $200 (about £150) must be paid into an account, not in cash. The Nigeria advice and the verdict now give that limit.