On 300 pounds to Sri Lanka this Friday morning, Instarem, Remitly and Wise all delivered within about a pound of each other. Use whichever of the three you already have. Do not use Xoom or OFX for a send this size. They gave you noticeably less.
| App | Arrives as | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Instarem | LKR 132,573.51 | Best on the table. No fee, rate close to Google’s. |
| Remitly | LKR 132,340.59 | Within a pound of Instarem. Small visible fee. |
| Wise | LKR 132,096.47 | The steady one. Rate right at Google’s, lands same working day. |
| Western Union | LKR 130,038.74 | About £5.69 behind Instarem. Cheap-looking fee, wide rate. |
| Xoom (PayPal) | LKR 129,333.76 | About £7.28 behind Instarem. Skip on a send this size. |
| OFX | LKR 127,339.48 | OFX delivered the least. About £11.75 behind Instarem. |
What to actually open
If you already have Instarem installed, use Instarem. On 300 pounds this morning it edged out Remitly by about £0.52 and Wise by about £1.07. Small money either way, but it is the best regular price on the table and there is no fee to add on top.
If you already have Remitly installed, use Remitly. It came in about £0.55 ahead of Wise for the same 300 pounds. A tie by any real measure. Use whichever of Remitly or Wise you already have.
If you do not have Instarem or Remitly and do not want to set up a new app, use Wise. Wise came in about £1.07 behind Instarem this morning. The fee is on the screen, the rate matches the real rate (the one you see on Google), and the money lands the same working day. For a saving that small, opening a new app is not worth the trouble.
Do not open Xoom for a send this size. Its visible £2.99 fee is small, but its rate sits 2.21 percent below the real rate. Between the two you were £7.28 behind Instarem this morning.
Do not open OFX at all on 300 pounds. Between the £7 fee and a rate 2.40 percent below the real rate, OFX kept about £14.03 of your money. Instarem kept £2.28. OFX is built for much larger sends where the rate matters more than the fee.
Catches
The Remitly first-transfer offer. If you have never used Remitly before, check the app for a first-transfer offer. Remitly’s UK page has been advertising a promotional rate of about 455 rupees to the pound, with the fee waived, capped at the first 500 pounds. A 300 pound send falls inside that cap, so the whole amount converts at the promo rate. That would deliver about 136,536 rupees, no fee. Roughly £8.90 ahead of Instarem’s everyday number. Only useful once, and only if the app actually shows you the offer.
Delivery time. A bank deposit to Sri Lanka usually lands within the same working day on the named apps, for a payment funded by bank transfer early in the morning. Exact time depends on the receiving bank. A one pound difference at the top of the table is not worth losing a fast, familiar route for.
Others absent this week. Nine other named providers (MoneyGram, LemFi, Taptap Send, Sendwave, WorldRemit, Skrill, PayPal, Nationwide and the UK high-street banks) did not return a fresh price on this route today.
How we checked
Checked Friday 28 August 2026, morning UK time. Prices come from Wise’s price comparison for a 300 pound bank transfer to Sri Lanka in rupees. Wise’s own row was pulled at 05:05 UK time, alongside its live rate. Instarem 04:29, Remitly 04:40, Western Union 04:21, Xoom 04:55, OFX 04:20. Raw JSON on file.
Next Friday: another country, another number.