Revolut vs Wise for USD Transfers (2026): Fees Compared

If you live in Europe and need to receive or move US dollars, Wise is the better tool in almost every case. It gives you a real US account number, so dollars from US banks arrive as cheap domestic payments, and it can send them on the same way. Revolut is a good spending app, but for a European customer every incoming dollar is an international SWIFT wire, and the banks it passes through can each take a cut.

The figures below come from Wise’s and Revolut’s Portuguese pricing pages and fee schedules, checked in October 2026. US residents get a different Revolut product with local USD details, so this comparison is about the European setup.

Quick Verdict by Use Case

Getting paid in USD by US clients, platforms or brokers: use Wise. Give the payer your Wise US routing and account number and the money arrives free over ACH.
Moving USD from one European broker to another: route it through Wise and keep it in dollars the whole way. There’s a section on this below.
Spending abroad and converting the odd amount: either works. Revolut is fine if you stay inside its monthly allowance and avoid weekends.

Which Entity Holds Your Money

In the EEA, Revolut is a licensed bank, Revolut Bank UAB in Lithuania, with Portuguese customers on its Portuguese branch. Eligible deposits are covered up to €100,000 by Lithuania’s deposit insurance scheme. Wise’s EU business is Wise Europe SA, regulated by the National Bank of Belgium. It safeguards your money in segregated accounts but isn’t covered by a deposit guarantee. That matters if you plan to park a large balance in either app for long.

How USD Works at Wise

Opening USD account details in Wise gives you a US routing number and account number in your own name, wherever you live. On Wise’s Portuguese receiving page:

Domestic USD payments from US banks (ACH) are free to receive.
Wires, domestic or international SWIFT, cost a flat 6.11 USD per payment.

Sending dollars out is cheap too. At the time of writing, a payout to a US account over ACH costs about 1.13 USD from a USD balance, and a SWIFT payment abroad about 7.28 USD.

Conversions use the mid-market rate plus a fee Wise shows before you confirm. USD to EUR currently costs 0.29%, or 2.89 USD on 1,000 USD, and there’s no weekend surcharge.

How USD Works at Revolut in Europe

Revolut gives Portuguese customers local account details in EUR (a Portuguese IBAN) and GBP. For every other currency, USD included, you only get SWIFT details. A US payer has to send an international wire, and correspondent banks along the route can take 15 to 50 USD before the money lands. Revolut itself doesn’t charge to receive a bank transfer.

Sending USD to a US account costs 0.15% (minimum €1.30, maximum €255), switching to a fixed €0.85 from December 19, 2026. USD to an account outside the US costs €3. Both figures are on Revolut’s international payment fee schedule.

For conversions, Revolut uses its own exchange rate with these limits:

Standard: €1,000 a month without a fee, then 1%.
Plus: €3,000 a month, then 0.5%.
Premium, Metal and Ultra: no monthly limit.
Weekend surcharge from Friday 17:00 to Sunday 18:00 New York time: 1% on Standard, 0.5% on Plus.

Details are on the Standard fee page. Converting a few thousand dollars on a Saturday on the free plan costs more than the same conversion at Wise any day of the week.

What Getting Paid 1,000 USD Costs

Say a US client or platform pays you 1,000 USD a month and you want euros.

With Wise, they push an ACH payment to your US account details. You receive the full 1,000 USD and pay 2.89 USD to convert it.

With Revolut, they send a SWIFT wire to your USD SWIFT details. Correspondent banks may take 15 to 50 USD on the way, and converting the rest on Standard is free only up to €1,000 a month and only on weekdays.

On a single payment, that can leave you 15 to 50 USD better off with Wise, and more if you convert on a weekend.

Moving USD Between Brokers

Take dollars sitting at Saxo that need to go to Interactive Brokers, two brokers I’ve compared for European investors.

European brokers can’t send ACH, so whatever you choose, the dollars leave as a SWIFT wire. Wise’s free ACH receiving doesn’t help on the way in. You pay its 6.11 USD wire fee plus whatever correspondent banks take, about the same as Revolut on that leg.

The difference is the second leg. The broker generally only pays out to a bank account in your own name, so you can’t wire straight from one broker to the other. From Wise, the onward payment to your new broker is cheap, and Interactive Brokers lists “Transfer from Wise Balance” as a deposit method for USD. From Revolut, the dollars go back out as another SWIFT wire, with another round of correspondent fees.

To keep the cost down:

Keep it in USD until it reaches the new broker. IBKR‘s FX is far cheaper than either app’s, as I covered in currency conversion at stock brokers.
Send from an account in your own name. IBKR generally rejects third-party deposits.
If what you hold at the old broker is shares or ETFs rather than cash, transfer the positions themselves. Selling first creates a tax event and a currency conversion you didn’t need.

Which to Use

For receiving and moving USD as a European resident, use Wise. Treat it as your dollar hub for client payments, broker withdrawals and transfers between brokers, then send money on to your local bank or your broker.

Keep Revolut for card spending and small conversions inside its allowance. If you want your idle dollars earning something while they sit, I compared the options in earning interest on USD in Europe. For more on each app, see my Wise review and Revolut review.