The cheapest way to send money home on a working holiday

After a year of farm work and double shifts, the last thing you want is to lose a chunk of your savings on the way home. But that's exactly what most bank transfers do — quietly, in the exchange rate.

Where the money actually disappears

A typical international transfer hits you in three places:

• The exchange rate markup — banks add 2–4% to the real (mid-market) rate. This is the big, hidden one.
• A flat transfer fee — often $15–30 per transfer.
• Intermediary bank fees — deducted mid-transfer on SWIFT, so the recipient gets less than expected.

The rate is the thing to watch

On a $3,000 transfer, a 3% markup is $90 — more than most flat fees, and invisible because it's baked into the rate you're quoted. Always compare the rate you're offered against the real mid-market rate (the one on Google).

Tips to keep more of your savings

• Send in fewer, larger transfers to dilute flat fees
• Avoid airport and hotel exchange counters entirely
• Decline 'dynamic currency conversion' when a card machine offers to charge you in your home currency
• Use a provider that gives you the real mid-market rate, not a marked-up one

A different option: swap, don't send

If someone is arriving in your country just as you're leaving, you both need the opposite currencies. Tern matches departing and arriving travellers to swap directly at the real rate for one small flat fee — so neither of you pays a percentage to a bank.