Cost of Sending Money from the U.S. to Latin America
What it cost to send $200 from the United States to eight Latin American countries, based on World Bank observations.
What this page shows. Each quarter, the World Bank surveys what different services charge to send money between countries. We pulled that data for the eight U.S.-to-Latin America corridors we cover at DineroKit and present it with its context.
What it isn't. This is not a live quote, a provider comparison, or a recommendation. The figures come from the Q3 2025 quarter, and costs change over time. Before sending money, check current terms directly with the service you plan to use.
Cost by country
Listed alphabetically. The median is our headline metric: it represents the midpoint across all observations in a corridor and holds up better against extreme values than an average does.
| Country | Total cost (median) | Observed range | Average fee | Average FX margin | Observations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colombia | 4.27% | -2.65% to 17.50% | $7.10 | 1.59% | 39 |
| Ecuador | 3.55% | 1.95% to 7.00% | $8.10 | 0.00% | 31 |
| El Salvador | 3.04% | 1.00% to 7.13% | $6.99 | 0.00% | 46 |
| Guatemala | 3.98% | -2.12% to 11.10% | $6.99 | 0.92% | 30 |
| Honduras | 3.83% | 1.50% to 7.65% | $6.56 | 0.80% | 32 |
| Mexico | 4.49% | -2.44% to 17.50% | $6.81 | 1.28% | 46 |
| Peru | 4.00% | 2.00% to 12.50% | $8.72 | 0.29% | 21 |
| Dominican Republic | 4.10% | 0.22% to 22.50% | $9.22 | 0.84% | 27 |
The average fee is a dollar amount and the FX margin is a percentage. They are different units, so they should never be added together or read as the two exact components of the median. Each is calculated separately over the observations that report it.
Visual comparison
Median total cost on a USD 200 transfer · Q3 2025
This chart is sorted by cost purely for readability. It compares aggregated corridor data for one quarter, not providers against each other.
The fee is not the whole cost
The cost of a transfer has two parts: the fee you see stated upfront and the exchange rate margin, which is the gap between the rate you're given and the market reference rate. That second part often isn't displayed clearly, and it's why a "no fee" transfer can end up costing more than one that charges a fee.
Average exchange rate margin by corridor · Q3 2025
El Salvador and Ecuador show a 0.00% margin. Both countries use the U.S. dollar as legal tender, so a transfer sent in dollars involves no currency conversion and the cost comes from the fee alone.
Why Venezuela isn't listed
The World Bank does not publish a United States–Venezuela corridor in the edition used for this analysis: it isn't among the destinations available from the United States. We left it out of the table and charts rather than substituting an estimate or a regional average. If you're sending to Venezuela, our guide to sending money to Venezuela covers that corridor's context, though without World Bank cost data.
Methodology
Source and edition
Data comes from The World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, edition Q3 2025, retrieved on 2026-08-29. The World Bank collects prices by directly surveying services each quarter. Exact collection dates vary by corridor, running from July 22 to September 10, 2025 depending on the country, so these figures are not simultaneous measurements.
What we included
Only USD 200 transfers, the World Bank's standard benchmark amount. We took the eight corridors from the United States to countries we cover editorially. We did not filter by provider type, payment method, or delivery speed: each corridor includes every observation published for that amount.
Why we use the median
The World Bank publishes a mean. We lead with the median because several corridors contain negative values (promotions where the recipient gets more than was sent) alongside very high ones: in the Dominican Republic, observations range from 0.22% to 22.50%. With that spread, an average shifts easily, while the median better describes the typical case. We show the full range as well so the spread stays visible.
Outliers and negative values
We removed nothing. Observations with a negative cost are kept because they are real: they reflect one-off promotions. This edition has 2 in Mexico, 2 in Colombia, and 1 in Guatemala. High values were not discarded either.
How we calculate averages
The average fee and average FX margin are computed only over observations that actually report that value. The World Bank site appears to divide by the total row count, treating blanks as zero, which is why our average fee can differ slightly from theirs. Our mean total cost reproduces the World Bank's figure within rounding.
Limitations
- Data is from the Q3 2025 quarter and does not represent current prices.
- Observation counts vary by corridor (from 21 to 46), so the data is not equally robust across countries.
- Collection windows differ between countries, which limits direct corridor-to-corridor comparison.
- We do not include provider names or rankings.
- Venezuela has no data available in this edition.
Updates and corrections
We review this page when the World Bank publishes a new edition. If you spot an error in the calculations or the presentation, you can reach us through contact and we'll look into it.
Source and attribution
The World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide, available at http://remittanceprices.worldbank.org · Edition Q3 2025 · Retrieved 2026-08-29.
DineroKit filtered the eight U.S. corridors and computed the aggregates shown on this page. The World Bank has not reviewed or endorsed this analysis.
This page is educational and does not constitute personalized financial advice. The data is historical and costs change over time; it does not represent a quote or the price you would pay today. Before making a transfer, confirm fees, exchange rate, and terms directly with the service you use.