How long do wire transfers take?
The experience I have with wire transfers is from Australia to the US. These transfers can take up to 5 business dates (i.e. a whole week including the non-business days of the weekend). I would have thought intra-European transfers would be quicker, given how behind most US (regional) banks are in their electronic transfers. However, I don't think you should be worried just yet.
International wires using SWIFT are reliable way of getting funds. The issue could be because you are not giving the right details to your counterparty. Any incorrect details on wires would get it rejected. The timelines typically would be around 2-4 days depending on various things. There are alternatives like getting a paper check mailed to you and you cash it [this takes more time] or depending on which countries you operate in, there could be special remittance services. Typical wire transfers are not with 4-5%; but it all depends on the bank that does the transfer. You can chose to send ('wire') the money in source currency or in US $; the former, the target bank in the US does the conversion (so pick one that adds no or little spread); the latter, the sending bank does the conversion (so ask about their fees/spreads). I have multiple times transferred money across the ocean (though not from Japan), and never paid more than 0.3% + ~40 $ flat. It should be possible to get te same range. Note that if you look around for current offers, you might be easily able to even make some money on it - some US banks are eager for new money, and offer 200+$ bonus if you open an account and bring (significant =15k$+) new money to them. I would recommend wire transfer.  I was in your position some years ago, and the US$ cheque took 6 weeks to clear. Wire transfer fees are generally a few tens of pounds, depending on the banks involved. During the settlement period, the buyer transfers payment to the seller and the seller transfers ownership to the buyer. This is really a holdover from the days when so much of stock trading was done by individual human traders, and computers were still not a huge part of the operation.  Back then, paper tickets for trades exchanged hands, and the time period was actually 5 days, so 3 days is an improvement.   A settlement period was necessary for everyone to figure out their trades and do what was necessary to make the settlements happen, so it was not always a quick process, mainly because of smaller trading firms that didn't have technology to help them along. Nowadays, technology makes settlements easy, and they usually occur at the end of the trading day.  The trading firms sum up their trades, figure out who they owe, and send lump sum settlements to the counterparties to their trades.  If anything, the 3-day period may just be used now to let parties verify trades before settling. I hope this helps. Good luck! Register an account with multiple transfer services and see who will actually give you the best rate, including any fees charged by the service itself, at the time you want to make the transfer. Research the available methods to get the money into and out of the transfer service to five the lowest cost options, which would ideally be free on both ends. Be patient. It can take a week for money to arrive in your recipients account depending on the methods of getting the money into and out of the transfer service. You might also be called to verify the transaction before it goes through. Essentially you can send a Check by mail, you brother deposits into Bank account. It costs very little, the time required would be around 1-2 months. You can do International Wire [Via SWIFT] it would reach in few days, fees are high. You can use specialized remittance services like Money2india, remit2india, or western union etc. The fees are low and generally funds reach in a week. All the items listed are required for International Wire transfer. In wrong hands this info along with other info can cause issues. Most of the times you trust the person with this info and hence is less cause to worry. So the key is if you don't trust, don't give the details. Use alternatives like; Best open an account for receiving funds. Share the details, once the funds are received move it to an account where the details have not been shared. Alternatively paypal or other such services can help. Currency exchange is rather the norm than the exception in international wire transfers, so the fact that the amount needs to be exchanged should have no impact at all. The processing time depends on the number of participating banks and their speeds. Typically, between Europe and the US, one or two business days are the norm. Sending from Other countries might involve more steps (banks)  which each takes a bit of time. However, anything beyond 5 business days is not normal. Consider if there are external delays - how did you initiate the sending? Was it in person with an agent of the bank, who might have put it on a stack, and they type it in only a day later (or worse)? Or was it online, so it is in the system right away? On the receiver side, how did you/your friend check? Could there be a delay by waiting for an account statement? Finally, and that is the most common reason, were all the numbers, names, and codes absolutely correct? Even a small mismatch in name spelling might trigger the receiving bank to not allocate the money into the account. Either way, if you contact the sender bank, you will be able to make them follow up on it. They must be able to trace where they money went, and where it currently is. If it is stuck, they will be able to get it ‘unstuck’. Online banking, including international wire transfers, works from (nearly) anywhere in the world; make sure to have it set up. You can also give someone power of attorney (authorization to act in your name, the bank must accept him as you), if you have someone you trust enough; or if not, give a lawyer power of attorney. You can do that even after the fact, while you are out of the country; you would work with an international lawyer company. No. You can initiate SWIFT payments from Bank A, whenever Bank A is open for business. The transaction takes around 2-5 days for it to complete depending on the currency pair and countries involved. Once you initiate the payment, the Bank A sends it to SWIFT Network which in turn send it to Bank B. Whenever Bank B is open for business it would process the payment. It takes about 4-5 workdays, maybe it depends on the day also when you start the transfer. I transferred an amount last Wednesday, and the same amount on Thursday too. Both transactions hit the destination account on the next Tuesday, with a difference of 2 minutes. "If the amount is large, ""wire transfer"" is usually the cheapest option. Mane banks have online option for it." "Can you tell me please, is it really hard to make international wire transfer for payment my job and can i resolve this problem without using third party services? This is mostly a barrier, the form at times is quite complicated. For Russia, one has to enter ""Purpose of remittance"" ... at times select intermediate banks, give BIC and other details. This can become unnerving to people who are not used to it.  The other option you can try is set-up a credit card gateway and get funds via cards." Transfer of Millions of USD in and out is not possible for Individuals. There are limits on how much money an individual Indian Ordinary Citizen can send or receive. If an corporate wants to send money, depending on the services offered, they would have to initiate a SWIFT transaction. It typically takes 2-3 days for settlement of International wire. I phoned Tangerine; they enlightened me. It generally takes 2 hours for the email to arrive. Next, the recipient must open the email, click the link, and enter their bank account number. They'll generally receive the money 2-3 business days after that. This forum post suggests that the delays are due to systemic risk management, tendering, and clearing.