How to send money from the US to Europe: euro IBANs, SEPA and conversion costs

Sending money from the US to Europe usually means paying a euro IBAN, though Europe doesn't share one currency and the route matters as much as the rate. A wire from your US bank crosses the Atlantic over SWIFT and can lose fees to the banks it passes through. A provider holding euros in Europe can instead pay out over SEPA, the euro payment system that reaches the recipient's bank by the next business day or, in its instant form, within seconds. The World Bank's cost survey doesn't cover US-to-Europe transfers, so measure every quote against the mid-market rate on our dollar to euro converter. For the steps common to every country, see how to send money internationally.

Does the recipient's country use the euro?

Check before sending: euros paid into an account held in another currency get converted again on arrival, at a rate the receiving bank sets.

The euro area now has 21 countries (European Central Bank, as of Nov 2, 2026): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City use the euro under formal agreements with the EU, and Montenegro and Kosovo use it without one.

Bulgaria is the newest member. Lev accounts were converted to euros automatically on January 1, 2026 at the fixed rate of 1.95583 lev per euro, and banks kept the same IBANs, so payee details saved before the switch still work.

Six EU members keep their own money: the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Outside the EU, the UK uses the pound, Switzerland the franc and Norway the krone. For those countries, ask for a quote that pays out in the local currency or confirm that the account accepts euros. Our converters cover the dollar to Swiss franc and dollar to Swedish krona rates; the zloty, which they don't list, stood at 1 USD = 3.9512 PLN (Nov 2, 2026). Pound payouts have their own guide: sending money from the US to the UK.

What do you need to pay a European IBAN?

The recipient's IBAN and their name exactly as the bank holds it; a SWIFT wire from a US bank also needs the bank's BIC and often an address.

The first two letters show where the account is held, not where the recipient lives: someone living in Spain who banks with an online bank based in Lithuania has an IBAN starting LT, and that's normal. Each country's IBAN has a fixed length, which makes a missing or extra character easy to spot.

IBAN explained shows how the two check digits catch most typing errors, and SWIFT codes explained decodes a BIC.

Wire or SEPA payout: how do the euros arrive?

Either your US bank sends a SWIFT wire to the recipient's bank, or a provider converts your dollars and pays the euros from a European account over SEPA.

A wire passes through one or more correspondent banks. Under SHA, the shared-cost option, you pay your bank's fee and banks along the way may deduct theirs from the euros; under OUR you pay every charge upfront for a higher fee, and BEN puts them all on the recipient. Ask your bank to convert to euros before sending, because a dollar wire to a euro account leaves the conversion to the receiving bank. International wire transfer fees covers each charge.

A SEPA payout spares the recipient the transatlantic leg. SEPA covers 41 countries, and a standard SEPA credit transfer reaches the recipient's bank by the next business day at the latest. SEPA Instant lands in under 10 seconds around the clock and has had no scheme maximum since October 2025. SEPA transfers explained covers both schemes in depth.

Verification of Payee is the change that matters most for US senders. Since October 9, 2025, payment providers in the euro area must check, free of charge, whether the payee's name matches the IBAN before their customer authorizes a SEPA transfer, and report a match, a close match with the correct name, no match, or that the check wasn't possible. The payer's European provider runs the check, so a provider paying out from a European account sees the result, but a wire from a US bank doesn't. Providers in EU countries outside the euro area must offer it by July 9, 2027.

Working out the cost of a euro transfer

Banks and providers quote the euro in dollars, so on this route a lower number leaves you better off. The European Central Bank's reference rate on October 30, 2026 was $1.1172 per euro. The ECB publishes these rates for information only and discourages using them for transactions, so treat them as a benchmark rather than a price anyone will deal at. Divide a quote's distance from the mid-market rate by that rate to get its markup; exchange-rate markups shows the method.

Some providers show the rate the other way round, in euros per dollar. Invert it before comparing: €0.8951 per dollar is the same as $1.1172 per euro, since 1 ÷ 0.8951 is about 1.1172.

The table covers the markup alone. A wire can also lose euros in transit, which the example below prices in.

Our money transfer cost calculator runs this fee-plus-markup math for pound-to-rupee transfers, so for euros you'll need to enter your own figures. Personal transfers also come with federal consumer protections, including an upfront disclosure and a brief right to cancel, explained in remittance transfer rights.

Paying a European company or freelancer is different on both counts. Those payments fall outside the consumer remittance rules, and with a euro invoice, any move in the rate between invoice and payment is yours to absorb. Paying international contractors and FX risk for small businesses go further.

Which holidays stop euro payments?

Standard SEPA transfers and wires pause on T2 closing days and US Federal Reserve holidays, while SEPA Instant keeps running every day of the year.

T2, the Eurosystem's settlement platform that replaced TARGET2, closes on the same six days every year: New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May 1, Christmas Day and December 26. Three of them fall on weekends in 2027, so few weekdays are lost on the euro side, and US holidays account for most of the gaps.

SEPA Instant's round-the-clock service helps only once your dollars have reached the provider: an ACH debit started on Thanksgiving still waits for the next US business day before anything is paid out in Europe. National holidays such as Ascension Day (May 6, 2027) and Whit Monday (May 17, 2027) don't close T2, though the recipient's own bank may be shut where they're observed. Central European Time runs six hours ahead of New York, but only five for two short spells in 2027, March 14 to 27 and October 31 to November 6, when the two sides change clocks on different weekends; Ireland and Portugal sit an hour behind Paris and Berlin. How long international transfers take explains cut-offs and compliance holds.

Gift tax and reporting on both sides of the Atlantic

Whether a European recipient owes tax on a gift depends on their country, and two of the largest show how far the rules differ.

Other euro countries set their own allowances and reporting rules, so ask the recipient to check with their tax authority before a large gift. Treaties can also decide which country taxes it: the IRS lists estate and gift tax treaties with Austria, Denmark, France and Germany, and estate-only treaties with Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy and the Netherlands.

Germany adds a reporting rule that has nothing to do with tax. Since January 1, 2025, anyone living there, whatever their nationality, must report payments of more than €50,000 received from abroad to the Bundesbank for its balance-of-payments statistics, stating the purpose, such as a gift or a home purchase. Occasional reporters can do it by phone or email, and moving money between your own accounts is exempt.

On the US side, three rules can apply:

• Gift tax. Above $19,000 per recipient (IRS, as of Nov 1, 2026) in 2026, you file Form 709, though tax is due only once lifetime gifts pass $15,000,000 per person. Gifts to a spouse who isn't a US citizen have their own limit, $194,000. Details: gift tax on money sent abroad.
• Cash-funded transfers. Taxed at the federal level: 1% of the amount sent, on transfers paid with cash, a money order, a cashier's check or a similar physical instrument. Exempt: Transfers funded from a bank or other financial-institution account, or with a US-issued debit or credit card. The remittance transfer tax guide covers what counts as cash.
• Accounts in Europe. A euro account you open for yourself, for example to pay rent abroad, counts toward the FBAR trigger: More than $10,000 in total across foreign financial accounts at any time in the year. See FBAR explained.

Scams and slip-ups with euro payments

Payment-diversion fraud targets exactly the transfers this page describes: deposits, invoices and rent paid to a European IBAN. These are the mistakes to avoid:

• Trusting an email with new bank details. Europol's advice on invoice fraud applies to landlords, lawyers and suppliers alike: verify any change using contact details from earlier correspondence, never those in the message.
• Ignoring a payee-check warning. If your provider reports no match or a close match, stop and confirm the name with the recipient before paying.
• Sending dollars to a euro account. The receiving bank converts at its own rate; ask your bank to send euros instead.
• Choosing SHA for an exact amount. Deductions on the way leave the recipient short, as in the example above.
• Dropping a character from the IBAN. Compare its length with the table above before you send.

Our guide to money transfer scams covers the wider patterns.