Sending euros anywhere in Europe from an Estonian account now costs between nothing and €0.38 and arrives in 10 seconds, at three in the morning on a Sunday. Sending anything else costs a visible €6–€7 and an invisible currency margin that not one Estonian bank publishes, and the invisible one is usually larger.
A euro transfer takes 10 seconds; anything else carries an unpublished margin. Since 9 October 2025 every Estonian bank must be able to send instant euro transfers, they must reach the payee in 10 seconds day or night, and — under Article 5b of the Instant Payments Regulation — they may not charge more for instant than for ordinary. Checking the payee's name against the account number is free and compulsory.
For a non-euro wire the published fee is €6–€7. The exchange margin is not published by any of the five banks. Compare against a provider that quotes the mid-market rate before you assume the wire fee is the cost.
Table of Contents
Instant payments, and what the rules actually say
Nothing on this page is paid placement and no provider pays to appear. Where one runs an affiliate programme we may earn a commission if you sign up through our link; where one does not, we link to them anyway. Ordering reflects published terms and how well each option works for someone arriving from abroad — never what it pays.
| Obligation | In force in the euro area |
|---|---|
| Banks must be able to RECEIVE instant euro transfers | 9 January 2025 |
| Charge parity — instant may cost no more than ordinary | 9 January 2025 |
| Banks must be able to SEND instant euro transfers | 9 October 2025 |
| Verification of payee, free to the payer | 9 October 2025 |
| Daily sanctions screening of customers | In force; no separate euro-area date published |
| Extension to non-euro member states | January 2027 |
The name check warns you. It does not stop the payment.
This is the most misreported point on Estonian consumer sites. When the payee's name does not match the account number, the Estonian Banking Association's own wording is that the customer's attention is drawn to it — and then the customer decides. LHV says the same: the alert "does not prevent payment execution". Treat the mismatch warning as the last thing standing between you and an invoice-fraud transfer, because it is, and because nothing behind it will stop you.
Two more things changed with it, and both are worth knowing. Failed instant payments fall back to ordinary transfers automatically at LHV by default, which you can turn off. And you can set your own instant-payment limits — per transaction or per day — after which a payment reverts to ordinary SEPA. That is a genuinely useful anti-fraud setting that almost nobody switches on.
Is there still a €100,000 ceiling?
Two current Estonian sources disagree. The Banking Association said in September 2025 that the €100,000 ceiling is removed and banks may process larger amounts instantly. LHV's own announcement, two days earlier, still states €100,000 as its maximum instant payment. Both are live. In practice the regulatory ceiling is gone and any limit you meet is now your bank's, not the law's — so ask your bank rather than a comparison page.
What it actually costs
| LHV | Swedbank | SEB | Luminor | Coop Pank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEPA / European, online | €0 | €0.38 domestic, free on a plan | €0.25 | €0 | €0 |
| Instant SEPA | Same as ordinary | Same as ordinary | Same as ordinary | Same as ordinary | Same as ordinary |
| Non-SEPA wire, shared charges | €7 | €6 | €6 | €7 | €6 |
| Non-SEPA wire, you pay all charges | +€22 | €25 | €26 | — | — |
| Incoming international wire | €7 | €6, free if sender pays all | €5.75 | — | €5.75 |
| FX margin on a transfer | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| FX margin on a card payment | 1% | Not published | 1.5% | 2% | 1% |
The instant row is not laziness. Article 5b makes charging a premium for instant unlawful, so at every Estonian provider instant and ordinary cost the same by operation of law. If you find a bank charging extra for instant, that is a complaint, not a price.
Every FX figure any Estonian bank publishes is a card margin. Not one of the five publishes a margin for a transfer. So on a wire to a US dollar account the fee you can see is the small cost, and the spread you cannot see is the large one.
- The wire fee, on the price listThe only number you are quoted€6
- The exchange margin, published by nobody2% of the amount — our assumption, because no Estonian bank states one€100
The fee is SEB's published €6; the margin is an illustration at 2%, not a quoted rate. Ask for the figure that will actually arrive, not the fee.
Effective dates differ by bank and these move: LHV 1 May 2026, Swedbank 1 December 2025 as updated 3 May 2026, SEB and Luminor 1 June 2026, Coop Pank 1 August 2026. Check the live price list before a large transfer — and see bank accounts for which of these will open an account for you in the first place.
Beyond the banks
| Wise | Revolut | |
|---|---|---|
| Exchange rate | Publishes that it uses the mid-market rate — the one you can look up | Free up to €1,000 a month, then 1%, plus a 1% weekend markup between Friday evening and Sunday evening New York time — most of a European weekend |
| Sending fee | From 0.47%, stated upfront; a discount tier above €22,000, though the discount itself is not published | SEPA and local transfers free on the standard plan |
| Published fee table | None — the fee is quoted live, so no static page can be cited for your route | None for non-SEPA international transfers — calculated in real time and shown in the app |
| Licensed in | Belgium — its payments arm is passported into Estonia, not an Estonian institution, which Estonian readers routinely assume | Lithuania — the banking entity is Revolut Bank UAB, not Estonian |
Estonia licenses 9 payment institutions of its own, and it is worth saying plainly what they are not: merchant acquiring, card issuing, buy-now-pay-later and crowdfunding, plus one consumer-facing currency and transfer business that publishes a worked example rather than a fee schedule. There is no Estonian-licensed consumer remittance provider competing on published price with Wise or Revolut. If that matters to you — because you would rather be supervised locally — it is a real trade-off, and it costs money.
The two non-bank options side by side, and the bank route they are being measured against.
Wise is the pick for a non-euro transfer, because the rate is the cost. It is free to open with no monthly fee, uses the mid-market rate — the one you can look up yourself — and charges its fee visibly on top, from 0.47%, quoted live for your corridor before you confirm. The whole cost is that fee rather than a spread you cannot see, which is exactly what the bank table above cannot say. The entity is Wise Europe SA, authorised by the National Bank of Belgium: not an Estonian institution, and not a bank either, so funds are safeguarded rather than covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.
Revolut suits euro payments and everyday spending. The Standard plan costs nothing a month, SEPA and local transfers are free on it, and currency exchange is free up to €1,000 a month before 1% applies. Cash is free to 5 withdrawals or €200 a month, then 2%. It is a bank, so the money is covered to €100,000 — but from the Lithuanian scheme, administered from Vilnius, because the entity is Revolut Bank UAB. The 1% weekend markup runs from Friday evening to Sunday evening New York time, which is most of a European weekend.
Your Estonian bank is the route to beat inside the single euro payments area: €0 at three of the five banks, arriving in 10 seconds at any hour of any day, from an Estonian credit institution supervised here, with the payee name check free and compulsory since 9 October 2025 and instant priced no higher than ordinary by law. It is also already where your salary lands, so there is no second account and no funding step. Against that: €6–€7 to send a non-euro wire, or €22–€26 if you pay all charges, incoming international wires at €5.75–€7, and not one of the five publishing an FX margin for a transfer.
Wise
Publishes the rate it uses
Key highlights
Key features
- Mid-market rate, published and checkable
- Fee quoted live for your corridor
- Cost is the fee, not a spread
Account details
- Sending fee
- From 0.47%
- Exchange rate
- Mid-market
- Transfer FX margin
- None
- Discount tier
- Above €22,000
- Licensed in
- Belgium
Summary
- Mid-market rate, published and checkable
- Fee quoted live for your corridor
- Cost is the fee, not a spread
- No per-corridor fee table exists
- Discount size is not published
- Belgian licence, not Estonian
- Safeguarded, not deposit-guaranteed
Revolut
Free in euro, priced in-app
Key highlights
Key features
- SEPA and local transfers free
- Free monthly exchange allowance
- A bank, so deposits are covered
Account details
- SEPA transfers
- Free on Standard
- Non-SEPA fee
- Quoted in the app
- Currency exchange
- Free to €1,000 monthly
- Weekend markup
- 1%
- Deposit guarantee
- €100,000, Lithuanian
Summary
- SEPA and local transfers free
- Free monthly exchange allowance
- A bank, so deposits are covered
- Non-SEPA fees not published anywhere
- Weekend markup covers most weekends
- Exchange above allowance is charged
- Licensed in Lithuania, not Estonia
Your Estonian bank
Unbeatable in euro, opaque otherwise
Key highlights
Key features
- Free euro transfers at three banks
- Supervised in Estonia
- Already where your salary lands
Account details
- SEPA transfer, online
- €0 at three banks
- Arrival in euro
- 10 seconds, any day
- Non-euro wire
- €6–€7
- All charges yours
- €22–€26
- Transfer FX margin
- Not published
Summary
- Free euro transfers at three banks
- Supervised in Estonia
- Already where your salary lands
- No published FX margin anywhere
- Non-euro wires carry a visible fee
- Incoming international wires cost too
The three thresholds, which are not the same threshold
| Threshold | What triggers it | Who reports | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cash across an EU EXTERNAL border | €10,000 | Carrying it — in either direction | You, by declaration |
| Cash across an internal EU border | None at all | — | Nobody |
| Cash settlement of an obligation | €32,000 | Size, no suspicion needed — one payment or several related ones within a year | The business, to the Financial Intelligence Unit |
| A bank-to-bank transfer | No threshold exists | Suspicion, or a sanctions match | The bank, when it forms a suspicion |
Wiring a large sum abroad triggers no automatic report. Say it plainly, because the forums do not. The €10,000 rule is a traveller and cash rule at an external border — Tallinn to Helsinki or Riga has no threshold and no form at all. The €32,000 rule is a cash rule for businesses. Neither is triggered by a transfer between bank accounts, of any size. What triggers a report on a transfer is suspicion, or a sanctions match — not the number.
"Cash" at the border is broader than banknotes: it includes bearer instruments such as travellers' cheques and promissory notes, coins with a gold content of at least 90%, and gold nuggets of at least 99.5%. You can file the declaration up to three days before you travel, which is the civilised way to do it. Customs may still act below the threshold where cash is connected to criminal activity.
Read those together and the shape of the risk becomes clear. Suspicion reports outnumber threshold reports roughly four to one, and 27 accounts in the whole of Estonia were frozen by the unit in a year. The chance that a large legitimate transfer is frozen is very small. The chance that it is delayed and questioned is not, and that is what to plan for.
What banks ask, and why
A bank asking where a large sum came from is discharging a statutory duty under the money laundering prevention rules, supervised by the financial supervisor. It is not discretion and it is not suspicion of you personally. Refusing to answer is the reliable way to get a payment held.
Four questions decide whether a large transfer goes through quietly:
- Have you told the bank before you send it? A large transfer that arrives unannounced gets stopped for questions. The same transfer, flagged in advance with the paperwork attached, usually does not.
- Can you show where the money came from before it reached your account? That is what the file needs: a sale contract, a notarised deed, a tax return, an employment contract, a prior statement showing the funds' history, inheritance or gift documentation. Your own balance is not evidence of origin.
- Is the destination account in your own name? Transfers to yourself are the easiest case. Transfers to a third party in a higher-risk jurisdiction are the hardest, and worth a conversation first.
- Did the payee name check match? It does not block the payment. It is a warning, and after 9 October 2025 it is free and compulsory — which makes ignoring it a decision rather than an accident.
If the account is closed or refused, you have a specific ground for complaint. A basic payment account may only be closed on two grounds: evidence it is being used for money laundering, or 24 consecutive months with no transaction. The supervisor said so directly in March 2024 — basic payment accounts "may not be closed lightly", and refusal to open one is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. Complaints go to the financial supervisor.
The numbers give this some proportion: 123,314 account applications in 2023, 2,785 refused and 31,883 closed — the closure count having halved from 65,048 the year before. Closure is common enough to plan around and refusal is rare.
Receiving money, and gifts
Three things are simply not income:
- Moving your own money between accounts you own. It is the same property, so it is not a gain.
- Gifts received by an individual. Estonia has no gift tax and no inheritance tax.
- An inheritance, for the same reason.
Two asymmetries are worth watching. A gift from a person is untaxed, but a gift from an Estonian company is taxed at 22%/78 — at the company's end. And whatever income arose inside your foreign account — interest, dividends, gains — is declarable in Estonia whether or not you move it here. See the tax return.
Not taxable is not the same as not questioned. A €60,000 gift arriving from abroad generates no tax and no entry on your return — and it will still draw a source-of-funds enquiry, because the tax system and the money-laundering system are independent of each other. The two are routinely conflated, and they are not the same test. Have the documentation ready even though you owe nothing.
The name check is not a safety net. It warns you and then lets you proceed, which is by design and is stated by both the Banking Association and the banks themselves. Nor is the wire fee the cost of a transfer: the published fee is the small number, the unpublished FX margin is the large one, and no Estonian bank discloses it for transfers, so compare arrival amounts rather than fees.
Two thresholds get misapplied. The €10,000 figure is a cash-and-border rule and applies only at an EU external border; there is no threshold for a bank transfer at all. And paying extra for an instant payment should not happen: charging more for instant than for ordinary has been unlawful in the euro area since 9 January 2025.
Two smaller points. Sending a large sum without warning the bank carries a tiny freeze risk but a real delay-and-question risk, and a phone call beforehand removes most of it. And Wise and Revolut are not Estonian: Wise's payments arm is licensed in Belgium and Revolut's bank in Lithuania. Both passport in legitimately — but if local supervision matters to you, know which supervisor you are relying on.
FAQ
How much does it cost to send money abroad from Estonia?
A euro transfer anywhere in the single euro payments area costs between nothing and €0.38 online and arrives in 10 seconds — LHV, Luminor and Coop Pank charge €0, SEB €0.25, Swedbank €0.38 domestically and nothing on a service plan. A non-euro wire costs €6–€7 with shared charges, or €22–€26 if you pay all charges. The exchange margin on a transfer is not published by any Estonian bank and is usually the larger cost.
Do Estonian banks report large transfers to the authorities?
Not automatically, and not by size. There is no euro threshold at which a bank-to-bank transfer is reported. A report is made when the bank forms a suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, or when a sanctions match arises. The €32,000 threshold that circulates online is a rule about settling an obligation in CASH, and the €10,000 figure is a traveller's declaration for carrying cash across an EU external border — neither applies to a transfer.
How long does a transfer from Estonia take?
A euro transfer within the single euro payments area must reach the payee's account in 10 seconds, any time of day, any day of the week — Estonian banks have been required to send instant transfers since 9 October 2025. Non-euro wires take the usual correspondent banking time and can be sent urgently or as an express payment for a higher fee.
Is money I transfer to Estonia from my own foreign account taxable?
No. Moving your own money between accounts you own is not income — it is the same property. What is declarable is any income that arose in the foreign account, such as interest, dividends or gains, and that has to go on the Estonian return whether or not you bring the money here. Gifts and inheritances received by a private individual are also untaxed, since Estonia has neither a gift tax nor an inheritance tax — though a gift made by an Estonian company is taxed at the company's end.
Can an Estonian bank close my account?
A basic payment account may only be closed on two grounds: evidence that it is being used for money laundering, or 24 consecutive months with no transaction. The financial supervisor stated in March 2024 that basic payment accounts may not be closed lightly and that refusal to open one is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. In 2023 there were 123314 applications, 2785 refusals and 31883 closures — the closures having roughly halved from the previous year.
The payee name did not match. Will the bank stop the payment?
No. It warns you and lets you carry on, and that is by design. The check has been free and compulsory since 9 October 2025, and the Estonian Banking Association's own wording is that the customer's attention is drawn to the mismatch — after which the customer decides. LHV says the same: the alert does not prevent payment execution. Treat the warning as the last thing standing between you and an invoice-fraud transfer, because it is, and because nothing behind it will stop you. Two related settings are worth knowing while you are there. At LHV a failed instant payment falls back to an ordinary transfer automatically unless you switch that off, and you can set your own instant-payment limits per transaction or per day, above which a payment reverts to ordinary SEPA — a genuinely useful anti-fraud control that almost nobody turns on.
Is there still a €100,000 ceiling on instant payments?
Two current Estonian sources disagree, so ask your own bank. The Banking Association said in September 2025 that the €100,000 ceiling has been removed and that banks may process larger amounts instantly. LHV's own announcement, published two days earlier, still states €100,000 as its maximum instant payment. Both are live. The reading that fits both is that the regulatory ceiling is gone and any limit you now meet is your bank's rather than the law's. What is not in doubt is the rest of the regime: a euro transfer must reach the payee in 10 seconds at any hour of any day, and charging more for instant than for ordinary is unlawful under Article 5b of the Instant Payments Regulation.
Is money at Wise or Revolut protected the way an Estonian bank deposit is?
No, and the two differ from each other as well. A deposit at an Estonian bank is covered by the Guarantee Fund's Deposit Guarantee Sectoral Fund — €100,000 per depositor per credit institution, repaid within 7 working days, which SEB's own depositor information sheet notes may be extended by up to a further 10. Wise is not a bank and says so in its EEA customer agreement: funds held with Wise are not insured by any deposit protection scheme. It safeguards instead, segregating your money from its own assets so it would be returned in an insolvency — a real protection, but with no guaranteed amount and no payout deadline. Revolut is a bank, but a Lithuanian one: Estonian customers bank with Revolut Bank UAB, so the same €100,000 comes from the Lithuanian scheme and would be administered from Vilnius. Because the limit is per legal entity, money at Revolut and money at an Estonian bank sit in two separate €100,000 buckets.
The bank is asking where the money came from. What do they actually want?
Evidence of where the money was before it reached your account — your own balance is not evidence of origin. A sale contract, a notarised deed, a tax return, an employment contract, a prior statement showing the funds' history, or inheritance or gift documentation. The bank is discharging a statutory duty under the money laundering prevention rules, supervised by the financial supervisor, so it is not discretion and it is not suspicion of you personally; refusing to answer is the reliable way to get a payment held. Three things reduce the friction: flag a large transfer before you send it rather than after it is stopped, keep the destination account in your own name where you can, and remember that untaxed is not unquestioned — a gift arriving from abroad generates no Estonian tax and no entry on your return, and will still draw the enquiry. For proportion: of 14,185 reports to the Financial Intelligence Unit in 2024, 10,366 were suspicion-based against 2,510 threshold-based, and the unit froze 27 accounts in the whole of Estonia across the entire year. Delay and questions are the realistic risk; a freeze is not.
Can I carry the money across the border in cash instead?
Across an EU external border you may, but you must declare €10,000 or more, in either direction, and you can file that declaration up to three days before you travel. Across an internal EU border — Tallinn to Helsinki or Riga — there is no threshold and no form at all. "Cash" there is broader than banknotes: it covers bearer instruments such as travellers' cheques and promissory notes, coins with a gold content of at least 90%, and gold nuggets of at least 99.5%. Customs may still act below the threshold where cash is connected to criminal activity. And do not confuse either rule with the €32,000 figure that circulates online: that one is about settling an obligation in cash — a single payment or several related ones within a year — and it is the business that reports it, to the Financial Intelligence Unit.
Related guides
Why You Can Trust This Guide
Sending money out of Estonia?
The fee is rarely the expensive part. The exchange-rate margin is, and it is not shown as a charge — which is why a transfer advertised as free can cost more than one that is not.