OFX Review 2026: Exchange Rates, Fees and What Your Recipient Gets

OFX's exchange rate and margin

OFX charges no upfront fee, so the whole cost sits inside the exchange rate. The gap from the mid-market rate, the figure you would see on Google, is the number that matters.

That gap is tiered. We compared it across amounts: around 2% on £1,000, much like a bank, tightening to roughly 0.55–1.4% on £10,000.

Above £100,000, negotiated with a dealer, it can reach 0.3% on a liquid pair like GBP to EUR. So OFX gets cheaper the more you move.

OFX transfer fees

There is no OFX transfer fee, on any amount, for UK customers. Two costs still apply, and both are easy to miss.

We could not verify any debit-card surcharge on OFX's own UK site. What we did confirm is that for a personal transfer sending pounds you can fund by debit card up to £5,000 a deal, and anything larger, or in another currency, goes by bank transfer (OFX debit-card FAQ, last checked 3 July 2026). On SWIFT routes an intermediary bank may still take a cut before the money lands; OFX keeps none of it, but cannot stop it.

Sending £1,000 to India with OFX

This is where the catch on small sums shows. The figures below are illustrative, built from OFX's sourced ~2% retail margin and the mid-market rate on 24 June 2026, so confirm the live quote.

If you are sending rent or support to family, a flat-fee provider on the mid-market rate puts more rupees in their account than OFX does here, even after its fee. The OFX advantage is real, but it lives at scale, not on a grand.

Countries and currencies supported

We confirmed coverage of more than 50 currencies and over 170 countries, including high-value routes such as sending money to Australia, paid out through a network of local bank accounts where OFX can avoid SWIFT charges.

Payout methods

• Bank account deposit only, into the recipient's own account
• No cash pickup, in any country
• No mobile wallet payout
• This quietly rules OFX out of many family-remittance corridors

Transfer speed and limits

Sending money to family overseas

Weak on most routes, and worth being honest about. OFX pays into bank accounts only, so if your mother collects cash from an agent or tops up a wallet, it simply cannot help.

On smaller monthly sums the ~2% margin also loses to a flat-fee app. It fits only where your family banks and the amounts are large.

Business and supplier payments

This is home ground. You get forward contracts to fix a rate, limit orders to chase a better one, a developer API to wire payments into your own systems, and a named dealer for the big runs, the kind of setup that suits international business payments.

When you pay suppliers on a schedule or in large lumps, rate certainty starts to matter more than a few pounds of fee.

Large one-off transfers

OFX's strongest case by far. There is no maximum, the margin on six figures can reach 0.3%, and a forward contract holds today's rate for up to 12 months.

Picture the months between agreeing to buy a flat abroad and completing on it: a 2% drift would dwarf any fee, and OFX lets you lock the rate now for a 5–10% deposit. A flat-fee app leaves you exposed.

How OFX protects your money

We checked OFX against the FCA Register. It operates as UKForex Limited, authorised as an electronic money institution under FRN 902028, and safeguards your money in separate accounts, kept apart from its own.

That is not the same as FSCS protection. There is no £120,000 guarantee, and clawing safeguarded funds back through an administrator could take longer than an FSCS payout. For money passing through on its way abroad, that is a fair trade.

Account security and fraud protection

Security is solid. OFX requires two-factor authentication and holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification for information security. Funding is restricted to bank rails and debit cards, which keeps chargeback fraud down.

Signing up and verification. You open an account online with identity checks. The recurring complaint lives here: a first or large transfer can be held for document verification, so do not leave it to the day of a deadline.

App and website. OFX runs a web platform and well-rated mobile apps, with self-service quotes and booking. You can see a quote before you fund anything.

Customer support. This is a real strength. Phone support runs 24 hours a day, staffed by dealers OFX calls "OFXperts", so you can reach a person whatever the time zone, exactly when a large transfer makes you nervous.

We read the recent reviews, not just the headline score. The picture splits along one clear line.

What people praise: the 24/7 phone dealers, the absence of transfer fees, and sharp rates on large transfers.

What goes wrong: the complaints cluster on compliance. Money held pending document checks, and a settlement that feels slow next to a digital-only app.

For small or instant transfers, Wise is usually cheaper and faster, because it uses the mid-market rate and one small flat fee.

For large or future-dated payments, OFX competes with dedicated-dealer brokers like Currencies Direct and TorFX, where the locked rate and the relationship matter more than the app.

We compared these routes ourselves, and we refresh the live figures daily, so use our money transfer comparison for the amount and the route you actually care about.

OFX is a specialist worth knowing for one job: moving large sums well.

Send £1,000 and a flat-fee app beats it. Send £100,000, or fix a rate for a completion months away, and the tightening margin, the forward contracts and the 24/7 dealers put OFX among the best there is. We rate it 4.2 out of 5.

Go in clear-eyed, though: bank deposit only, no cash or wallet, and a first transfer that may sit in compliance for a few days.