FX spread

The FX spread, also called the exchange-rate margin, is the gap between the market reference rate for a currency pair and the rate a payment provider actually applies when it converts a sender’s dollars into pesos, Dominican pesos, or another local currency. It works as a hidden cost: a provider can advertise a low or even zero transaction fee and still earn revenue by setting its own rate below the market reference, so the real cost of a transfer is the fee and the FX spread combined, not the fee shown at checkout (World Bank). US regulators have warned that marketing a transfer as free while recovering the cost through the exchange rate can be a deceptive practice (CFPB Circular 2024-02). Moni charges a fixed fee per transfer, currently $1.98, with no hidden FX spread.

See also: How remittance fees actually work (the FX-spread trap) for the full explainer.