You've done the hard part: the trip is netted, the math is clean, and the group chat has a tidy list — Cara owes Ana 385, Ben owes Ana 215, Dan owes Ana 95. Now comes the part that quietly eats the savings: actually moving the money. Send it through the wrong rail and a 4% foreign-transaction fee plus a bad exchange rate turns Cara's 385 into 401, and Ana receives 372. The 29 EUR that evaporated is more than the museum tickets cost.
Choosing how to pay friends back is a separate decision from working out how much. This guide compares the five rails people actually use — Wise, Revolut, PayPal, Venmo/local instant-payment apps, and cash — on the two axes that matter for a trip: cost (especially across currencies) and friction (will everyone in the group actually use it). If you haven't netted the balances yet, do that first with who owes who: settle a group trip in the fewest payments; this picks up where that ends.
The two costs you're optimizing against
Every cross-border transfer has two costs, and providers hide one to advertise the other:
- The explicit fee — the line item the app shows you ("transfer fee: 2.50").
- The exchange-rate margin — the gap between the rate you get and the real mid-market rate (the one on Google, the ECB reference rate). This is where most of the cost hides. A provider advertising "zero fees" often bakes 2–4% into the rate instead.
The total cost is fee + margin. A "free" transfer at a 3% margin is more expensive than a 0.5% transfer with a 5 EUR fee on most trip-sized amounts. When you compare rails, compare the amount the recipient actually gets, not the headline fee. The mid-market rate is your benchmark — the same rate you should have used to log expenses in the first place, per the multi-currency journal method.
Same-currency settlement: keep it simple
If everyone banks in the same currency, the cross-currency problem disappears and the only thing that matters is friction — what will everyone actually open and use.
- Instant bank transfer (SEPA Instant in the EU, FPS in the UK, Zelle in the US) — free, fast, no third party. Best option when it's available and everyone's banks support it. Needs IBAN/account details, which is mild friction.
- Venmo / local P2P apps (Twint, Swish, Blik, PayNow) — free between users, near-instant, low friction because everyone already has it. Geographically locked: Venmo is US-only, Twint Swiss-only, etc. Great within a country, useless across borders.
- PayPal "friends and family" — free for domestic balance transfers, widely installed. Avoid the "goods and services" option for settling debts — it charges the recipient a ~3% fee.
For a same-country group, the answer is almost always "whatever P2P app you all already have." Don't overthink it.
Cross-currency settlement: where the rail actually matters
The moment one person banks in a different currency, the rate margin dominates. Rough comparison for sending money that arrives in another currency:
| Rail | Explicit fee | Rate margin | Best for | | --------------- | ---------------- | ------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | | Wise | Low, transparent | ~0% (mid-market) | Cross-border, transparent total cost | | Revolut | Free on standard tiers (limits/weekday) | ~0% on weekdays, surcharge on weekends/over limit | Users already on Revolut | | Traditional bank wire | High (15–40)| 2–4% | Almost never — worst on both axes | | PayPal (intl) | Fee + ~3–4% | 3–4% | Convenient but pricey; fine for small amounts | | Cash | Zero | Whatever you agreed| In-person, end of trip |
Wise is the default recommendation for cross-currency because it shows the full cost up front and uses the real mid-market rate, so the recipient gets close to the logged amount. Revolut is comparable if everyone's already on it — Revolut-to-Revolut transfers are instant and free, but the free FX has weekday windows and monthly limits on standard tiers, with a surcharge on weekends or above the limit. Bank wires lose on both fee and margin — only use one if there's genuinely no alternative.
The practical move for a group that crosses currencies regularly: agree on one rail before the trip. If everyone opens a Wise or Revolut account, settlement is near-free and the logged amounts match what arrives. This is the same conclusion the multi-currency budgeting guide reaches — a multi-currency account makes the statement match the budget, and it makes settlement match the balance.
The cash exception
For in-person groups settling at the end of a trip, cash sidesteps every fee and margin. Whoever's owed gets paid from whoever has notes, you agree a sensible round rate for any currency conversion, and it's done. The catch: it only works face-to-face, it doesn't scale past a couple of people, and there's no record. For a four-person trip settling over the last dinner, cash plus one round of Wise transfers for the leftover balances is often the cleanest combination.
Minimize transfers, then minimize per-transfer cost
The two optimizations stack. First net the balances down to the minimum number of transfers — fewer transfers means fewer fees, full stop. Then make each remaining transfer on the cheapest rail. A six-person trip that could have been fourteen pairwise PayPal "goods and services" payments (each losing ~3%) becomes four Wise transfers at near-zero margin. The savings compound: fewer transfers and a better rate on each.
A quick decision tree
- Everyone same currency, same country? → Your shared P2P app (Venmo / Twint / SEPA Instant). Free, done.
- Different currencies, group already on Wise or Revolut? → That. Near-zero cost.
- Different currencies, mixed apps, willing to set up one? → Everyone opens Wise. One-time setup, then free-ish forever.
- Small amounts, can't be bothered? → PayPal friends-and-family or cash. The ~3% on 30 EUR is 0.90 — not worth optimizing.
- In person, end of trip? → Cash for the bulk, one rail for the remainder.
FAQ
Q: Is Wise or Revolut better for paying friends back? For cross-currency, both use near-mid-market rates. Revolut is free and instant between Revolut users within tier limits; Wise is better when recipients aren't on the same app or when you want a transparent total cost up front. If your group is split across apps, Wise is the safer default.
Q: Why avoid PayPal "goods and services" for settling debts? It charges the recipient a buyer-protection fee (~3% + fixed). For settling a friend's share, use "friends and family" (domestic, free) — but note F&F has no buyer protection, which is fine because it's a debt, not a purchase.
Q: Should I convert before sending or let the app convert? Let the good app (Wise/Revolut) convert at send time at mid-market. Don't pre-convert through your bank — you'll pay your bank's margin and the transfer fee. One conversion, on the best rail, is cheapest.
Q: How do I know the amount I send matches what I owe? Log expenses at the mid-market rate on each date, settle in your home currency, and use a rail that transfers at mid-market. Then the number you owe, the number you send, and the number they receive all line up. Apps that store per-date FX (NomadCrew among them) make this automatic — see multi-currency budgeting.
Settle the whole trip in one place
NomadCrew nets your group trip down to the fewest transfers and shows each balance in your home currency, so you know the exact amount to send before you open Wise. It won't move the money for you — that's your rail of choice — but it removes every ambiguity about how much. Start a trip free, no card. For the netting math, see who owes who; for splitting the costs fairly in the first place, how to split expenses unevenly; and for comparing full apps, Splitwise alternatives 2026.