Send money to Cape Verde
Every comparison site ranks transfers by the fee on the label. That is the number the services choose to show you, and it is not where most of the cost lives. This page ranks by one thing only: how many escudos actually land in your family's hands.
Compare transfer services
Sorted by what actually arrives in escudos — not by the advertised fee.
- MoneyGramBESTCash pickup
- Fee:
- €3.99
- FX margin:
- 0.44%
- Speed:
- under 1 h
- Pay with:
- Debit card
They receive
21,518 CVE
−535 CVE (2.4%)
- MoneyGramCash pickup
- Fee:
- €3.99
- FX margin:
- 0.45%
- Speed:
- under 1 h
- Pay with:
- Credit card
They receive
21,516 CVE
−537 CVE (2.4%)
- RiaBank deposit
- Fee:
- €4.49
- FX margin:
- 0.45%
- Speed:
- under 1 h
- Pay with:
- Credit card
They receive
21,461 CVE
−592 CVE (2.7%)
- RiaBank deposit
- Fee:
- €4.49
- FX margin:
- 0.45%
- Speed:
- under 1 h
- Pay with:
- Debit card
They receive
21,461 CVE
−592 CVE (2.7%)
- Western UnionCash pickup
- Fee:
- €5.28
- FX margin:
- 0.45%
- Speed:
- under 1 h
- Pay with:
- Credit card
They receive
21,374 CVE
−679 CVE (3.1%)
- Western UnionCash pickup
- Fee:
- €5.28
- FX margin:
- 0.45%
- Speed:
- under 1 h
- Pay with:
- Debit card
They receive
21,374 CVE
−679 CVE (3.1%)
Official reference rate: 1 EUR = 110.265 CVE — €200.00 would be 22,053 CVE with no fees or margin. The gap above is what each service actually costs you.
Fee and margin data: World Bank — Remittance Prices Worldwide, covering Q3 2025. Published quarterly with a lag, so treat these as indicative rather than live. Always confirm the rate with the provider before sending.
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Some links are affiliate links. This never changes the ordering — the table is always sorted by the amount delivered.
Where the money actually goes
A transfer has two costs. The first is the fee, which is stated up front and is usually small. The second is the exchange margin — the gap between the official rate and the rate the service gives you. It is never labelled as a cost, it does not appear on the receipt as a line item, and on most transfers it is considerably larger than the fee.
The escudo makes this unusually easy to see. Because the currency is pegged to the euro at a fixed 110.265, there is no ambiguity about what the "real" rate is. Any euro-to-escudo rate below 110.265 is margin, plain and simple. In most currency corridors the provider can point at a moving market and argue about which rate is fair. Here they cannot.
So the honest comparison is arithmetic: take what you send, subtract the fee, multiply by the rate you are actually offered, and see what comes out the other end. A service charging €1 with a 2% margin costs you more on a €500 transfer than one charging €5 with no margin — which is exactly the outcome that fee-ranked comparison tables hide.
The World Bank's own figures show how differently this plays out depending on where you send from, and the advice genuinely inverts. On the Portugal to Cape Verde corridor, exchange margins are tiny — around 0.45% — because the escudo is pegged to the euro and there is almost no currency risk for a provider to price in. Nearly all of your cost is the flat fee, so on small transfers the lowest fee usually wins outright.
Send from the United States and the picture reverses. Margins there run from roughly 1.2% to 8.5%, because dollars have to pass through euros before they reach escudos, and each conversion is an opportunity to take a cut. On that corridor the advertised fee is close to a distraction — one service in the World Bank data charges a modest fee and then takes 8.5% on the rate. If you are sending dollars, the margin is the whole game.
The reference number
1 EUR = 110.265 CVE
Set by the Banco de Cabo Verde. Any rate below this is provider margin.
Receiving through a Cape Verdean bank
Most transfers land in an account at one of the domestic banks. They differ in how quickly funds clear and what they charge the recipient to withdraw — which matters, because a fee on the receiving end cancels out a cheap transfer.
- Banco de Cabo Verde — the central bank; sets the official rate but does not serve retail customers
- Caixa Económica de Cabo Verde
- Banco Comercial do Atlântico (BCA)
- Banco Africano de Investimentos (BAI Cabo Verde)
- Banco Interatlântico
Receiving fees and clearing times vary by bank and by account type. Confirm with the recipient's bank before choosing a transfer route.
Common questions
What is the cheapest way to send money to Cape Verde?
It depends on the amount and the destination account, because fixed fees dominate on small transfers and exchange margins dominate on large ones. The reliable method is to compare the amount actually delivered in escudos rather than the advertised fee, which is what the comparison on this page does.
Why do services offer different exchange rates if the escudo is pegged?
The peg fixes the official rate at 1 EUR = 110.265 CVE, but transfer services are not obliged to pass that rate on. The difference between 110.265 and the rate they offer you is their margin. Because the official rate is fixed and published, that margin is unusually easy to measure in this currency.
How long does a transfer to Cape Verde take?
It ranges from minutes for cash pickup and some digital transfers, to one or two business days for bank deposits. Speed and cost are often in tension — the fastest option is rarely the one that delivers the most escudos.
Is it cheaper to send euros or dollars?
Sending euros is generally simpler because the escudo is pegged to the euro, so there is only one conversion. Sending dollars or pounds means converting to euros first and then to escudos, and each step is an opportunity for a margin to be applied.
Source: Banco de Cabo Verde