Before making a financial transaction, you should make sure of two things: reading the terms of use and taking advantage of the best possible payment system. The first is easy to do because every operator that offers an online service clearly states its terms of use. For example, by reading Vegas kazino bonus terms, you can easily learn everything you need to know about the promotion you will use. For the latter, you may need some help, as the payment systems are so numerous, and learning the differences between them may not be easy. To make this job easier, we are listing the best international payment systems below and talking about their main features.

SWIFT

Swift is the name of an organization founded in Belgium in 1973: Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. Contrary to popular belief, it is not controlled by the United States and is not owned by any bank. SWIFT describes itself as “a cooperative society established to facilitate financial transfers between banks around the world”. What this organization does is ensure that money sent from one country to another reaches the correct address. To do this, it uses a system called "Business Identifier Codes", most of us know this as "SWIFT codes".

More than 11,000 financial institutions use SWIFT in 200 countries. An average of 32 million messages are transferred every day in the system, and the majority of international payments are completed in less than 30 minutes. As an end user, it is not possible to create a SWIFT account, but you can be sure that your bank is a member of this system. If the bank to which you will send the money is also a member of SWIFT, you can transfer money to almost any country in a very short time. You pay the fee required for this transaction to your bank, and your bank also makes a payment to SWIFT. This is a money transfer system established for banks, not end users, but is used by millions of people every day.

SEPA

SEPA is the abbreviation of “Single Euro Payments Area” and is used for international money transfers made in Euro. It is not as common as SWIFT because it is a system developed for European Union countries: it is currently supported by 36 countries, 27 of which are EU members. The rest are made up of EFTA member countries and the United Kingdom.

Another difference with SWIFT is that it is not possible to deduct the transaction cost from the transferred amount. In SWIFT transfers, if you want to send 100 USD, for example, if you do not pay additional fees, only 90 USD can reach the recipient: the difference is deducted as transaction costs. In SEPA transfers, such a thing is not possible, but each bank may charge a different transaction fee separately.

Just like SWIFT, SEPA is a system developed for banks, so you cannot open a SEPA account as an end user. The very limited use of this system outside the European Union prevents it from becoming more widespread, but it is possible to say that it is more user-friendly compared to SWIFT.

Fin.do

While SWIFT is the standard for international money transfers, it's not the only option. As the FinTech industry evolves, global money transfers are getting easier, faster and cheaper. More importantly, they are starting to be available directly to end users: now, you can bypass banks. Thanks to FinTech applications with advanced features, it is possible to transfer money between countries without even needing a bank account.
One of the best examples of this is the Fin.do app. This application allows you to transfer money between VISA and MasterCards. It has a very simple working principle: you add your card information to the application, and you can transfer money in a few seconds as long as the recipient also has a VISA/MasterCard. To give an example:

• Open the app and add your card details.
• Enter recipient information: you can choose a name from your contacts list or enter the recipient card information.
• Choose the amount you want to send.
• Confirm payment.

The receiver will get the money in a few minutes. Payments are protected by 3D secure and according to PCI-DSS standards. Fin.do supports over 50 countries and more than 160 currencies. You can foresee what the transfer fee will be, and with this system, it is possible to send money up to $50,000 per month.

With the FinTech industry, the number of options open to end users is increasing: search the App Store or Play Store, and you'll find hundreds of other apps that allow users to send money directly to each other. This means that you can transfer money without the need for a bank and do it much faster & cheaper compared to the traditional banking system.