Send Money from Australia to China

Measured on the full cost — the transfer fee plus the exchange-rate margin — Remitly is cheapest on this corridor at A$1,000, across the 3 providers we hold checked figures for. The cheapest provider also changes with the amount you send, so compare the final sum that arrives in Chinese yuans rather than the headline fee.

At A$1,000, Remitly is the cheapest of the 3 providers priced at that amount on this corridor: about A$10.19 all in, or 1.02% of the amount sent. Wise is next at about A$13.10. That is the fee plus the exchange-rate margin that applied to a transfer of that size — priced at A$1,000 specifically, not worked out from a measurement taken at some other amount. It covers a bank transfer; cash pickup and mobile wallet payouts are priced separately. The margins were measured by Wise's comparison service rather than published by the providers themselves, and other providers here may be cheaper and are not priced this way.

Yes. Up to A$250, Western Union costs least on this corridor; from A$500 upwards, Remitly does. The change happens somewhere between those two amounts — they are the amounts actually priced, so naming a precise crossing point would be a guess dressed as a figure. This happens because a transfer costs a flat fee plus a percentage of the amount, and those two scale in opposite directions: on a small transfer the fee dominates, on a large one the exchange-rate margin does. It is why a comparison taken at a single amount can point you at the wrong provider for yours.

Most transfers on this corridor arrive within one to three business days. Paying by debit card is generally faster than a bank transfer, and transfers initiated outside banking hours may not begin processing until the next working day.

Across the providers we compare, the available payout methods are Alipay, WeChat Pay, UnionPay, cash pickup and bank deposit. The most widely used options in China are bank deposit and Alipay. China applies annual foreign-exchange limits per recipient, so large or frequent transfers may need extra documentation. Not every provider supports every method, so check the table above before you commit.

No. Western Union offer cash pickup in China, so your recipient can collect the funds with valid photo ID and the transfer reference number. That said, bank deposit and Alipay generally cost less than cash collection.

Providers rarely give you the mid-market rate — the reference rate you see on Google or Reuters. Instead they add a margin, typically between 0.4% and 4%, and keep the difference. That margin is often larger than the visible transfer fee, which is why a "no fee" service can still be more expensive overall. For AUD to CNY, compare the quoted rate against the mid-market rate to see the real spread you are paying.

Yes, provided you use a licensed provider. Every service listed on this page is regulated in Australia under AUSTRAC, which requires safeguarding of customer funds and identity verification. Send only to people you know personally, keep your transfer reference private, and be sceptical of anyone pressuring you to send money urgently to someone you have not met.

Yes. Each provider sets its own transfer limits, which vary by how much identity verification you have completed and how you pay. Larger transfers may require additional documentation such as proof of source of funds. China also applies an annual foreign-exchange conversion limit per individual, which can restrict repeated large transfers to the same recipient. For transfers above roughly A$10,000, a specialist foreign-exchange broker will often beat an app on rate.

Alipay and WeChat Pay are how money is spent in China, and three of the four services here reach them — Remitly and Western Union directly, Wise with a condition. Wise states that an Alipay or Weixin recipient may first need to link a bank card to the wallet, and that it prompts them to do so. That is a step to settle with your recipient before you send, not after. Western Union's timing on this corridor is unusual and worth reading: a first bank transfer to a given account can take up to five days, while later transfers to that same account arrive within minutes. The first transfer is the slow one, so judge the service on the second. Western Union caps online transfers at 7,000 AUD. That is the lowest published ceiling of the services here and will matter for tuition or property payments. No Wise fee figures are published on this page. The provider's page did not state the send amount its table referred to. Its card pricing on this corridor also looked irregular at that unstated amount, which is a further reason to take the cost from a live quote rather than from any table.