11/08/2026
A question that arrives in our inbox regularly, in different wordings: "How do I figure out what I actually pay for my account, when the tariff says one thing and reality adds up to more?"
There is a method that takes half an hour once a year. Take statements for the past three months and mark every charge paid to the provider: the monthly fee, transfer fees, withdrawals, conversions.
Conversions carry one nuance, which is usually the reason the total never matches the tariff. The currency exchange fee often sits inside the rate rather than on a separate line. To see it, compare the rate of your operation with the mid-market rate on the same date. The difference is the real price of the exchange. On occasional small amounts it goes unnoticed; on regular payments it compounds over a year into a meaningful figure.
Multiply the three-month total by four, and that is your honest annual cost, ready to be compared with alternatives.
We deliberately named no typical figures here, because the spread between providers is huge and any number would mislead. But if you calculate your own annual cost, share the order of magnitude in the comments. It will be interesting to see how different the experience across our followers turns out to be.
