For amounts less than R20,000, it’s cost effective to withdraw cash here in Georgia from the ATM and then deposit it at one of the pay machines on the sidewalks. But for larger amounts “wiring” it is cheaper and easier.

Capitec recently introduced cheap international money transfers to their app. The fee is only R175 and the spread is only 0.35% Unfortunately Georgia is not on the list of countries they support.

This spreadsheet shows Standard Bank’s Shyft is probably the next best thing. It also includes a link to the author’s website where he explains why the traditional SA banks are so expensive.

Wiring money from SA costs

One great thing about Shyft is that it doesn’t require a Standard Bank account. Any SA account will do.

But my testing revealed a few things to watch out for:

1. You need an SA phone number
2. It matches your face to the picture taken by Home Affairs (“face scan”), which can cause problems it you haven’t renewed a passport or ID in the last 5 years.
3. It asks for the address of the recipient in Georgia. The info held by Georgian banks are often out of date due to people moving around. An address mismatch could cause delays or rejections.