Sending money to an American bank account: how to make sure it arrives

The first time you send money from Europe to an American account, you quickly notice that the familiar SEPA transfer stops here. Instead of an IBAN there is a routing number and an account number, and instead of a single euro payments area there is America's own payment system. Here you will find the details your bank needs, where money gets lost in the conversion and what a US check is still good for.

1Why the SEPA transfer stops at the coast

Within Europe, a bank transfer has become almost invisible. You enter an IBAN and the money is there soon after, whether it is going from Oslo to Copenhagen or from Dublin to Amsterdam. That is thanks to SEPA, the Single Euro Payments Area. It covers 41 countries and territories: the 27 EU member states, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, plus eleven more countries, including Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The USA is not one of them.

For your money, this means: as soon as the destination is an American account, your SEPA transfer becomes an international transfer. Your bank in Europe sends the order through the banks' international messaging network, SWIFT, to the receiving bank in the USA, often via one or more correspondent banks. In the USA, the payment then continues through the American system. There is nothing exotic about it; banks handle this every day. But it has its own fields, its own costs and its own timing, and at each of these points something can go wrong if you don't know what belongs there.

The same applies in reverse. When you bring money home from your US account, you leave the American system and need the details of your European account. We explain that return route in detail in our article Transferring money from the USA to Europe. This page is about the direction to America.

2The account details your bank in Europe needs

An American account has no IBAN. It is identified by two numbers. The routing number, officially the routing transit number or ABA number, identifies the bank. It has nine digits; on a US check it is printed in magnetic ink as the first string of numbers along the bottom edge, and the first two digits show the Federal Reserve district where the bank is located. It is assigned by a registrar acting on behalf of the American Bankers Association. After it comes the account number, whose length varies from bank to bank.

For a payment from Europe, that is not quite enough. For the SWIFT message, your bank also needs the US bank's SWIFT code, also called the BIC. Your US bank will give you its instructions for incoming international wires, sometimes including an intermediary bank whose details also belong in the order. You will usually find them in online banking under something like "International Wire Instructions". Use them exactly as they appear there.

So your transfer order should include:

• the account holder's name, exactly as the US bank has it on file, and their address,
• the account number,
• the routing number, if the bank requires it for incoming international payments,
• the receiving bank's SWIFT code, name and address,
• intermediary bank details, if provided,
• a short, factual payment reference.

A word on the routing number: if your bank lists different numbers for ACH payments and wire transfers, money from abroad needs the wire number. Pick the wrong one and, at best, you get the money back late and minus fees.

For the documents you need to open such an account in the first place, see Opening a US bank account: the documents.

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3How the money arrives in America

On the US side, an international transfer in dollars almost always lands in the Fedwire Funds Service, the Federal Reserve's large-value payment system. Fedwire is a real-time gross settlement system: every payment is settled individually and is final and irrevocable the moment it is processed. The Fedwire business day starts at 21:00 Eastern Time the evening before and ends at 19:00, Monday to Friday, excluding holidays. Friday evening in Europe is still Friday afternoon in New York; anything that arrives on a US holiday waits.

Besides Fedwire, the American system has ACH for batched payments such as salaries, direct debits and recurring bills, the instant payment service FedNow, which has run around the clock since July 20, 2023, and, still, the check. For money from Europe, usually only Fedwire matters; for your everyday life in the USA, all four do.

American law gives you, as the recipient, one guarantee: once the US bank has received an electronic payment with finality and knows which account to credit, it must make the money available no later than the business day after the banking day it was received. That is set out in the Federal Reserve's Regulation CC. The time before that, meaning the route from your bank via SWIFT and any intermediary banks, is the part no rule pins down. It depends on when your bank sends the order, how many banks sit in between and whether there is a holiday at either end. Holidays lengthen the route on both sides; in the USA, Fedwire does not operate on the designated holidays.

4Your currency or dollars: who converts and what it costs

The real cost of an international transfer rarely shows up on the fee schedule. It hides in the exchange rate. Somewhere along the way your euros, kroner or pounds are exchanged into dollars, and whoever does the exchange earns on the gap between their rate and the market rate.

You basically have two options. Either you send your home currency and a bank along the way, or the receiving bank, converts it into dollars. Then you don't know exactly how many dollars will arrive when you send it. Or you have your own bank convert into dollars and send dollars. Then you see the rate up front and can check it. A good benchmark is the European Central Bank's reference rate. It publishes it every working day at around 16:00 Central European Time, expressly for information only and not as a rate you can trade at. The further your bank's rate is from it, the more expensive the transfer, even if the stated fee looks small.

On top of that come three kinds of fees: your bank's fee for the order, the intermediary banks' fees and the receiving bank's fee for the incoming payment. When you make the transfer, you decide who pays what. If you share the costs, the intermediary banks usually deduct their fee from the amount sent, and a little less arrives in the US account than you sent. Mercury describes exactly this on its help pages for payments that go through SWIFT. If you need to hit an exact amount, such as an invoice or a deposit, pay the costs yourself or build in a buffer.

Besides banks, there are payment providers that give you an account with American account details. You pay in euros or your home currency, exchange at their rate and pay onward within the USA. For payments, that can be cheaper. It does not replace an account at an American bank, and because a pure payment account involves no credit that anyone could report to the credit bureaus, it builds no credit history; our article Opening a US bank account as a non-resident without an SSN explains more.

5Large amounts: source of funds, proof and patience

If you are sending a large amount to America to buy a house, start a company or move, expect both banks to ask questions. That is not distrust of you; it is their duty. Banks in Europe and in the USA have to review unusual payments and be able to trace where the money comes from. A US bank must vet its customers under its own risk-based program, and a large incoming payment on a new account can trigger follow-up questions.

In practice, this means: have proof ready that shows where the money comes from, such as the sale contract for a property you sold, a securities account statement or a resolution on a profit distribution. State in the payment reference what it is for, without abbreviations. And don't artificially split large sums into many small transfers to dodge any thresholds. In any compliance program, that stands out far more than a single, well-explained payment.

Also allow time. A first large payment to a new US account can sit for an extra day while the bank asks questions. Wiring the money the day before closing on a house in Texas puts you under needless pressure.

6Reporting and cash: what you need to tell whom

The rules for cash are stricter. If you leave the EU carrying 10,000 euros or more in cash, you must declare it in writing to customs. In Switzerland you do not have to declare cash, but from 10,000 francs you must provide information if customs asks. When you enter the USA, you declare cash and equivalent monetary instruments over $10,000 to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on FinCEN Form 105, combined for families and groups. And if you deposit more than $10,000 in cash at a US bank, the bank files a Currency Transaction Report. The table sums up the thresholds.

7Dollar checks: what a US check is still good for

In Europe the check has all but vanished. In the USA it hasn't. Landlords, government agencies, insurers and employers still pay by check, and many readers get one in the mail sooner or later. The Federal Reserve's Regulation CC sets how fast a US bank must make funds from a deposited check available. Available on the next business day are, for example, US Treasury checks deposited to the payee's account, certain state and local government checks, cashier's checks deposited in person, plus the first $275 of other checks in each deposit.

These rules apply to checks drawn on a US bank and deposited at a US bank. With your own US account, a check is no problem: you deposit it at the counter, at an ATM or, if your bank offers it, by photo in the app. Without a US account it gets awkward. Whether and how your bank in Europe accepts a US check is up to the bank, so ask about timing and cost first.

One case affects many readers directly: IRS tax refunds. The IRS pays refunds by direct deposit only into accounts at US banks or at banks affiliated with a US bank. Since September 30, 2025, the US Treasury has been phasing out paper checks under Executive Order 14247, with limited exceptions. For taxpayers abroad without a US account, the IRS said in its January 2026 Q&A that they should keep using the existing methods while secure alternatives for refunds abroad are being developed. If you owe US taxes, your own US account keeps you on the safe side. More on filing your own return is on our US tax return page.

8The way back: from your US account to Europe

With a US account, it works the other way round too: your US bank sends the international transfer, and you need the IBAN and BIC of your European account. US consumers get their own protections for this under Regulation E. A provider that regularly handles international transfers for consumers must disclose the rate and fees up front. You can cancel such a transfer within 30 minutes of paying, as long as the money hasn't reached the recipient, and you get the full amount including fees back within three business days. You have 180 days after the disclosed availability date to report errors.

Since January 1, 2026, the USA has also charged a 1 percent tax on certain remittances abroad. It only hits transfers the sender pays for in cash, by money order, cashier's check or a similar instrument. Transfers from an account at a US bank and payments by debit or credit card are exempt. So if you send money home from your own US account, you don't pay it. Our article One percent, every time explains the details.

For business owners, there's a bigger question than the transfer itself: in what form money gets from your US company to you. Salary, distribution or draw: that choice decides your tax, not your bank fee. That's the subject of Taking money out of your US company tax-efficiently.

9Your own account as the destination

Every transfer to America is easiest when the account at the other end is in your own name. Then you're sending money from you to you, you have checks and refunds under control, and along the way you build a relationship with a US bank that a credit card and credit history can later build on. How accounts and creditworthiness connect in the USA is covered in our overview US bank account and US credit.

For you personally, there's US Bank Account Opening: your own account at a major US bank, a US residential address and the ITIN, with a single bank appointment in the USA. For a company, we open the dollar business account at Mercury, no trip needed; how that works and which documents the company needs is explained in Business account for your US LLC. The bank decides on every account opening.

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In short

• You don't reach an American account by SEPA but by international wire: with the recipient's name and address, the account number, the nine-digit routing number and the US bank's SWIFT code.
• In the USA, the payment arrives via Fedwire; once it reaches the receiving bank, the money must be available by the next business day at the latest.
• Most of the money is lost in the currency conversion. Compare the rate you're offered with the ECB reference rate and settle beforehand who pays the fees.
• For IRS refunds and dollar checks, your own US account is the safest route.

How we help you

• US Bank Account OpeningYour own access to the American financial system, even without an SSN.
• Credit BuilderCredit for your company and for you, built step by step.
• ITIN ExpressYour ITIN through our special procedure, no tax return needed.
• ConsultationOne hour with the firm: your case, your questions, a clear answer.