The fee they show you isn't the fee you're actually paying.

We've been talking to a bunch of founders paying international contractors/suppliers and almost none of them knew this going in: the "transfer fee" your bank or payment provider shows you is usually the smallest part of what you're actually losing.

The real cost is baked into the exchange rate itself. You get quoted a rate, it looks reasonable, but it's already marked up from the actual mid-market rate, sometimes by 1-3%. On a $10k payment that's $100-300 just gone, and it never shows up as a line item anywhere.

We built worldesk.ai because we kept hearing the same thing from founders: "i have no idea if the rate i got was fair." so now we verify the rate you're quoted against the real mid-market rate before you send, so you can actually see the gap instead of guessing.

Curious how many people here have actually checked this on their last international payment, most people never do because there's nothing prompting them to.

If you're paying overseas contractors, vendors, or suppliers regularly, it's worth a 2 minute check. Happy to share how we look at it if anyone wants specifics.