International payments in złoty

I'm from The Netherlands. What is the most cost-effective way to pay a large amount in Polish złoty (PLN)?

Last updated: Dec. 2021.

What is the 'actual' exchange rate?

In the autumn of 2021, I phoned Rabobank to ask them how to pay a large amount in PLN and how this all works. Amongst others, they explained me that there is basically just one exchange rate, and that they use this exchange rate + an offset.

Since then, I came to doubt if it is very practical to look at exchange rates in this way, as I see everywhere different amounts, some wildly different.

Anyhow, this 'basic exchange rate' is what you see e.g., on Google. In december 2021, this is about 4,61. PLN is slowly getting weaker in view of the euro, but not to such a degree that the exchange rate changes from month-to-month at only one or two decimals.

Payment from a Dutch euro account to a Polish złoty account

Information Rabobank

• When I pay in euro, the receiving bank will do the conversion: muntsoortconversie. This will be a SEPA payment. Nevertheless, the Rabobank site seems to suggest that they do the conversion - That doesn't seem to be the case, or maybe the context is different
• There seem to be possibilities to do conversion before payment. For this, I would have to contact the Rabobank. This would make the transfer a wereldbetaling. For these, higher costs are calculated (offset by a better exchange rate, I presume).

Example R. - 2021.12.10

The receiving party send me this - Very helpful!

I payed from my Dutch Rabobank account to a Polish Alior Bank account:

• The receiving bank determins the exchange rate (you can't actually see that here, but trust me)
• Alior exchange rate: 4,402800. This is 4,56% worse than the official exchange rate of 4,61. On a transfer amount of € 40,000, this is a difference of € 1,800
• No offset (or fixed cost) seemed to have been applied. Maybe such a cost would show up in the monthly costs of the bank, but I have the impression that it doesn't play much of a role
• You can check that there is no additional costs here: € 87,18*4,4028 = 383,84 zł.

Example E. - 2021.12.10

• I payed € 3,778 from my Rabobank account
• E. received 16,690.45 zł
• I don't know what bank the receiving party uses. The mutation in my banking app didn't contain any usefull additional information.
• Appearantly, the exchange rate was 4,4178. That's 3% better than at the previous transaction and 4,2% worse than the official exchange rate

Receiving payments in złoty

When I contacting the Rababank about this, it turned out they mostly informed me about the opposite transaction: When someone in Poland pays me in złoty to my Dutch euro account.