Bank charges on a small Egyptian order routinely take 30 to 100 US dollars out of a transfer before it reaches the exporter, and on a part-load worth six thousand dollars that is between half a per cent and nearly two per cent of the invoice. The problem is not the amount. The problem is that the exporter reconciles against the invoice, sees a shortfall, and treats the balance as unpaid. Documents then sit while two accounts departments email each other. Getting the charge instruction right at the moment you send the payment removes the whole sequence.
Who takes a cut between your bank and Cairo
A US dollar payment to Egypt normally passes through at least one correspondent bank in the United States before it reaches the Egyptian bank. Each institution in that chain can charge. Your own bank charges a transfer fee, the correspondent charges a handling fee and deducts it from the principal, and the beneficiary bank charges an inward remittance fee. Three touchpoints, three deductions, and only the first appears on your statement.
| Stage | Typical charge | Deducted from |
|---|---|---|
| Your bank, outward transfer | USD 15 to 50 | Your account, visible |
| Correspondent bank, per hop | USD 10 to 30 | The principal, invisible |
| Beneficiary bank, inward | USD 5 to 25 | The principal, invisible |
| Currency conversion spread | 0.5 to 2 per cent | Your account, usually hidden in the rate |
OUR, SHA and BEN: the three-letter code that decides it
Every international transfer carries a charge instruction. SHA, the default at most banks, means you pay your own bank and the beneficiary absorbs everything downstream, which is exactly how a short payment happens. BEN means the beneficiary pays everything including your outward fee. OUR means you pay all charges and the exporter receives the full invoice amount. On produce orders, instruct OUR. Your bank will add a fixed supplement, usually 15 to 30 dollars, and in exchange the exporter reconciles to the invoice on the first attempt and releases documents without a query.
Should you be invoiced in dollars or euros
Egyptian produce is quoted in US dollars as a matter of habit, and dollar invoicing is what most exporters prefer because their own input costs and freight are dollar-denominated. If your revenue is in euros or sterling, a dollar invoice means you carry the currency risk between confirmation and payment. Two workable answers exist: ask for the offer in your own currency and accept a slightly wider price, or buy the dollars at the moment you confirm the order rather than at the moment you pay. Do not leave a four-week gap between agreeing a dollar price and buying the dollars.
Verify the bank details by voice, every time
Payment redirection fraud targets exactly this transaction: a first-time buyer, an emailed invoice, a supplier in another country. If bank details on an invoice differ in any respect from the ones you used last time, or if a message announces that the account has changed, stop and confirm by phone or WhatsApp on a number you already had. No legitimate Egyptian exporter will object to the call. Our note on paying for an Egyptian part-load covers the deposit and balance structure, and landed cost on an Egyptian part-load shows where these charges sit in the per-carton number.
Four lines that prevent a short payment
- Instruct OUR on the transfer, not SHA
- Put the invoice number in the payment reference field, not in a covering email
- Send the SWIFT confirmation as a PDF the same day you release the payment
- Agree in writing who absorbs any deduction that still occurs, before the first order
Peivana is an Egyptian exporter, not a bank or a financial adviser. The figures above are indicative market ranges, and your own bank will quote its own tariff.
Ask for the payment sheet with your first quote
We send bank details, the charge instruction we ask for and the reference format alongside every proforma, so nothing is improvised at payment time. WhatsApp +20 10 9911 1918.