Sending money to Brazil

Money reaches Brazil from abroad in three ways: a SWIFT bank transfer, cash, and exchange through crypto platforms. Each has its own losses, timing and risks. Below are figures from residents' accounts as of the stated dates; banks' rates and rules change, and for larger sums the tax return plays the deciding role (Taxes).

Checked on 8 October 2026. All figures from the posts are as of the post date.

In short

A small SWIFT transfer from a non-Russian bank to Itaú took three days with a fee of about 0.3% (December 2024).
Itaú accepts a large sum but will not exchange it into reais without a Brazilian tax return: the author got about 10% exchanged (March 2025).
Cash dollars at an exchange house lose 6–7% against the market rate (December 2023).
Many people use crypto P2P exchange, but platforms froze funds and blocked buying reais: do not keep everything on one exchange.

SWIFT

A 2024 test. The author sent US$ 1,000 from a bank outside Russia and outside the CIS to his Itaú account on the afternoon of 23 December. In the evening an SMS asked him to confirm receipt in the app, the bank warned that conversion would be at its own rate, and the money appeared in the account on 26 December: R$ 6,149, of which R$ 23.27 was the conversion fee, that is 0.3% (post, 26.12.2024).

A large sum. In March 2025 the same author's large transfer was accepted by the bank, but it would only let him exchange about 10%: the rest stayed in dollars on the account. The branch did not know the procedure and sent him to head office, where after almost two hours on the phone a manager explained that such amounts require a Brazilian tax return; the family did not have one yet because they had only recently received residence. The money was sent back to the foreign account (post, 04.03.2025). Takeaways: before a large transfer, ask the bank what documents are needed, and read about the first tax return.

A transfer from Russia (2023). The author of @svoibrazil, who himself offers exchange services, described SWIFT from Russia as slow and opaque: the Brazilian bank freezes the transfer for about two weeks and asks about the source of funds; losses were estimated at 4% on the Brazilian side and 1–2% in Russia; if in doubt, the bank may send the money back (post, 13.12.2023). This is the estimate of an interested party, not a measurement.

Cash dollars

There are few exchange houses in Brazil: Rio, São Paulo and other big cities have them, mostly in shopping centres, and small towns simply have none. The cash rate includes a tax, so in December 2023 a receipt showed 4.65 per dollar against a market rate of 4.94: a difference of 5.9%, with total losses estimated at 7%. Dollars of the old design (green) are bought for less than those of the new design (blue) (post, 05.12.2023, post, 12.12.2023).

Crypto exchange

In 2022–2024 many people used P2P: buying USDT in one country and selling it for reais with a withdrawal to Pix. It worked, but there were interruptions: in June 2022 buying reais in P2P from a Russian account on Binance stopped being possible (post, 01.06.2022); in July 2024 the @svoibrazil author had all his funds on the Bybit exchange frozen for a day with no explanation (post, 22.07.2024); and in December 2024 he wrote about an article saying the Central Bank might ban P2P operations with stablecoins (post, 06.12.2024). Keeping all your money on one exchange is not advised. Do not send money to strangers: a "good rate" is often a trap.

Sources

Personal experience (channels @russo_no_brasil, @svoibrazil and @brazil_lifehacks, in Russian):