Why is your rate different from Google's mid-market rate?
The rate you see when you Google "AUD to IDR" (or any other pair) is the mid-market rate — the wholesale rate that banks and large institutions trade at when they exchange currency directly with each other.
Mid-market is a reference rate. It isn't a rate you can actually transact at as a retail customer, because nobody — not us, not your bank, not Wise, not any high-street money changer — operates without some cost to recover.
Our rate is built from that same mid-market rate, plus a small margin that covers our costs of running the service. See How is the exchange rate calculated? for the breakdown and How does Kangaroo Service make money? for the full revenue picture.
Why we publish the comparison anyway
Because the gap between mid-market and the rate you actually get is the real cost of an international transfer, and most providers don't show it clearly. Our rate calculator is on every page, the rate is locked at quote, and you can compare it side-by-side with Google's mid-market rate before you sign up. If our gap is smaller than the alternative, you've found a good deal — and if it isn't, you'll see that too.
A quick comparison checklist
When you're comparing us against another provider, check all three of these:
- The exchange rate they're offering, not just the headline "no fees" claim — a generous-looking $0 fee can hide a wider FX margin.
- Any "service" or "processing" charge added after the quote.
- The destination amount — what the recipient actually receives in their local currency. That's the only number that matters once everything else is netted out.