Pakistan is one of the biggest transfer destinations from Saudi Arabia, with millions of workers sending part of their income home each month. There are many ways to do it — from a wallet on your phone to an exchange-house counter — and what decides how much actually arrives is picking a provider whose rate isn't quietly worse than it looks. Here are the ways to send money from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, how it's delivered, and how to choose the cheapest each time.
Ways to send from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan
Four main channels, differing in speed, convenience and cost:
- Payment wallets like STC Pay — send from the app straight to a JazzCash or Easypaisa wallet or a bank account, often within minutes. Easiest for instant delivery without a branch.
- Tahweel Al Rajhi — Al Rajhi Bank's remittance arm, via branches, ATMs, the urpay app and the bank app.
- Enjaz — Bank Albilad's remittance service, through Enjaz branches, its app and channels, including options like Western Union.
- Saudi banks — an international transfer from your bank's app; convenient if the money's already there, but usually the slowest and most expensive for routine transfers.
How the money arrives in Pakistan
It can land more than one way — pick whatever's easiest for the person collecting:
- A mobile wallet — JazzCash or Easypaisa, from a registered mobile number, usually instant.
- A bank account — over the Raast instant system, or an ordinary bank transfer, using the recipient's account number or IBAN.
- Cash pickup — from partner branches across Pakistan, where offered.
Pakistan's instant rails (Raast and wallet payments) run around the clock, so a weekend doesn't hold them up.
Fees, rate and timing
Every provider has its own transfer fee, which can be low or zero on big corridors like Pakistan. But the fee isn't the whole cost — the exchange-rate margin is usually the bigger difference between one provider and another:
Timing depends on the method: wallets and Raast are often within minutes; a traditional bank wire is slower. And remember Saudi Arabia's weekend is Friday–Saturday, so a bank transfer sent Thursday evening may wait until Sunday — while wallet transfers go through instantly any time.
Which is cheapest?
There's no permanent winner. Wallets like STC Pay are often cheapest and fastest to JazzCash and Easypaisa, but Tahweel Al Rajhi, Enjaz or a bank can beat them on the rate at other times, or when you're sending more than a wallet's limit.
The honest rule: before each transfer, compare the fee and the exchange rate together inside each app or provider, and judge the rupees that actually arrive rather than the headline fee. Our indicative Saudi comparison gives a quick ranking on the live mid-market rate. For more on the STC Pay wallet, see our STC Pay international transfer guide.