Send money to Portugal from Ireland
Ireland and Portugal both use the euro, so a transfer between them changes hands without changing currency. Grey sends euro from your balance into a Portuguese IBAN through SEPA. Caixa Geral de Depositos, Millennium BCP and Novo Banco all receive it, and the fee is on screen before you confirm.
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Euro to euro, with nothing to convert
This is one of the simplest corridors Grey runs from Ireland. Both countries are in the eurozone, so the euro that leaves your balance in Dublin is the euro that lands in a Portuguese account. No conversion happens on the way out, none happens on arrival, and there is no exchange rate quietly setting the value of the transfer. You are paying a fee to move money, and that is all.
Two quite different senders end up on this page. The first owns property in the Algarve. Irish buyers have been in Faro, Albufeira, Lagos and Vilamoura for decades, and the bills that come with a house you are not living in do not stop: annual condominium charges, the municipal property tax, a caretaker, a pool, a plumber who has been sent round by a neighbour.
The second is Portuguese, or Brazilian and Portuguese speaking, and living in Dublin. Hospitality and technology have both drawn heavily on that community, and the money goes back to a parent in Porto, a flat in Lisbon, or family who have themselves settled in Portugal. Irish people who retired to the Algarve and keep a bank account at home sit somewhere between the two.
What all of them get is the same thing. Enter the IBAN beginning PT, confirm the fee, send. Your recipient needs no Grey account, no app, and no visit to a branch, and the credit appears the way any domestic Portuguese transfer would.
Sending to Portugal in three steps
Sign up
Signing up costs nothing and takes about five minutes on your phone, with one valid identity document checked once, ahead of the first payment to a PT IBAN.
Fund
Move euro onto your balance by SEPA transfer from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, An Post Money or a credit union. The amount sits in euro, unchanged.
Send
Enter the Portuguese IBAN, the one beginning PT, check the fee, and confirm. The euro goes out through SEPA to the Portuguese bank.
What it costs to send euro to Portugal
Where cost does creep in on an Ireland to Portugal payment is at the receiving end, and it is usually a question of how the payment is made rather than how much is sent. A card payment to a Portuguese builder or an agency carries whatever that card charges. A cash withdrawal on holiday carries its own costs. A bank credit into the IBAN carries neither.
The other lever is frequency. Property costs in Portugal tend to arrive as a handful of predictable bills rather than a monthly stream, so it is worth knowing which ones you can group. Paying a condominium charge and a tradesman in one transfer rather than two is a fee saved for no effort at all.
Why there is no exchange rate on this page
Ireland is in the eurozone. Portugal is in the eurozone. A euro balance in Dublin sent to a Portuguese IBAN does not pass through a currency conversion, so there is no rate to fix and no margin to look for. The amount you enter is the amount credited, less the fee shown to you first. Saying it any other way would be inventing a step that does not exist.
A rate appears only if you are funding from something other than euro. Grey holds USD, provided by Lead Bank, and GBP alongside your euro balance. If you convert either of those to euro before sending to Portugal, that single conversion happens inside Grey, with the rate and the fee shown before you confirm, and the rate fixed at the moment you do.
Grey against a SEPA transfer from your Irish bank
AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB all send euro to Portugal through SEPA, so on this corridor the comparison is narrow and honest: it is about what the transfer costs, whether you see that cost before you commit, and whether you can follow the payment afterwards. Grey puts the fee on the confirmation screen, saves the IBAN for next time, and tracks the transfer from confirmation to settlement. A good number of people in Ireland already have Revolut for exactly this kind of payment, and this is not an argument about which app you keep. What Grey adds alongside the transfer is a euro balance you can hold, a virtual Mastercard for online payments, and GreyTag for free instant sends between Grey users.
What your recipient sees in Portugal
A euro credit lands in the Portuguese bank account through SEPA, identical to a payment sent from down the road in Lisbon. No Grey account, no app, nothing to collect.
Payout to the Portuguese IBAN
Caixa Geral de Depositos, Millennium BCP and Novo Banco all receive it. You enter the IBAN beginning PT in the Grey app and nothing else is needed at their end.
SEPA and SEPA Instant
SEPA Instant settles in under ten seconds where it is available, around the clock. Grey sends eligible transfers by that route, and ordinary SEPA credits typically arrive within minutes.
GreyTag between Grey users
If the person in Portugal also uses Grey, send to their tag instead of the IBAN. Nothing is charged for it and it settles in seconds.
Ways to put money into your Grey account
Payments to Portugal tend to be either seasonal or monthly, and the funding routine follows whichever one you are.
A monthly euro transfer
For anyone supporting family in Porto or Lisbon, a standing transfer from your Irish current account timed to payday keeps the balance ready.
A seasonal top up
Property owners fund once or twice a year, around the bills the house generates, and send from the balance as each invoice appears.
Euro already on the balance
Anything left over from a previous top up sends immediately, with nothing to clear first and no conversion to wait for.
Save the Portuguese IBAN the first time you use it. Condominium accounts and management companies change rarely, so the details you enter once tend to serve for years.
What people send from Ireland to Portugal for
Running a property in the Algarve
Condominium charges, the annual municipal property tax, insurance, a caretaker and the repairs that get reported by phone in February and paid for by IBAN in March.
Family in Portugal
A monthly amount to a parent in Porto or Braga, sent by someone working in Dublin hospitality or technology, into an ordinary Portuguese current account.
Builders, agents and legal fees
Staged payments to a contractor, a letting agent taking a management fee, or a solicitor handling a sale. Invoiced in euro and settled in euro without a conversion.
Rent and living costs
A deposit and monthly rent for a child studying or working in Lisbon, or for an Irish retiree splitting the year between the two countries.
The list is unusually concrete on this corridor, because most of it attaches to a specific building or a specific household.
Why send to Portugal with Grey
There is no clever mechanism on this page and there does not need to be. Two eurozone countries, one SEPA network, a credit that arrives in a Portuguese account looking exactly like any other credit in that account.
What Grey contributes is the part around the transfer: a euro balance you top up when it suits you, a fee you see before you commit, saved recipients so a repeated bill takes seconds, and a transfer you can follow until it settles.
FAQs
Is there an exchange rate on an Ireland to Portugal transfer?
No. Both countries use the euro, so nothing converts. The fee shown before you confirm is the only cost on Grey's side.
Which Portuguese banks can Grey pay into?
Caixa Geral de Depositos, Millennium BCP and Novo Banco all receive euro through SEPA. You enter the IBAN beginning PT in the app.
Can I pay a condominium charge on an Algarve property from Ireland?
Yes. Enter the management company's Portuguese IBAN and send the euro. The credit lands as an ordinary domestic payment would.
Does the person receiving euro in Portugal need a Grey account?
No. The euro arrives in their existing Portuguese bank account through SEPA. They install nothing and collect nothing.
How quickly does euro reach a Portuguese account?
SEPA Instant settles in seconds where it is available, and a standard SEPA credit from a funded balance typically arrives within minutes.
Can I pay a Portuguese builder or letting agent this way?
Yes. Staged payments and management fees are invoiced in euro and settled in euro, with no conversion between Ireland and Portugal.
How do I fund my euro balance before paying a Portuguese bill?
Send euro by SEPA from AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB, An Post Money or a credit union into your Grey details.
What if I hold dollars or sterling rather than euro?
Change them into euro inside Grey first. The USD balance comes from Lead Bank, and the rate holds from confirmation.
Can I send to family in Porto as easily as to the Algarve?
Yes. Any Portuguese IBAN works the same way, whether it belongs to a household in Porto or a management company in Faro.
What if my relative in Lisbon also uses Grey?
Use their GreyTag instead of the IBAN. Transfers between Grey accounts are free, arrive in seconds and work in any supported currency.
Can I prove a payment to Portugal actually arrived?
Yes. Transfers are encrypted and trackable from the moment you confirm until they settle in the Portuguese account.
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