Bre-B and Remitly: How to Send Money to Colombia Instantly

The first time I sent money to Colombia, I treated it like an afterthought. I picked the first app I'd heard of, accepted whatever exchange rate it showed me, and paid a fee that, when I did the math later, worked out to nearly 6% of the transfer. The money took two days to land, my recipient had to go stand in line at a bank to collect it, and I'd quietly lost about $40 on a $700 transfer to fees and a padded exchange rate.

Two things have changed since then. First, I learned that the gap between a good money-transfer service and a bad one is enormous - easily 3-5% of every transfer, which adds up fast if you send money regularly. Second, and more recently, Colombia switched on Bre-B: a national instant-payment system that has quietly made the Colombian side of every transfer faster, cheaper, and far less annoying.

This guide explains what Bre-B is, how its llaves (keys) work, and - the part most articles skip - how it actually connects to international transfers from apps like Remitly. Bre-B by itself can't move money across a border. But paired with the right transfer app, it turns “send money to Colombia” from a two-day, stand-in-line errand into something that lands in minutes and is spendable instantly.

What Bre-B actually is

Bre-B is Colombia's interoperable instant-payment system, built and run by the Banco de la Republica (the central bank). It launched to the public in late 2025 and is the Colombian cousin of Brazil's Pix or India's UPI: a single, shared rail that lets money move between any participating bank, credit union, or digital wallet in seconds, around the clock.

The numbers tell the adoption story. Within its first several months, Bre-B registered more than 100 million payment keys and processed over 500 million transactions - one of the fastest-scaling real-time payment systems Latin America has seen. A typical transfer settles in about six to eight seconds, any time of day, any day of the week.

For anyone living in Colombia, the practical effect is that paying a landlord, splitting a restaurant bill, paying the person who cleans your apartment, or sending your partner grocery money no longer requires cash, matching bank brands, or waiting for a transfer to “process.” If both sides are on the system - and almost everyone now is - it's instant and, for personal transfers, free.

How “llaves” (keys) work

The clever part of Bre-B is that you don't need anyone's account number. Instead, each person registers one or more llaves - keys - that point to their account. A llave can be:

• Your mobile phone number
• Your cedula or cedula de extranjeria (ID number)
• Your email address
• A random alphanumeric code your bank assigns (merchants can also use a merchant code)

To send money, you open your bank or wallet app, type or pick the recipient's llave, enter the amount, and confirm. The system finds the right account behind that key and moves the money in seconds. Each key links to one account at a time, so if you have both a Nequi wallet and a Bancolombia account, you'd register a separate key for each.

Registering a key takes about a minute inside whatever app you already use - Nequi, Daviplata, Bancolombia, Davivienda, Nu, and dozens of others all support it. If you haven't set up a Colombian wallet or bank account yet, that's the prerequisite: see our Nequi & Daviplata guide for the wallet route, or how to open a bank account as a foreigner if you want a full account.

The catch nobody mentions: Bre-B doesn't cross borders

Here's the honest limitation, and it's an important one: Bre-B is a domestic system. It moves Colombian pesos between Colombian accounts. It cannot reach into a US, UK, Canadian, or European bank and pull dollars or euros across the border. There are early experiments - networks like Thunes are building cross-border connections into Bre-B - but as of 2026, you cannot fund a Bre-B transfer directly from a foreign bank account.

So if you're an expat sending money to yourself in Colombia, supporting family here, or paying for something from abroad, Bre-B alone won't do it. You need an international money-transfer service to handle the cross-border leg - the part that converts your dollars to pesos and moves them into the Colombian financial system. That's where Remitly comes in.

How Remitly and Bre-B work together

Think of it as a relay race. Remitly runs the international leg: it takes your dollars (or pounds, euros, and so on), converts them to Colombian pesos at its quoted rate, and delivers them into a Colombian bank account or wallet. Bre-B runs the final domestic leg: once those pesos land, your recipient can move and spend them instantly using their llave - pay rent, split bills, push money to another account - without anything “clearing.”

In practice the two now overlap directly. Remitly lists Bre-B among its Colombia delivery options, alongside Nequi, Bancolombia, Daviplata, Davivienda, BBVA, Banco de Bogota and others. When you send to a recipient whose account or wallet is on the instant-payment system, the Colombian side of the transfer rides the same instant rails - a big reason Remitly can advertise delivery “in minutes” to many Colombian banks and wallets rather than the old two-day norm.

The net result for you: pick a good transfer app for the cross-border part, make sure your recipient has a Bre-B-enabled account or wallet, and the money goes from your phone in Miami (or Madrid, or Toronto) to spendable pesos in Colombia in a single, fast hop.

How to send money to Colombia with Remitly, step by step

1. Download Remitly and create an account - the app or the website. You'll verify your identity once, which is standard for any regulated money transfer.
2. Choose Colombia and enter the amount in your home currency. Remitly shows the exact pesos your recipient will get and the fee before you commit - no surprises.
3. Pick a delivery method - bank deposit, mobile wallet (Nequi, Daviplata), cash pickup, or a Bre-B-enabled account. More on these below.
4. Enter your recipient's details - their account or wallet info, or, where supported, their Bre-B key.
5. Choose your speed - Express (usually arrives in minutes) or Economy (cheaper, lands in a few hours up to a day).
6. Pay and confirm with a debit card, credit card, or bank transfer.
7. Track it in real time in the app. Both you and your recipient can watch it move, and Remitly notifies you when it's delivered.

Delivery methods to Colombia

Remitly's network in Colombia is broad. The main ways to get money to someone:

• Bank deposit - straight into a Colombian account at Bancolombia, Davivienda, BBVA, Banco de Bogota, Colpatria, Nu and others. With Bre-B-enabled banks this is typically the fastest and cleanest.
• Mobile wallet - into a Nequi or Daviplata wallet, which most younger Colombians and many expats already use.
• Cash pickup - your recipient collects pesos in person at a partner location (supermarket chains like Exito, plus bank branches). Useful for recipients without a bank account, though it means a trip and an ID.

Honest take: for an expat funding their own peso life or supporting family, a bank-deposit or wallet delivery into a Bre-B-enabled account is almost always the better choice than cash pickup - it's faster, there's no line, and the money is immediately movable via llave.

Fees, exchange rate, and speed

This is where the money is won or lost. Two things determine your true cost: the fee (a flat charge per transfer) and the exchange-rate markup (the gap between the rate you get and the real mid-market rate). With Remitly:

• Your first transfer is typically free, and with the referral link above you also get $10 off and a special rate on a first transfer of $50 or more.
• After that, fees are modest - often only a few dollars, and sometimes zero depending on amount, destination, and payment method.
• The exchange-rate markup varies with the amount and the speed you choose - larger and slower transfers generally get a better rate.
• Express delivery lands in minutes; Economy is cheaper and lands in a few hours up to a day.

Because rates and fees move, always check the live quote in the app before sending - Remitly shows you the exact pesos delivered and the fee up front, so you can compare. Remitly also backs transfers with a guaranteed on-time delivery promise: if your money doesn't arrive by the stated time, they refund the fee. If you're comparing what you'll actually net once the money is here, our guide to exchanging money in Colombia covers casas de cambio and ATM rates.

Remitly vs Wise: which should you use?

Both are good; they're good at different things. The honest framing:

• Choose Remitly if you're sending money to someone else (family, a partner, a worker), want cash pickup or wallet delivery, value the fastest “in minutes” delivery, or want the referral bonus on your first send. It's built around the classic remittance use case.
• Choose Wise if you're moving larger amounts to yourself, want to hold a USD/EUR/GBP balance, need a virtual receiving account for freelance income, or are optimizing purely for the lowest percentage cost on big transfers.

For the full picture on receiving foreign income in Colombia - including Wise, SWIFT wires, the declaracion de cambio paperwork, and tax considerations - see our companion guide, How to Receive Money in Colombia as an Expat.

FAQ

❓ Is Bre-B free to use?

For person-to-person transfers, yes - sending money between individuals via a llave is free at virtually every Colombian bank and wallet. Some institutions may charge for certain business or high-volume uses, but everyday personal transfers cost nothing.

❓ Can I receive international money directly into my Bre-B key?

Not directly today. Bre-B is a domestic system, so a foreign bank can't push money straight to your llave. You use an international service like Remitly or Wise for the cross-border leg; it delivers pesos into your Colombian account or wallet, and from there your llave works as normal. Cross-border connections to Bre-B are being built, but they're not the everyday path yet.

❓ Do I need a Colombian bank account to receive money?

Not necessarily. You can receive a Remitly transfer into a mobile wallet like Nequi or Daviplata (easy to open as a foreigner) or collect cash in person. A full bank account gives you the most flexibility, and registering a Bre-B key on it makes the money instantly movable - see our bank account and Nequi & Daviplata guides.

❓ How fast does a Remitly transfer to Colombia actually arrive?

With Express delivery to a Bre-B-enabled bank or wallet, often within minutes. Economy delivery is cheaper and typically lands within a few hours up to a day. The app gives you a delivery estimate before you send and tracks it in real time.

❓ Is Remitly safe?

Yes. Remitly is a licensed, regulated money-transfer company that moves billions of dollars a year, with bank-level encryption and a guaranteed on-time delivery promise (they refund the fee if a transfer is late). As with any transfer, double-check your recipient's details before you confirm.

❓ What does the referral link get me?

Signing up through the referral link above gives you $10 off, no fees, and a special exchange rate on your first transfer of $50 or more. Terms apply, and the offer is for new Remitly customers.

❓ How much money do I actually need to live in Colombia?

That's a bigger question - we broke it down into three real monthly budgets in Cost of Living in Colombia for a Single Person.

Sending money across a border used to be one of the more annoying parts of expat life in Colombia. Between Bre-B handling the domestic side instantly and a good transfer app handling the cross-border leg, it's now genuinely fast and cheap - if you set it up right. Get your recipient on a Bre-B-enabled account or wallet, pick a transfer service you trust, and you'll wonder why you ever stood in line at a bank.

Questions about a specific bank, wallet, or transfer situation? Ask in the Colombia Move community - chances are another expat has already solved the exact thing you're dealing with.