Compare CurrencyFair vs Wise. Both international money transfer companies offer the basic transfer service to individuals and businesses. Compare both by the features they offer, exchange rates and fees.
CurrencyFair
Overall score:
67
67
Wise
Overall score:
75
75
Personal Features
Business Benefits
Fees & Exchange Rates
Ease of Use
Support & Countries
Trust & Transparency
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38
CurrencyFair for individual customers offers a range of services beyond just international money transfer. CurrencyFair adds to their service offering for individuals on a regular basis. Currently they offer only online international money transfer features.
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Wise provides a simple easy to use international money transfer service with digital wallet capabilities. Their digital wallet, or Borderless account also gives the individual local banking details in 6+ currencies including, EUR, SGD, NZD, USD, GBP and AUD. Their Wise Borderless debit card backs on to their Borderless digital wallet allowing you to spend directly out of your multi-currency account balances.
Wise has a higher rating and offers more services to the Individual than CurrencyFair. For the global traveller, the Borderless account with its travel debit card and unique banking details in multiple currencies can be of great benefit. While CurrencyFair does allow customers to hold currencies in multiple currencies, it does not have the additional features as the Wise Borderless account.
CurrencyFair does, however, offer automated regular money transfers which can be of benefit to some customers such as expat retirees or expats paying mortgages from abroad.
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Along with features for personal accounts, Currencyfair offers business customer benefits although there are gaps to their offering. iCompareFX keeps in close contact with CurrencyFair management and Currencyfair’s scoring will be adjusted as new benefits are released.
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In addition to the services Wise offers the individual, there are some features only available for a business. Unfortunately, as Wise is online only, a business customer does not have support with currency fluctuations and trends. Wise does however offer easy to use transactional foreign currency receipts and payments.
Scheduled transfers is a recently added feature. This can reduce admin for those standard monthly, weekly payments to suppliers and staff. A sufficient balance in the Business Borderless account is required. Wise will remind the account owner to make sure there is sufficient funds in the multi-current account. What is not supported is standing orders from a business bank account through Wise. This may mean that businesses need to alter their business structure to ensure continuous sufficent Borderless account funding.
Wise wins this category with its business service offers. The Borderless account can be very useful for foreign customer payment receipts. The Wise business debit card backs on to the Borderless account allowing you to pay for foreign services easily.
CurrencyFair offers something similar with its feature to hold multiple currencies, unfortunately the payees must remember to use your CurrencyFair account number as the bank transfer reference otherwise the funds may be lost until tracked down by the CurrencyFair support team.
A win for CurrencyFair is that businesses can access business account managers if their account is large enough.
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Exchange rate margin fee - Between 0.25% and 0.45% on top of the real exchange rate.
Transfer fee - Transferring out of CurrencyFair can cost €3 (currency equivalent).
International intermediary bank fees - Some currencies supported by CurrencyFair have the receiving account (the one you send your payment to), not in the home country of the currency. E.g. ZAR is located in London. This means that transferring ZAR to USD through CurrencyFair can attract an additional charge for the banks to send ZAR internationally. This can be up to US$20 currency equivalent. Currencies without local bank transfer payment support:
AED, CAD, HUF, NZD, USD, ZAR
Express deposit fee - In some countries, if you choose an express deposit or payment to CurrencyFair, it can be with an additional fee.
CurrencyFair free transfer offers - Yes! There are CurrencyFair coupons with up to 10 transfer fees free.
No. CurrencyFair exchange rate margin fees are non-negotiable with larger transfer sums.
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Wise offers the real time exchange rate at the time of your transfer. Therefore fees are visible in addition to the transfer amount. The fee structure is complex as it differs depending on the currencies you are sending from and to. Fees also apply to the type of Borderless account transaction. Fees can also apply on the use of the Wise Borderless debit card. Fees are briefly summarised below. Read the detailed TransferWise review for more details on Wise fees.
| Wise Service | Wise fee |
| Simple International Money Transfer | 0.4% - 2% Varies on currency and payment type |
| Adding to Wise Borderless account | 0.4% - 0.5% |
| Converting between Borderless account | 0.3% - 0.6% |
| Sending money out of Borderless account | Less than 0.1% in most cases |
| Borderless Account Debit Card | No fee for card issuance Fee free cash withdrawal limit of US$250, 2% thereafter Zero cost on spend from existing currency balance, 0.24 - 3.69% fee if there is no existing balance |
Wise can be marginally cheaper than CurrencyFair. need to pay additional intermediary banking fees. However, a twist. If you choose to send money faster through Wise using local country transfer solutions or credit / debit cards, CurrencyFair does come out cheaper for some currencies.
Unfortunately CurrencyFair has a number of supported currencies that are not located within the local country. This means that customers sending (or receiving) from some countries can incur more fees for the payee. This has resulted in Wise winning the Fees and Exchange Rates score to win the category.
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83
CurrencyFair’s focus on customer service and user experience is of very high standards. Customer onboarding and service process management are clearly well thought out and wrapped in great design.
Account registration - Fast and easy to follow wizard.
ID verification - ID checks can be completed within 24 hours. Sometimes instantaneously with some countries. Proof of ID can be uploaded directly within the CurrencyFair app. Use your phone to take photos of ID and upload with ease.
Transfer speed - 1 - 2 business days upon receipt of payment.
Payment options - There are local bank transfer, local country payment solutions (e.g. BPay), debit card and express deposits available in some countries.
CurrencyFair mobile app - A very well designed Android and Apple mobile app. Very easy to use. New features are added regularly.
Minimum transfer amount - €8 equivalent.
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83
The Wise app design and user experience of their technology is great with simple, intuitive processes.
Registration - Fast and easy account creation
ID verification - Instant in some countries
Transfer speed - It can be instantaneous in some countries. Fast payments to Wise comes at an additional cost.
Minimum transfer amount - $1
Mobile app - Simple and easy to use. Probably the best designed app of the international money transfer companies.
Payment options - Wise has the broadest range of payment options. Local bank transfer, debit / credit card and country specific solutions such as POLi.
Both CurrencyFair and Wise have well designed customer onboarding and great user experience. Both can offer instant transfers for some currencies. Both score well for customer ease of use of their international money transfer services.
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Supported destination currencies - 21 currencies. AED, AUD, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, ILS, INR, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, SEK, SGD, THB, USD, ZAR.
International presence - CurrencyFair local offices can be found in Ireland, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
Customer support - CurrencyFair’s customer support is very good. Local offices in Ireland and Australia provide 24/5 support.
Foreign language support - CurrencyFair’s website is available in English, French and German.
USA support - No support for US residents.
Local settlement accounts - Not all currencies support local bank transfer payments to CurrencyFair. This can mean higher fees by intermediary banks. (Read more in the CurrencyFair fees section).
CurrencyFair payment bank accounts - These have changed with some frequency. This can cause customer confusion and time while funds are paid to the wrong banks.
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Wise’s supported countries vary with different services having different supported customer countries and destination countries. These are detailed in the TransferWise Countries and Currencies article and is summarized below.
Send from - 23 countries plus the Europe SEPA countries
Send to - Over 60 currencies
Borderless account and debit card - Over 6 countries can sign up to their Borderless services.
Wise is the clear winner for supported countries. Offering many more customer registration countries support and destination countries. CurrencyFair is growing their list of supported countries every year. iCompareFX will adjust the scoring as this happens. A special note on CurrencyFair’s customer service has been tested and found to be outstanding.
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Regulated by - CurrencyFair is regulated by ASIC Australia and the Central Bank of Ireland.
TrustPilot - A rating of Excellent by TrustPilot. CurrencyFair monitors TrustPilot for negative reviews. They respond publicly and work diligently to correct legitimate customer complaints.
iCompareFX visitors - Customers referred by iCompareFX make thousands of transactions with CurrencyFair yearly.
CurrencyFair has low and very competitive exchange rate margin fees. There is no need to not be completely transparent. iCompareFX believes that showing the real time exchange rate and the margin fee clearly within their money transfer wizard would result in a more positive customer experience.
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Wise is fully regulated by the FCA and their customer funds are segregated from their business banking activities.
Wise is rated on TrustPilot as Excellent. Unfortunately there have been some poor reviews on TrustPilot indicating sudden account closures with funds being returned with no explanation.
Wise continues to raise capital through private funding. This could be a concern for the future when the shareholders are looking for aggressive growth and / or a return on their investment.
CurrencyFair has scored better in this category. Unfortunately, Wise’s customer reviews are increasingly showing the customers are complaining about sudden account closures. This may be due to the “Know Your Customer” (KYC) compliance check being conducted after customer registration. CurrencyFair conducts upon account activation.
Both CurrencyFair and Wise are majority backed by Private Equity. This could be a future concern should shareholders back out or insist on return on investment.
WinnerWise has won overall versus CurrencyFair. While both technology platforms offer great customer experience, Wise currently offers more services to both individuals and businesses. Wise also supports more countries currently than Wise. Unfortunately, however, neither company offers fees negotiation for larger money transfers which is disappointing.
