Personal Features

OFX

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OFX offers international money transfer solutions for individuals specialising in international bank transfers.

What OFX offers individuals

  • International money transfers
  • Personal account manager
  • Regular transfers
  • OFX mobile app

What OFX does not offer individuals

  • Digital wallets for individuals
  • FX optimised travel cards
  • Cash pick up or international bill payments

Wise

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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.

What Wise offers individuals

  • International money transfers
  • Borderless multi-currency receiving accounts
  • Borderless Debit Card - FX optimised debit card
  • Android and Apple apps
  • Send money to email address
  • Scheduled and recurring transfers - sufficiently funded Borderless account required for this to work.

What Wise does not offer individuals

  • Personal account management
  • Full support for regular transfers. Currently regular transfers or ‘scheduled transfers’ need to have a Borderless multi-currency account balance. Find out which countries support Wise Borderless account.
  • Cash pick up or international bill payments

OFX wins!

OFX wins compared with Wise for individual service offering. Wise does offer multi-currency receiving accounts and debit cards for the individual. But OFX can offer a more personalized service through their personal account managers. 

Wise would be perfect for sending smaller sums of money often. OFX caters to larger transfers of money by working with individuals needs and timing of transfers.

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Business Benefits

OFX

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Where OFX really shines is their business solutions and partnerships. Global businesses small and large can take advantage of their variety of solutions to work with global customers and suppliers. Most importantly they help manage currency risk. 

What OFX for business offers

  • Risk management
  • Multi-currency accounts
  • Global payment solutions
  • Business specialists
  • Xero accounting integration

What OFX for business doesn’t do

  • Business debit card optimised for FX

Wise

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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.

What Wise offers businesses

  • Batch payments
  • Xero and Quickbook integration
  • FX optimised business debit card
  • Multi-user account access
  • Regular and scheduled transfers

What Wise for business doesn’t offer

  • Business account management
  • Risk management tools

OFX wins!

OFX specializes in providing a comprehensive business partnership. Companies working in a global environment may need advice on managing multi-market currency fluctuations to manage their global cash flow and maximise revenue in their home currency. 

Wise offers the Borderless multi-currency receiving account and business debit card. However, their customers are on their own navigating future currency fluctuations. OFX can help with the currency and leave the business to manage their core competency. 

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Fees & Exchange Rates

OFX

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OFX Fees

Exchange rate margin fee - OFX offered exchange rate includes a fee of 0.5% and 0.7%. This is low and competitive.
 

Are OFX exchange rates negotiable?

By calling an OFX Expert and discussing your money transfer needs, it may be possible to arrange better pricing. In particular for larger sums and large yearly volume trades.
 

Are there additional OFX fees?

Yes. When sending under CA$10,000 or AUD$10,000, there is an additional fee of $15.
 

OFX & iCompareFX offer

OFX offers customers referred by iCompareFX a low exchange rate margin fee of 0.4%. This is an outstanding offer and is sure to lower all your money transfer costs which means more money being transferred.


Wise

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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 Wise review for more details on Wise fees.

Wise ServiceWise fee
Simple International Money Transfer

0.4% - 2% 

Varies on currency and payment type

Adding to Wise Borderless account0.4% - 0.5%
Converting between Borderless account0.3% - 0.6%
Sending money out of Borderless accountLess 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


OFX wins!

It is true that Wise offers transparency on their fees on top of real time exchange rates. It is unfortunately very difficult to estimate fees well in advance of transactions as fees are very different across currencies and the fees can be higher if you choose faster payment methods. 

OFX offers a low 0.4% margin for iCompareFX customers. As companies have access to a business partnership manager, fees can be negotiated for larger volumes of transfers. OFX wins this category due to its stable, negotiable and predictable fee structure. 

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Ease of Use

OFX

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What OFX does well

Sign up process - Fast and intuitive.

ID verification - If requested, ID verification is generally your drivers license ID number and a quick phone call to discuss your money transfer requirements.

Transfer speed - 1 - 2 business days upon payment.

Mobile App - To initiate money transfers. Current and historical exchange rates are also available.

Where OFX could improve

Payment options - There are limited payments available other than local bank transfers.

Minimum transfer amount -  The minimum transfer amount is US$1,000, AU$250, CA$250, £100, €250. 


Wise

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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.


Wise wins!

Now this is where Wise truly shines. Wise definitely wins this category as it would across most of its competitors. At its heart, Wise is Fintech. Emphasis on ‘tech’. Wise onboarding, user experience of their web and mobile apps is outstanding. Attracting a higher cost, global transfers can be instantaneous for some currencies. OFX does well in this category but Wise definitely wins.

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Support & Countries

OFX

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What OFX does well

Supported destination countries - OFX supports over 55 currencies and many more exotic currencies. 

Global presence - OFX has seven global offices in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, United States, Canada and the UK.

Customer support - Customer support is available locally in the global offices, over the phone and via email.
 

Where OFX could improve

Languages - Customer service and their website is in English only.

Customer sign up countries - Currently OFX supports customer registration from USA, Canada, UK, Europe, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.


Wise

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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 Wise 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 wins!

Wise again wins. Wise, compared with OFX, supports more languages and registration countries. This alone may be the main reason why a person would choose TransferWIse over OFX. Simply because OFX does support their country for customer registrations.

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Trust & Transparency

OFX

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What OFX does well

  • OFX is fully regulated in multiple countries UK, Australia, USA and Canada.
  • OFX is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and therefore is regularly audited for the compliance and safety of customer funds.
  • OFX has a Trust Pilot score of Excellent. Customer complaints are dealt with on TrustPilot quickly and directly by their customer service team.
  • iCompareFX customers make thousands of transfers through OFX yearly.

Where OFX could improve

Exchange rate margin fee transparency - OFX’s offered exchange rates include margin fees. While the exchange rate margin fee is low, it would be beneficial for current and future customers to clearly understand the fees. This would improve customer satisfaction of their money transfer service.


Wise

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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.


OFX wins!

iCompareFX has some concerns over the number of private rounds of funding. While profitable, this can put pressure on Wise to growth too quickly. This can be seen with Wise recent Saving Account push in their Borderless account. Wise is not a bank. Shareholders could, in the future, pressure Wise to increase revenue by increasing fees. As fees change regularly, it may not be noticeable at first. 

Moreover, there are recently an increasing number of customers reporting sudden account closures. This may be due to its fast natured approach of money laundering regulation compliance on account creation.

Meanwhile, OFX being a publicly listed company, needs to ensure the market is confident enough for steady growth and reliability. 

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The Result

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 OFX

iCompareFX’s comparison of OFX and Wise has shown OFX to be overall better. OFX focuses on partnership while Wise focuses on well designed technology and large marketing campaigns. 

OFX would be a better choice for large money transfers or regular money transfers. OFX is better for larger businesses who do not specialize in currency risk management. Wise is more suitable for the global traveller and nimble entrepreneurs who have time to study currency markets.

FAQs

Is OFX cheaper than Wise?

OFX is cheaper than Wise for large money transfers. Wise can be cheaper than OFX for small money transfers and across some currencies. Be careful which payment option you choose with Wise as this could increase the cost of your money transfer.