Personal Features

TransferMate

17

17

What's clear to see in the iCompareFX TransferMate review is that the company provides rather limited services for personal customers.
 

What TransferMate offers

  • International money transfers.
  • Local bank accounts for receiving payments from customers.

What TransferMate doesn’t offer

  • Cash pickup.
  • Regular transfers.
  • Account managers.
  • Digital wallets.
  • Personal travel cards.

Wise

50

50

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 TransferWise Borderless account.
  • Cash pick up or international bill payments

Wise wins!

Both equally compare in the Personal Features category.

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Winner

Business Benefits

TransferMate

44

44

Businesses may benefit by signing up with TransferMate. The benefits are explained in further detail within the TransferMate review.
 

What TransferMate business account offers

  • Multi-currency digital wallet that can hold up to 30 currencies (coming soon).
  • Bulk payments.
  • Accounting software integration.
  • Exchange rates that can be locked for subsequent transfers.

What TransferMate business account doesn’t offer

  • FX-optimized travel cards.
  • Currency specialists.
  • Currency hedging tools.

Wise

56

56

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

Wise wins!

Both equally compare in the Business Benefits category.

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Winner

Fees & Exchange Rates

TransferMate

21

21

TransferMate fees

Business customers need to pay fixed fees when transferring less than fee-free threshold amounts. Both vary depending on the country from which a transfer originates.

All personal transfers come with fixed fees. From the US, personal transfers attract $15 as fees.  A standard €15 fee applies for personal transfers from the European Union. If you set up a personal transfer from Australia, you need to pay AU $25 in fees.
 

TransferMate Exchange rates

TransferMate rates include markups/margins that the company applies on existing mid-market/interbank exchange rates.


Wise

54

54

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 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


Wise wins!

Wise scores better in the Fees & Exchange Rates category

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Winner

Ease of Use

TransferMate

39

39

What TransferMate does well

Signing up - Creating a new account is fairly straightforward.

Transfer speed - Transfers to major currencies can go through on the same day. Most other transfers take 1 - 2 business days.
 

Where TransferMate could improve

Payment options - Accepts payments from personal customers only via bank account transfers. Business customers can set up direct debits.

Phone transfers - You can not initiate transfers by speaking with an account manager over the phone.

Minimum transfer limit - Region-specific minimum transfer limits apply. 

TransferMate app - There is no TransferMate app for Android or Apple yet.


Wise

83

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.


Wise wins!

Wise scores better in the Ease of Use category

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Winner

Support & Countries

TransferMate

63

63

Supported countries and currencies - Use TransferMate to send money in more than 130 currencies to over 160 countries.

Customer support - Provided via chat, email and phone.

Phone support - Local phone support provided in the US, the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Australia and New Zealand.

Multilingual website - Use the TransferMate website in different European languages.

Local settlement accounts - Depending on where you live, you might need to send your payment to a local TransferMate bank account. 


Wise

88

88

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 wins!

Wise scores better in the Support & Countries category

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Winner

Trust & Transparency

TransferMate

56

56

Regulated - TransferMate is licensed by regulatory bodies of a number of countries.

Trustpilot - TransferMate rates as Excellent on Trustpilot. 

Transparency in exchange rate - The company does not inform customers of the exchange rate margins it applies.


Wise

63

63

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.


Wise wins!

Wise scores better in the Trust & Transparency category

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Winner

The Result

Winner ribbon iconWinner

 Wise

With both providers tying with the personal and business services they offer, the winning decision came down to the other four categories.  Wise's ease of use and cheaper fees and exchange rates significantly bumped them ahead of TransferMate across the scoring.  Their supported countries and trust and transparency also assisted in their almost 20 point win.