Wise vs Currencies Direct

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

Currencies Direct provides international money transfer services for personal customers from different countries.

What Currencies Direct does

• International money transfers.
• Forward contracts and limit orders.
• Regular transfers (conditions apply for US customers).
• Multiple currency wallets.
• Dedicated currency managers.

What Currencies Direct doesn’t do

• Travel card.
• Cash pick-up.

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

Specialized forex solutions offered by Currencies DIrect can benefit businesses and online sellers in different ways.

What Currencies Direct business account offers

• Spot contracts, forward contracts, market orders and options.
• Batch payments.
• Receive payments.
• Multi-currency collection accounts.
• Easy integration with popular online marketplaces for online sellers.
• Dedicated account managers.

What Currencies Direct business account doesn’t offer

• FX-optimized business travel cards.

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.

Currencies Direct fees

There are no fees for personal transfers carried out through Currencies Direct. Business customers might need to pay fees in some instances. For example, a 0.1% fee applies when receiving payments in collection accounts.
 

Currencies Direct exchange rates

You need to pay a nominal markup on existing interbank/mid-market exchange rates. This is typically less than 1%. In addition, the higher the transfer amount, the lower the margin.

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.

What Currencies Direct does well

Signing up - Sign up using the Currencies Direct website or app. Alternatively, register over the phone.

Payment options

• Bank transfers
• GBP and EUR debit card payments from the UK and European Union
• Direct debits from the UK and European Union
• Check payments from the US
• Wire transfers from the US
• ACH payments from the US

Phone transfers - You can set up phone transfers by speaking with your dedicated currency specialist.

Multilingual website - Use the Currencies Direct website in a number of languages.
 

Where Currencies Direct could improve

Transfer speed - Most transfers take 1 - 2 businesses days. Transfers in exotic currencies can take more time.

Transfer limits - You need to transfer at least £100/$100. The maximum limit for online transfers is £25,000.

Account verification - According to compliance requirements, you need to provide copies of your bank statement and passport.

Currencies Direct app - Available for Android and Apple - only for personal customers. Some customer reviews complain about its functionality on Google Play Store as well as Apple App Store.

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.

What Currencies Direct does well

Supported destination countries and currencies - Currencies Direct carries out transfers in more than 40 currencies, to over 120 countries.

International offices - Outside of the UK, offices also in the US, Canada, India, Spain, Portugal and South Africa.
 

Where Currencies Direct could improve

More local settlement accounts - As of now, Currencies Direct has local settlement accounts only in the UK, European Union and the US. If you make a payment from anywhere else, you might end up incurring additional costs.

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.

Currencies Direct is a reliable international money transfer company. 

What Currencies Direct does well

Regulated - Currencies Direct is regulated by government bodies in the UK, the US, Spain, Canada and South Africa.

Safety of funds - Holds clients' funds in segregated bank accounts.
 

Where Currencies Direct could improve

Transparency in rates - While the exchange rate markup you need to pay is nominal, Currencies Direct can make its transfers completely transparent by informing customers about how much margin it applies.