Personal Features

TransferWise

50

50

TransferWise 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 TransferWise Borderless debit card backs on to their Borderless digital wallet allowing you to spend directly out of your multi-currency account balances.

What TransferWise 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

What TransferWise 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

Stripe

0

0

Stripe is essentially a payments processing company that provides services for businesses of different sizes. It does not serve personal customers. However, you may register as a sole trader, a consultant or a freelancer.


TransferWise wins!

Individuals should choose TransferWise versus Stripe for their money transfer needs. Stripe provides B2B (business to business solutions). Stripe does not offer money transfer solutions for individual customers. TransferWise does provide money transfer and FX optimised debit card services to individual customers who want to send, receive and spend money internationally.

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Business Benefits

TransferWise

56

56

In addition to the services TransferWise offers the individual, there are some features only available for a business. Unfortunately, as TransferWise is online only, a business customer does not have support with currency fluctuations and trends. TransferWise does however offer easy to use transactional foreign currency receipts and payments.

What TransferWise offers businesses

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

What TransferWise for business doesn’t offer

  • Business account management
  • Risk management tools
  • Regular transfers

Stripe

67

67

Stripe gives small, medium and large businesses from different countries multiple ways to accept payments. Businesses may also use Stripe money transfer services to make international payouts.
 

What Stripe offers businesses

  • Accept payments (one off and recurring).
  • Payment solutions for online and in-person retailers.
  • Automated payouts through Stripe money transfer service.
  • Billing solutions.
  • Virtual and physical cards.
  • Integration with online platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, Booking.com, Slack, Zoom and Grab.
  • Corporate cards (only in the US).
  • Accounting integration with Xero, QuickBooks and Bench.

What Stripe for business doesn’t offer

  • Account managers.
  • Unique multi-currency receiving accounts.

Stripe wins!

TransferWise and Stripe offer different business solutions and solve different business challenges. Stripe offers payment solutions for online and offline businesses. Stripe is the winner as it offers a much broader online and offline merchant and payment solutions compared to TransferWise. Stripe provides top notch payment solutions for merchants and online sellers. Where Stripe falls down is the cost of repatriation for revenue currency revenue. 

But why not connect Stripe to TransferWise and get the best of both worlds? Low flat rate payment gateway costs and very low currency conversion and money transfer costs. This integration is expanded on in the FAQ section of this comparison. Scroll down to read more.

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Fees & Exchange Rates

TransferWise

54

54

TransferWise 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 TransferWise Borderless debit card. Fees are briefly summarised below. Read the detailed TransferWise review for more details on TransferWise fees.

TransferWise ServiceTransferWise fee
Simple International Money Transfer

0.4% - 2% 

Varies on currency and payment type

Adding to TransferWise 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


Stripe

25

25

Stripe fees and pricing

Stripe fees might vary based on the country from which you register. They also differ based on the types of services on offer. The corresponding tables highlight how Stripe pricing works for customers who register from the United States.
 

Stripe payment fees (for merchants)

Credit or debit cards2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge.
International card paymentsCard payment fees + 1% + 1% (if currency conversion takes place).
Adaptive acceptance - reducing potential payment declines0.08% per successful card charge.
Local payment methodsDepends on payment method.
Instant payouts1%
Billing0.5%

Stripe processing fees for Terminal services

In-person card processing2.7% + $0.05 per successful card charge.
International paymentsCard processing fees + 1% + 1% (if currency conversion takes place).
Card readers

$59 for BBPOS Chipper 2X BT reader.

$299 for Verifone P400 reader.

Stripe card issuing fees

Card creation

$3 per physical card.

$0.10 per virtual card.

Card transactions

Waived for the first $500,000 in card transactions volume.

0.2% + $0.20 per transaction after the limit is crossed.

International payments1% + $0.30 + 1% (if currency conversion takes place).
Disputes$15 per lost dispute.

Stripe exchange rates

When Stripe converts currencies in payments or transfers, it applies daily mid-market rates it receives from its service providers, and charges an additional 1% fee for currency conversion.


TransferWise wins!

As with the business comparison analysis and verdict, Stripe and TransferWise provide different solutions for businesses. What is clear is that when it comes to currency conversion and money transfer costs and fees. TransferWise is the clear front runner. Hence the proposed integration potential that is discussed in the FAQ section of the comparison.

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Ease of Use

TransferWise

83

83

The TransferWise 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 TransferWise 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 - TransferWise has the broadest range of payment options. Local bank transfer, debit / credit card and country specific solutions such as POLi.


Stripe

61

61

Signing up - Signing up with Stripe is fairly straightforward, although account verification might take some time.

Stripe recurring payments - You can set up Stripe recurring payments with ease.

Payment methods - Accept payments via bank account transfers, credit cards, debit cards, checks, as well as various region-specific methods such as ACH credit, ACH direct debit, SEPA direct debit, Alipay, SOFORT, iDEAL and WeChat Pay. 

Stripe apps - The Stripe Payments and Stripe Dashboard apps are available for Apple and Android users.


TransferWise wins!

TransferWise has a great score for ease of use that Stripe. However, Stripe would need to be a little more complicated to use given that it provides payment gateway solutions. With Stripe there are some additional complexities regarding integration of their service into site or service for online merchants. Or for offline merchants, setting up and integrating your point of sales with your own systems.

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Support & Countries

TransferWise

88

88

TransferWise’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.


Stripe

81

81

Supported registration countries - Businesses from over 40 countries can sign up to use Stripe's services. These include Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

Supported currencies - Stripe supports payments in more than 135 currencies.

Local acquiring - Stripe offers local acquiring of payments in over 35 countries.

International offices - Stripe has 14 global offices.

Customer support - Stripe provides customer support via chat, email and phone.


TransferWise wins!

Both TransferWise and Stripe score very well for support and countries. Both offer global support across multiple countries and languages. Their supported countries lists are impressive. 

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Trust & Transparency

TransferWise

63

63

TransferWise is fully regulated by the FCA and their customer funds are segregated from their business banking activities.

TransferWise 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.

TransferWise 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.


Stripe

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32

Regulated - Stripe is regulated by relevant governing bodies of different countries.

Trustpilot - Stripe rates as Average on Trustpilot, getting 7.4 out of 10 with over 4,000 reviews. Poor customer service seems to be a common concern in the Stripe reviews. Some customers also highlight problems with Stripe imposing holds on payments.


TransferWise wins!

Unfortunately Stripe’s TrustPilot score affects their category score significantly. It would seem that Stripe needs to do some work on this. However, there are also some poor reviews creeping into TransferWise’s score also. 

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The Result

Winner ribbon iconWinner

 TransferWise

The fact that Stripe does not have services for individuals of course affected its score against TransferWise.  That said TransferWise easily beat Stripe across all the other categories with only the Business Benefits section scoring somewhat more closely.  This reflects TransferWise's cheaper fees and exchange rates, number of supported countries and ease of use.

Stripe is not a money transfer business at its core. Stripe specializes in delivering solutions for online merchants and point of sales payment solutions. They have slightly cheaper flat rates when comparing multiple countries' presence for online sellers. However, withdrawing your money from Stripe to a foreign bank account that also needs currency conversion is not cheap. This is where integrating Stripe and TransferWise can really save your money through reducing your money transfer fees. Check out the TransferWise Stripe FAQ below to learn more.

TransferWise is not a payment gateway. If that is why you are here... perhaps you should compare payment gateways instead.

FAQs

Does Stripe work with TransferWise?

Yes. You can connect the TransferWise Borderless account local banking details to Stripe to withdraw Stripe funds to TransferWise.

TransferWise Stripe integration:  Create a TransferWise Borderless account to get access to local banking details in foreign currencies. For example, your main customer base is in the USA and your business is located in the UK. Create a USD Borderless account. 

1. Use the local banking details provided by TransferWise. 

2. Connect the USD denominated TransferWise Borderless account to your Stripe account. 

3. Withdraw your Online Seller USD revenue balance from Stripe to TransferWise's USD Borderless account. 

4. Now you can convert your USD revenue to GBP and at a lower cost. Hey presto!