TransferWise vs Stripe

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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)

Stripe processing fees for Terminal services

Stripe card issuing fees

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.

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.

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’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.

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 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.

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.