Wise vs HSBC

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

You need to be an existing HSBC customer if you want to use HSBC transfer money abroad services. 
 

What HSBC offers

• HSBC international money transfers.
• Regular transfers.
• Travel rewards cards.

What HSBC doesn’t offer

• Cach pickup.
• Digital wallet.
• Account manager.

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

HSBC provides specialized services for small, medium and large businesses in different countries.
 

What HSBC offers businesses

• Global payables solutions for making international payments.
• Global receivables solutions that include paper and electronic collection services.
• Risk management solutions.
• Access to an HSBC Relationship Manager.
• Access to FX specialists.
• Global corporate credit cards.

What HSBC for business doesn’t offer

• Solutions for online sellers.
• Digital wallets.

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.

HSBC exchange rate

The HSBC exchange rate you get when carrying out an international wire transfer includes a margin/markup that HSBC adds on top of the existing mid-market exchange rate. The markup can be as high as 5%.
 

HSBC wire transfer fee

HSBC international transfer fee for wire transfers depends on the currencies being traded as well as the amount you wish to transfer. The fee can be up to $35 for transfers carried out from the US. However, international transfers from and to qualifying HSBC deposit accounts attract no fees.

If you are an HSBC Premier or an HSBC Advance account holder, you may use the Global View Global Transfers service to carry out fee-free transfers of up to $200,000 per day between your different HSBC accounts.

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.

Signing up

You don't have to create a separate account to send money overseas if you're an existing HSBC deposit account holder.
 

Transfer methods

You may set up your transfer online or by visiting any HSBC Bank branch.
 

Transfer speed

Transfers carried out using the HSBC transfer money abroad service take up to 4 business days to process. However, they might take longer depending on the destination country.
 

Payment options

You may pay for your transfer through any of your eligible HSBC deposit accounts.
 

HSBC mobile app

HSBC provides region-specific mobile apps for Android and Apple users. The features on offer might vary depending on the country-specific app you use.

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.

Supported registration countries

You can sign up as an HSBC customer from different countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. 
 

Supported destination currencies

Supported destination currencies may vary depending on your country of residence. From the US, you may transfer money to AED, AUD, CAD, CZK, EUR, GBP, HKD, INR, NZD, PHP, SAR, SGD, THB and USD.
 

Customer service

HSBC provides customer service via chat, email and phone.
 

Multilingual website and customer support

HSBC operates region-specific websites for its customers from different countries. Access to a number of these websites comes in local languages. Customers can also receive customer support in local languages.

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.

Regulated - HSBC is regulated by relevant governing bodies of all the countries in which it operates.

Exchange rate transparency - HSBC's exchange rates are non-transparent, wherein HSBC does not inform its customers of the margins/markups it applies.

Trustpilot - HSBC US and HSBC UK rate as Bad on Trustpilot. While HSBC US gets an average score of 3.2 out of 10, HSBC UK averages at 2.8 out of 10. Several HSBC reviews on this platform complain about receiving poor customer service.