Wise vs Moneycorp

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

Moneycorp lets you sign up as a personal customer from most countries.
 

What Moneycorp does

• International money transfers.
• Forward contracts and market orders.
• Regular transfers.
• Account managers.
• Moneycorp travel card for UK residents.
• Moneycorp travel money for UK residents.

What Moneycorp doesn’t do

• 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

Moneycorp provides specialized solutions for businesses from several countries and for online sellers from the UK.
 

What Moneycorp business account offers

• International money transfers.
• Business account managers.
• Risk management tools.
• Online seller solutions (through the UK website).
• Bulk payments.

What Moneycorp business account doesn’t offer

• Business travel cards.
• Integration with popular accounting software

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.

Moneycorp fees

Moneycorp fees depend on where you live and the desired transfer speed. Moneycorp provides fee-free transfers in some markets.
 

Moneycorp exchange rates

The exchange rate margin that Moneycorp applies depends on the transfer amount. Moneycorp does not notify you of the margin it applies - it only informs you of the exchange rate that will apply on your transfer.

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 Moneycorp does well

Phone transfers - Initiate transfers by speaking with your dedicated account manager over the phone.

Payment options - Accepts payments via bank account transfers, debit cards and Moneycorp account balances.

Express transfers - You may carry out Express transfers that can go through on the same day, depending on where you live.
 

Where Moneycorp could improve

Signing up - Signing up online or over the phone, followed by account verification, can be made quicker and simpler.

Transfer speed - Most transfers take 2 - 3 business days. Some transfers can take even longer.

Moneycorp app - While Moneycorp has apps for Android or Apple, some customer reviews on Apple App Store and Google Play Store highlight concerns about their usability.

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.

What Moneycorp does well

Supported registration countries - Moneycorp accepts customers from most countries.

Supported destination countries and currencies - Send money online to more than 190 countries, in 33 currencies. More currencies are supported over the phone.

Moneycorp travel card currencies - GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, AUD, NZD, ZAR, CHF, TRY and AED.

Moneycorp customer service - Provided via email and over the phone.
 

Where Moneycorp could improve

Languages - While access to the Moneycorp website comes in English and a few European languages, customers might benefit by the addition of more 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.

What Moneycorp does well

Regulated - Moneycorp is regulated by licensing bodies of different countries.

Safety of funds - Holds client money in segregated bank accounts.

Well rated business services - iCompareFX has consistently received positive feedback about Moneycorp's business services.
 

Where Moneycorp could improve

Transparency in rates - Moneycorp can work in increasing trust among its customers by making its exchange rate margins completely transparent.

Customer support - While Moneycorp rates as Excellent on Trustpilot, there's still room for improvement, especially when it comes to its customer service.