Wise vs Payoneer

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

Payoneer only offers money transfer solutions for freelancers and businesses. Therefore Payoneer receives a zero score for the Individual services category. If you need international money transfer services or solutions and you are not a freelancer or a business. You should click Compare Now in the top menu. Find the best companies for individuals that support your home and destination country.

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

Payoneer specializes in providing international money transfer services for businesses, online sellers and freelancers. Payoneer offers international payment solutions for large and small businesses alike. AirBNB has partnered with Payoneer to service payments to their hosts. Small business and entrepreneurs leverage Payoneers Online Sellers integration to easily receive payments from Amazon, Wish and Shopee and many more. See a high level list of the services Payoneer offer below.

What Payoneer for business offers

• Solutions for online sellers
• Unique local multi-currency bank accounts
• Mass payments
• Prepaid Mastercard
• Payment requests
• Payoneer to Payoneer transfers
• Accounting integration

What Payoneer for business doesn’t do

• Currency hedging tools
• Dedicated account managers for small transfers

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.

Payoneer fees include transferring money out of Payoneer to local bank accounts, using their Mastercard to spend in foreign countries, and some additional fees. There are no fees for receiving money in to your Payoneer account.

Payoneer Fees

There are different fees for Payoneer services. Read the review of Payoneer to see a detailed breakdown of all the fees that can apply. Below is a short summary of the Payoneer fees.

Exchange rate margin fee - An exchange rate margin of up to 3% can apply in different circumstances such as withdrawing money and transferring balances between different currencies. You may negotiate better rates when carrying out large value transfers.

Payoneer Mastercard - Spending funds in the Payoneer account using the Payoneer Mastercard can have up to a 3.5% currency conversion fee.

Are there additional Payoneer fees?

Yes. You might need to pay fees when receiving and making payments. The Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard comes with an annual fee. 

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 Payoneer does well

Sign up process - Fairly straightforward although completing the US tax form can be time consuming.

Payment options -  Bank account transfers, debit card, credit cards and Payoneer balances.

Mobile app - Available for iOS and Android. 
 

Where Payoneer could improve

Transfer speed - Up to 3 business days upon payment.

Phone transfers - Transfers can not be completed over the phone.

USA tax compliance form assistance - Completing the form as a non-US resident can be confusing. It would be of great help to provide more assistance for non-nationals to complete these forms.

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 Payoneer does well

Supported destination countries and currencies - Payoneer supports transfers to more than 200 countries and territories, in over 150 currencies.

Customer support - Customer support is available via chat, email and over the phone.

Languages - Access to the Payoneer website comes in multiple languages.
 

Where Payoneer could improve

Send from countries - As of now, customers can use the Global Payment Service to send money from the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Canada and Mexico.

Customer Service - There is a growing number of negative customer reviews for Payoneer. These need to be addressed and communicated through review channels such as Trustpilot.

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 Payoneer does well

• Payoneer is fully regulated in different countries.
• Two-factor authentication adds another layer of security to your Payoneer account.
• High volume of repeat transfers implies high levels of trust.

Where Payoneer could improve

Exchange rate margin fee transparency - Payoneer’s exchange rates include margins of up to 3% in some cases.