Wise vs TransferGo

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 can sign up as a personal customer with TransferGo from most European countries.

What TransferGo does

• International money transfers.
• Regular transfers.
• Payouts to Visa and Mastercard cards.

What TransferGo doesn’t do

• Account manager.
• Digital wallet.
• Personal travel card.
• Bill payments.
• 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

TransferGo's business services are fairly limited.

What TransferGo business account offers

• International money transfers.
• API integration.
• Batch payments.

What TransferGo business account doesn’t offer

• Business travel cards.
• Currency specialists.
• Forward contracts and market orders.
• Multi-currency accounts.
• Digital wallets.
• Integration with Xero or MyBooks.
• Online seller solutions.

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.

TransferGo fees

TransferGo fees vary based on the location of the sender and the desired transfer speed. 
 

TransferGo exchange rates

TransferGo adds a markup of 0% - 3.3% on existing mid-market rates.

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 TransferGo does well

Payment options:

• Bank account transfers.
• Debit card payments in GBP, EUR, PLN, NOK, SEK and DKK.
• Credit card payments in GBP, EUR, PLN, NOK, SEK and DKK.

Multilingual website - You can use the TransferGo website in different European languages.

Transfer speed - Most transfers process in 1 - 2 working days. TransgerGo also provides 30-minute and Same Day transfers in some countries.

Signing up - Sign up using the TransferGo website or app.
 

Where TransferGo could improve

Phone transfers - You can not carry out transfers over the phone.

Mobile app - Available for iOS and Android. However, a number of Android users have highlighted functionality-related problems.

Transfer limits -  A maximum limit of £2,500 applies on card payments.

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 TransferGo does well

Supported destination countries for bank transfers - Send money to local bank accounts in more than 65 countries.

Supported destination countries for card transfers - Send money to Mastercard and Visa cards in 25 countries.

30-minute delivery - Use this option to send money to over 35 countries.

Customer support - Get multilingual support over the phone or via email.
 

Where TransferGo could improve

Registration countries - TransferGo only accepts customers within Europe.

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.

TransferGo is a reliable money transfer company. 
 

What TransferGo does well

Regulated - TransferGo is regulated by government bodies in the UK and Lithuania.

Safety of funds - Segregated bank accounts used for holding clients' funds.

Trustpilot - Rates as Excellent.
 

Where TransferGo could improve

Transparency in rates - TransferGo exchange rates come with markups, which can be up to 3.3% in some cases. The company does not notify customers of the markups it adds.