Wise vs XE Money Transfer

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

XE Money Transfer serves personal customers from a number of countries, giving them easy means to send money to more than 170 countries.

What XE Money Transfer does

• International money transfers
• Forward contracts
• Market orders
• Regular transfers

What XE Money Transfer doesn’t do

• Personal account managers for low volume transfers
• Cash pickup
• Unique local multi-currency accounts
• Digital wallets
• FX optimized travel card

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

XE Money Transfer gives business clients the option to choose from varied services.

What XE Money Transfer for business offers

• Mass payments
• Payments UPI for receiving online payments
• Forward contracts
• Market orders
• Account managers

What XE Money Transfer for business doesn’t do

• Business travel card
• Multi-currency receiving accounts
• Digital wallets
• Solutions for online sellers
• Accounting integration

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.

XE Money Transfer fees

Personal customers pay no transfer fees when sending money through XE Money Transfer.
 

Are there additional XE Money Transfer fees?

Yes, these come in the form of the exchange rate margin that XE Money Transfer applies 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 XE Money Transfer does well

Sign up process - Register online or over the phone, by providing some basic information.

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

Phone transfers - Initiate transfers over the phone.

Speed - Most transfers process within 1 - 2 business days.

Mobile app - Available for iOS and Android. 
 

Where XE Money Transfer could improve

ID verification - This process can take 1- 4 business days.

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 XE Money Transfer does well

Supported destination countries and currencies - XE Money Transfer supports transfers to over 170 countries, in over 60 currencies.

Customer support - Customer support is available via email and over the phone, in English, French and Spanish.
 

Where XE Money Transfer could improve

Website languages - You can use the XE Money Transfer website only in English.

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 XE Money Transfer does well

• XE Money Transfer is fully regulated in different countries.
• Rates as Excellent on Trustpilot.

Where XE Money Transfer could improve

Exchange rate margin transparency - XE Money Transfer’s exchange rates include margins that customers find out only after confirming their transfers.