Personal Features

WorldFirst

50

50

WorldFirst offers international money transfer services for individuals. They also offer tools for business clients.

What WorldFirst offers individuals

  • International money transfers
  • Forward contracts
  • Firm orders
  • Rate alerts
  • Personal account managers
  • Mobile apps for Android and Apple
  • Regular transfers

WorldFirst does not offer individuals

  • Access to multi-currency accounts (World Account) to individuals
  • Foreign currency optimised travel debit cards

Payoneer

0

0

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.


WorldFirst wins!

WorldFirst scores better in the Personal Features category.

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Winner

Business Benefits

WorldFirst

89

89

WorldFirst has an excellent offering for business and promotes partnerships with businesses operating in a global environment. There are solutions for online sellers, import / export and global human resources payments.

What WorldFirst offers business

  • Multi-currency receiving accounts
  • Forward contracts
  • Firm orders
  • Xero integration
  • Business account management

WorldFirst World Account

Through the WorldFirst World Account you can leverage unique banking details in 10 different currencies and reduce costs on receiving money from customers and paying suppliers. Local banking details are available in GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, CNH, HKD, JPY, NZD, SGD and AUD.
 

What WorldFirst doesn’t offer business

  • Business debit card for foreign currency transactions from the WorldFirst World account.

Payoneer

89

89

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

It's a draw!

Both equally compare in the Business Benefits category.

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Draw

Fees & Exchange Rates

WorldFirst

79

79

WorldFirst has a super simple fee structure for international money transfers. The WorldFirst fees are additional to the real exchange rate. 

WorldFirst World Account fees also have the same simple fee structure and fees only apply when withdrawing funds from virtual multi-currency accounts.

Annual Transfer Amount£0 - £500K£500K - £5M£5M+
WorldFirst Fees0.60%0.35%0.25%

WorldFirst Australia currency conversion fees for small transfers

WorldFirst Australia has introduced (March 2021) new fees for small currency conversion amounts of less that AUD$10,000. These fees can make it prohibitive for small businesses to conduct day to day business payments. 

WorldFirst Australia fixed fee for FXFee
< $2,000$20
$2,000 - $10,000$10
$10,000 +$0

Payoneer

42

42

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. 


WorldFirst wins!

WorldFirst scores better in the Fees and Exchange Rates category.

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Winner

Ease of Use

WorldFirst

57

57

WorldFirst account creation and registration is simple and straightforward.  Unfortunately there is room for improvement in some areas:

ID verification - This can be slower outside of the UK taking up to 24 hours. 

Payment options -  Basic by only supporting bank transfer payment options. 

Mobile apps - The World Account uses a different mobile app than their international money transfer app. This can be cumbersome for account management.

Minimum transfer amount - This is quite high for individuals at $2000 / £1000. There is, however, no minimum for business clients.


Payoneer

64

64

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.


Payoneer wins!

Payoneer scores better in the Ease of Use category.

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Winner

Support & Countries

WorldFirst

56

56

  • WorldFirst supports over 130+ currencies. Their website supports five unique languages. Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, English, French and Japanese.
  • WorldFirst World Account supports 10 currencies. That means your business can have a local banking presence in 27 countries. 
  • WorldFirst customer support is global and can be contacted by email and phone. Additionally the UK has an online chat facility.

Unfortunately, USA residents are not eligible to create a WorldFirst account. This is a major let down for WorldFirst supported countries. This point has impacted the WorldFirst supported countries iCompareFX score.


Payoneer

88

88

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.


Payoneer wins!

Payoneer scores better in the Support and Countries category.

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Winner

Trust & Transparency

WorldFirst

94

94

  • WorldFirst is fully regulated by the FCA. 
  • Client accounts are segregated from the business banking accounts.
  • Fees could not be more transparent with their simple fee structure.
  • Many online sellers and SME’s have discovered WorldFirst’s World Account to reduce their costs in the global market.
  • WorldFirst TrustPilot score has an overall rating of Excellent.

Payoneer

63

63

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.


WorldFirst wins!

WorldFirst scores better in the Trust and Transparency category.

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Winner

The Result

Winner ribbon iconWinner

 WorldFirst

Although WorldFirst has won the overall competition, Payoneer has done well considering it does not have any services for individuals.  With a tie across their business benefits, Payoneer excelled in the Ease of Use and Support and Countries categories.  But it is WorldFirst's superior fees and exchange rates and trust and transparency that lead them to their impressive score of 84.