Remitly Review

Remitly is one of the few companies that provides different transfer methods. Using its services is fairly straightforward.
 

What Remitly offers

• Multiple transfer methods
• Fee-free transfer threshold
• Express transfers
• Cash pick up
• Mobile money
• AliPay

Multiple transfer methods - Available transfer methods vary depending on the destination country. They include bank account transfers, cash pickup, transfers to mobile wallets, and home delivery of transferred funds.

Fee-free transfer threshold - This depends on the destination country. For example, transfers of over US $1,000 to India are fee-free.

Express transfers - Express transfers give you the ability to send money overseas quickly. In some cases, these transfers go through in minutes.

Cash pick up - International transfers for cash pick up is not supported in all destination countries. Cash pickups are not supported in Croatia, Hondorus, Hungary, India and South Korea.

Mobile money - This is a handy way to transfer money to a foreign recipient. Send money directly into a mobile payments wallet. For example, GoPay by GoJek in Indonesia, GCash in Philippines and Pix in Brazil.  Each country will have different wallets supported. Not all countries have mobile money solutions.

AliPay - Remitly supports delivery methods including Bank Deposit, Alipay and Wechat.

What Remitly doesn’t do

• Personal account manager
• Remitly mobile wallet
• Regular transfers
• Travel debit card

Remitly Score

Remitly's score for personal services leaves considerable room for improvement. The absence of regular transfers, an FX optimized travel card, and access to personal managers contribute to its lower rating. However, cash pick ups are available in most countries for an additional cost.

Remitly does not provide services for business customers.

Does Remitly charge a fee?

Yes. You need to pay particular attention to how much your transfer costs because Remitly fees come in different forms. The basic transfer fee varies depending on where you and the recipient live, the amount you wish to transfer, and the transfer method. There are additional fees within their exchange rate offered.
 

Remitly exchange rate fee

The exchange rate shown on the Remitly money transfer website shows a promoted rate for new customers if a user has not signed up or signed in with Remitly.  If an existing customer signs in, they will see the real time exchange rates.   

This is the exchange rate margin fee. Remitly also adds a margin over the existing exchange rate. This can result in you paying up to 2% of the transfer amount as additional fees. 
 

Speed of transfer fee

Fees vary from country to country. For example, this link shows the exchange rate and fees for existing customers sending from US to the Philippines.  https://www.remitly.com/us/en/philippines/pricing.  You can change the country selection to see fees in other countries.

Remitly fee free first time offer

Remitly offers first time customers good exchange rates, still hiding the exchange rate margin charged. The exchange rate margin becomes clearer upon further transfers with Remitly.
 

Remitly score for fees and exchange rates

Additional fees lower Remitly fees and exchange rates score. 

What Remitly does well

Easy registration - The account creation process is simple, and takes little time. Use the Remitly website or mobile app to get started.

ID verification - Tier 1 membership does not require ID verification, however, this comes with low sending limits.

Remitly transfer time - Express transfers may take place in a few minutes or hours, depending on the destination country. Economy transfers typically take two to three business days after receipt of your payment.

Card payments - You may pay for your transfer using Visa, Mastercard, or Maestro debit and credit cards. However, this comes at an added cost.

Minimum transfer limits - You can send under $5 with Remitly. However with their high fees, you may not want to.
 

Where Remitly could improve

Over-the-phone transfers - As of now, you can initiate your transfer through Remitly only online. It does not let you carry out transfers by speaking to a dealer over the phone.

Maximum Sending limits - Remitly imposes daily, monthly, and 180-day sending limits. These are based on where you and the recipient live. Low sending limits mean that customers who want to send large sums of money. Remitly is not for you.

• Tier 1 maximum sending limit of 180 is AUD$18,000.
• Tier 2 maximum sending limit is AUD$36,000.
• Tier 3 maximum sending limit is AUD$60,000.

ID verification for larger transfer amounts -  You need to verify your identity for Tier 2 and Tier 3 membership. This process may take more than a day. Each tier requires more detailed customer identification documentation. This can become tedious and time consuming.  

This link is an example of sending limits and requirements from USA to Philippines https://www.remitly.com/us/en/users/increase_limits.   For different countries,  please change the country selection if you want to see information for other countries. 
 

Remitly Score

Remitly's Ease of Use score could improve if they offered customer transfers over the phone for people not tech savvy. The sending limits can be a problem especially with further sending limits based on ID verification tiers. Customers who need to send larger amounts over a period of time may not be suited to this service.

What Remitly does well

Supported countries - The company supports transfers to less popular destinations in South America, Asia, and Africa.  It now supports sending money to UK, US and Canada. Overall they support sending to 170+ countries.

Local settlement accounts - Local settlements accounts in Singapore, Australia, Europe, the UK, and the USA help bring down transfer costs marginally.

Multilingual website - 15 languages are supported across Remitly's website including English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Vietnamese.

Multilingual chat support - Remitly provides 24/7 chat support in English, French, and Spanish.
 

Where Remitly could improve

Remitly customer service - With a Trustpilot score of 9 out of 10, Remitly rates as Excellent with over 28,000 reviews. However, reading reviews of Remitly, customers seem to have some ongoing concerns. There are multiple reviews that mention not being able to get in touch with Remitly over the phone, as well as not receiving replies to email queries. There are complaints of transfers not going through for prolonged periods as well. Unanswered Remitly TrustPilot reviews don't speak highly of the company's customer service. Similar concerns are also voiced on Google Play and Apple App Store.
 

Remitly Score

The room for improvement for Remilty in its customer care department which has had an adverse effect on its score in this section. Their support destination countries which many other international money transfer companies ignore is a positive. Perhaps with more competition, the cost of transfers and customer service may improve.

What Remitly does well

• Regulated - Remitly is registered with regulatory bodies in the USA, the UK, and Europe.
• Safety of clients money - The company holds client funds in segregated bank accounts.

Remitly’s challenges

• Transparency in pricing - The margin that Remitly applies on existing exchange rates can go up to 2%. While you get to see the market exchange rate when carrying out a transfer, the same does not apply on your transfer. This becomes apparent if you look closely at the "received amount" mentioned in your quote. In addition, you only know the standard fees after a few steps.
• Poor reviews - The company can work on gaining the trust of its unhappy customers by replying to their concerns in a timely manner. Addressing their issues effectively needs to improve.

Remitly Score

The company's Safety & Transparency score suffers because of its non-transparent exchange rates as well as the string of unfavorable customer reviews.