Ria Review

Ria Money Transfer & Currency Exchange offers international money transfer services for individuals from the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and Spain. It provides different transfer methods.
 

What Ria Money Transfer offers

• Overseas money transfers
• Bank deposit
• Cash pick-up
• Home cash delivery (in some countries)

Overseas money transfers - Send money to more than 150 countries through Spot Contracts, using Ria Money Transfer exchange rates. These rates are not real time exchange rates.

Bank deposit - Transfer money into bank accounts from various countries.

Cash pick-up - Money transfer recipients can collect transferred funds from local Ria Money transfer agents globally.

Home cash delivery - Cash can be delivered to a recipient's home in some countries.
 

What Ria Money Transfer doesn’t do

• Regular transfers
• FX optimized travel cards
• Unique local multi-currency receiving accounts
• Digital wallet
• Personal account manager

Ria Money Transfer score

Ria scores below average for its personal services because of the absence of regular transfers, travel cards, digital wallets and account managers. 

Ria Money Transfer does not provide services for businesses therefore no score has been given.

Ria exchange rates

Ria applies a margin on the existing mid-market/real exchange rate when carrying out your transfer. The margin can be over 3% for some exotic currencies. This is a very large hidden fee when compared to a Ria Money Transfer alternative. You are shown the exchange rate that is offered by Ria Money Transfer before you finalize a transfer deal, and this includes the margin fee. The rate that you get online and at physical agent locations are not the same. Transfers through agents tend to attract a higher margin.
 

Are there additional Ria Money Transfer fees?

Yes. Additional Ria Money Transfer fees vary based on where you live, the destination country, the payment method and the transfer method. And the additional fees are hefty in size. The more you send, the higher the fee.

Transfers to cash pick-up centers are typically more expensive than bank account transfers. Debit and credit card payments tend to come with higher fees. See examples below.
 

Sending money from the US to the Philippines and paying via credit card:

Sending money from the US to the Philippines and paying via bank transfer:

Sending money from the US to India and paying via credit card:

Ria score

Ria's low score in this section is because of the non-transparency in its exchange rates as well as the very high additional fees.

What Ria Money Transfer does well

Sign up process - Signing up with Ria is fairly straightforward. You may use the Ria Money Transfer app or website to get started.

Payment methods - You can pay for your transfer via a bank account, a credit card, a debit card or cash.

Multilingual website - Use the Ria Money Transfer website in English, Spanish, Polish or French.
 

Where Ria money transfer could improve

Transfer limits

Ria lets you send up to $2,999.99 per transfer, per day. A 30-day maximum limit of $7,999 also applies. You can request an increase in limit by visiting a Ria agent location and providing additional information such as details from a valid form of ID. However, increasing your limit is based on Ria's sole discretion.

Bank account validation

Ria validates your bank account by carrying out a one-time verification check. This process can take up to 72 hours, and even more in some cases.

Ria Money Transfer app

Some Ria Money Transfer reviews on Apple App Store and Google Play Store complain about the app's functionality. These include mentions of failed login attempts and difficulty in using the app.
 

Ria score

Ria does not score well for the Ease of Use category. Low transfer limits and the added administration to increase your limits lower their score. Slow bank account validation and poor reviews of the Ria Money Transfer app reduce it further.

What Ria money transfer does well

Supported destination countries - Ria Money Transfer supports transfers to around 160 countries, and recipient's receive funds in local currencies.

Phone support - Provides phone support during business hours in the US, Canada and Australia.
 

Where Ria Money Transfer could improve

Supported registration countries - You can only sign up online with Ria Money Transfer if you live in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Spain or Australia.

Transfer speed - Transfers to bank accounts can take longer than the stipulated time frame of 2 - 4 business days, as highlighted by a number of customer reviews on Trustpilot, Google Play Store and Apple Play Store.

Ria Money Transfer customer service - There are a number of complaints about poor customer service in the Ria Money Transfer reviews written by the company's customers.
 

Ria score

Ria's score in this section leaves some room for improvement. The company can address this by improving its customer service, increasing the number of supported registration countries, and carrying out all transfers in a timely manner. However, their global support for destination countries does balance some the score out to a degree.

What Ria Money Transfer does well

• Ria Money Transfer is owned by Euronet Worldwide, a leading global electronic transactions and payments company.
• Ria complies with laws of all jurisdictions in which it operates. 
• It complies with the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), which is a part of the US Treasury Department. It also adheres to all United Nations and European Union sanctions.
• Ria rates as Excellent on Trustpilot, getting a score of 8.8 out of 10 with over 4,500 reviews.

Where Ria Money Transfer could improve

Transparency in exchange rates

There is zero transparency on the hidden fees that Ria Money Transfer has in their offered exchange rates. Customers would benefit from seeing the real time exchange rate and the added fee. 

Transparency in complaint resolution

It appears that Ria does not acknowledge customer reviews on Trustpilot. On Google Play Store, replies to customer concerns are few and far between. A number of Ria Money Transfer reviews complain about no clear resolutions surrounding delayed transfers, not getting back to customers as promised and long hold times. 
 

Ria score

Not responding to customer complaints, as highlighted by several Ria Money Transfer customer reviews, results in the company's poor result in this section. Offering complete transparency in exchange rates can help improve its score.