Wise Review (TransferWise)

Wise (previously known as TransferWise) delivers a technology driven international money transfer service. As they are online only, the user experience design of their website and mobile apps are outstanding.
 

What Wise offers

• International money transfers
• Borderless multi-currency receiving accounts
• Borderless Debit Card - FX optimised debit card
• Android and Apple apps
• Send money to email address

International money transfers

Wise does currency exchange and sends money overseas to foreign bank accounts. You can only send at the exchange rate at the time of transfer. This is described as a Spot Contract. This is conducted through their apps or on their website. Their website user experience is very well designed.

Wise Borderless multi-currency receiving accounts

The Wise Borderless account gives you access to a digital currency wallet. Hold and transact in over 50 currencies. You also have access to 5 currencies with local banking details. GBP, EUR, USD, AUD, and NZD. Borderless account direct debit and credit is also available.  

Wise Borderless Debit Card - FX optimised debit card

The Wise Borderless Debit Card is attached to your Wise Borderless account. With this FX optimised Wise Debit Card, you can take advantage of their low transaction fees and currency exchange rates. The Wise Debit Card can be used to withdraw cash from foreign ATMs, pay for goods and services in foreign countries, or even be used to purchase eCommerce goods for international shipping.

Android and Apple Apps

Wise Android and Apple apps have been designed very well and are easy to use. All funds received or paid, including via the Wise Debit Card, create alerts on the app. You are always informed for peace of mind.

Send money to email address

This is a unique feature compared to Wise’s competition. It involves entering the recipients email address.  In return the recipient must then create a Wise money transfer account and enter in their banking details to receive the foreign funds transfer.

Scheduled Transfers

With Wise Scheduled Transfers, it is possible to send money at a once at future date or recurring schedule. Scheduled transfers uses balances available in your Wise Borderless account. It is not possible to have a standing order from your local bank account to Wise and have it automatically converted and sent to the foreign recipient. Wise will, however, remind you prior to the future or regular transfer schedule that there needs to be enough funds in the Borderless account. This feature is very useful if you maintain currency balances but not so useful if you use Wise just for international money transfers and not for holding currency balances.

Wise Account with Interest* 

Wise accounts get a 3.89% variable rate on GBP, 4.55% on USD and 2.46% on EUR.  

You still have full access to your money when you use Wise Interest - send and spend like always but is built to grow your money while keeping it safe.

When you switch, Wise puts your cash in a fund with assets that are backed by the government with no access fee or lock and key. 

*Interest offered by Wise Assets.

What Wise doesn’t do

• Personal account management
• Cash pick up or international bill payments
• Risk management tools
• Regular transfers for customers in countries that are not eligible for the TransferWise Borderless multi-currency account.

Wise personal features score

Although the user experience for online-only is impressive. Wise services do not include risk management nor personal account managers. Individuals sending large sums of money may want the personal touch, advice on currency markets and options to manage the risk of fully supported regular transfers. This has resulted in Wise’s score in the Individual category.

The same great online-only user experience through technology is carried into the Wise for business offering (previously known as TransferWise). Wise adds to the individual / personal features and services across their products to help international businesses. It's simple comparing Wise personal and business features. The same Wise personal features detailed above are available for the business customers. Wise's additional benefits to business are detailed in the iCompareFX Wise business benefits section. We also discuss what Wise does not offer business customers that other international money transfer companies offer and would be of additional benefit to the business customer.  iCompareFX is working with Wise to get great business rates, click on this link to learn more. 

What Wise for Business offers

Wise business offers the same features available in the Wise personal account. In addition to the personal features, below we list and discuss the additional Wise business account features.

• Batch payments
• Xero and Quickbook integration
• FX optimised business debit card
• Multi-user account access

Batch payments

Batch payments allows you to bulk send payments to suppliers or overseas contracts, freelancers or employees. This can be uploaded as a CSV for faster processing. However, there is no ongoing transfer system to remove regular administrative efforts.

Xero and Quickbook integration

Integrate either of these accounting packages to Wise. This reduces bookkeeping reconciliation time and improves visibility of your business finances.

FX optimised business debit card

The Wise Borderless debit card is also available for business entities. Useful for business travellers, paying overseas subscriptions, and other services denominated in a foreign currency to your businesses home country. E.g. website hosting.

Multi-user account access

The Wise Business account can have delegated access with reduced rights and privileges. For example, allow your bookkeeper to access the Wise Borderless account directly for reconciliation purposes.
 

What Wise for Business doesn’t do

• Business account management
• Risk management tools
• Regular batch transfers

Wise provides a great technology user experience for day to day business activities, and the convenience of their TransferWise Debit Card. 

Business Account / Risk Management

Unfortunately Wise does not provide partnership capabilities that a growing global business would need to manage their currency risk profile. Nor do they provide the tools for businesses to manage regular currency fluctuations. 

You, as the business owner, must decide on the right time to exchange currency. Either directly to the recipient or across the multi-currency account holdings to reduce future business costs due to currency market fluctuations. There are no hedging tools available such as Forward Contracts at your disposal. There are no FX market experts available to discuss options for your business to manage currency risk.

Regular batch transfers

Batch payments must be manually created and cannot be automated. This can increase time needed to manage regular payments overseas.
 

Wise business benefits score

The missed opportunities with business services has affected the Wise business score. That said, the day to day business user experience and services available are very good. Managing the business's future currency needs is not a part of the Wise service.  iCompareFX is working with Wise to get great business rates, click on this link to learn more. 

Wise’s fees (previously known as TransferWise) are transparent.  There is no hidden fee inside of the exchange rate offered to you and there are no margin fees. 

However, it is not a simple fee to calculate. The fees for each currency pair (e.g. GBP/EUR) are different and Wise fees can change regularly, sometimes in favour or sometimes against. As Wise is an Online Only service, these fees are non-negotiable.

In general, the Wise’s fees range from 0.4% to 2% of the total amount being transferred. There is no fee to receive funds from a 3rd party into your Wise Borderless multi-currency account. Below we breakdown Wise fees so it is easier to understand.
 

Wise Fees

Wise fees may have no hidden fee above the real exchange rate. However, they are varying and therefore complex. Wise fees can be broken down into a few examples. 

• Simple International Money Transfer
• Adding to Wise Borderless account balances
• Converting between Borderless account balances
• Sending money out of Borderless account balances
• Borderless Account Debit Card fees

Simple International Money Transfer

Simply exchanging currencies and sending money internationally can cost 0.4% for a bank transfer payment, 0.9% for a debit card payment, and up to 2% to pay by credit card. 

Important note: iCompareFX has observed that fees can increase on weekends.

Adding to Wise Borderless account balances

There is no cost for 3rd parties to add money to your Borderless account for currencies that have local banking details.

There is a Wise Borderless account fee when adding to your own Borderless accounts. The fee only applies when adding from a different currency. For example, adding money to your GBP account from your AUD local bank account. This fee can be between 0.4% and 0.5% of the sending currency. In the same example, it would cost AUD$8.21 to add £1000 to your GBP Wise Borderless account or 0.45%.

Converting between Borderless account balances

This scenario had the second lowest fees during testing with this Wise review. Converting an existing balance on your Wise Borderless GBP account to your Borderless AUD account cost 0.36%. Converting AUD$1000 from your GBP account cost £550.70 in which £2.03 was the Wise fee. Please note that the Wise fee changes depending on the currencies you are converting. 

Sending money out of Borderless account balances

This example had the lowest fees during testing with this Wise review. £1000 from your Borderless GBP account to an external UK bank account cost £0.60 which is 0.06%.

Borderless Account Debit Card fees

Wise fees score

In summary, Wise exchange rates have no hidden fees. The real time exchange rate is used at the time of the transaction.

Wise fees can be low or high depending on the currencies being exchanged, how you are paying into Wise, and how you use the Wise Borderless account. The fees are complex to calculate in advance and can change over time. 

Although fees can be low, due to the complexity of the fee structure and reduced dependability on knowing the cost of future transactions, Wise has lost points for the iCompareFX Wise review on Fees. 

Ease of use is where Wise (previously known as TransferWise) really shines through. They are a technology company at heart with wonderful User Experience capabilities built in to every part of their application. Bravo Wise!
 

What Wise does well

Account registration - Accounts can be created by a simple wizard and an email verification.

ID verification - Wise uses 3rd party solutions to verify ID instantaneously in most countries.

Payment options - There are multiple ways to make payments to Wise. Simple local bank transfers, debit / credit cards and country specific solutions. The faster it is, the higher the cost.

Transfer speed - With bespoke country solutions to pay Wise and for Wise to pay out at the foreign destination, Wise can at times produce instant international money transfers. For example, sending from an AUD bank account to a client in the UK. Paying Wise via POLi is instantaneous. Wise can then instantaneously send out to a UK bank account. This may, however, come at an additional cost. Sending to other destinations and using bank transfer to pay Wise can mean transfer speeds of 2 - 3 days.

Minimum transfer amount - As low as $1. 

Android and Apple apps - Their design, development and user experience is the best there is. There is no doubt that they are a fintech company with outstanding products.
 

Where Wise could improve

Phone support - Some customers would prefer to talk with a real person. 
 

Wise ease-of-use-score

Wise’s high level of detail to user experience is reflected in the scoring. Wise has one of the best user experiences built into the design and development of their applications.

Wise (previously known as TransferWise) supported countries are as complex as their fees. There is no straightforward answer. A dedicated Wise / TransferWise supported countries and currencies article has been created by iCompareFX to help you. Here is a summary below. 

Countries you can send from - There are over 23 countries and the Euro Zone (including SEPA countries) you can register for a Wise account to send money online internationally.
Currencies you can send to - There are over 160 currencies you can send money online to internationally. There are many more countries outside of Europe you can send EUR to.
Borderless account supported countries - Customers from Europe, Singapore, Australia, USA, New Zealand and the UK are eligible for a Borderless account. Each of these have local banking details. Hold and manage 50+ currencies without local banking details.

Borderless account debit card countries - Customers from Europe, Singapore, Australia, USA, New Zealand and the UK are eligible for a Borderless debit card.

Customer Service Country / Languages support

• Unfortunately, Wise customer support is initiated through their website only.
• Their website supports 12 languages.

Wise score

Wise scores highly with supported countries and language support. Unfortunately customer service is online only. Despite this iCompareFX has scored Wise highly.

What Wise does well

• Wise fee transparency, albeit complex, has no hidden fees. During the course of your transfer you know how much it will cost before you commit to the transaction.
• Wise is fully regulated by the FCA.
• Many thousands of iCompareFX customers now use Wise regularly.
• 2 factor authentication is used to secure your Wise account and balances.

Challenges

TrustPilot reviews of TransferWise / Wise

TransferWise’s / Wise's TrustPilot score is an overall rating of Excellent, however you will find dozens of very poor user reviews. There are many reviews of account closures without apparent reason and funds refunded with no contact from Wise. While this may be due to strict compliance regulations, the poor TrustPilot reviews are going unanswered. This is a concern.

Wise ownership

Wise shareholders include institutional investors and private equity. Fundraising is a regular occurrence. The most recent was in 2020 with another secondary shares sale of $319m. Each of these investors are looking for growth and ultimately a return on their investment. What does this mean for the future of Wise and it’s pricing structure? iCompareFX believes that significant private capital funding of large global businesses can be a risk. 

Wise savings account feature

Wise has most recently added a feature in Beta called Savings Account. This is a multi-currency account where you can set aside money from your main transactional account. This could be misleading to the customer that their funds are secured by government balance guarantees. Wise does not have a banking license and therefore is not covered by government bank balance guarantees. 
 

Wise score

Due to some challenges highlighted above, iCompareFX has reduced the Wise score in this category accordingly. iCompareFX will continue to observe Wise’s risk profile and will update the Wise review accordingly.