TransferWise Review – that will be the topic of today’s article.
Transferwise, which offers currency transfers and bank account services, and therefore is a popular app amongst expats around the world.
Review TransferWise in 2022 and its ranking among other options, with insights from the Utmost International Collective Redemption Bond Review.
For any questions, or if you are looking to invest, you can contact me via email (advice@adamfayed.com) or use the WhatsApp (+447393450837).
It usually makes sense to invest in a portable manner rather than send money home to invest, especially for expats.
For those that prefer visual content, I have summarised my opinions in the video below:
Want to send money internationally? Don’t want to pay high markups for bank transfers? We then recommend that you continue reading our TransferWise review, an in-depth analysis of an international money transfer platform with low rates and a simple interface.
When it comes to currency exchange rates, not all are created equal. This is especially true when you want to transfer money and your bank or transfer service intervenes.
Let’s say you are located in the United States and want to send USD to a UK account. Your bank promises you there is a “0% commission fee” and they definitely offer “free money transfers”.
Unfortunately, hidden fees are often included, and if you ask, banks will simply say it’s part of the exchange rate or international fee.
Inevitably, some margin is added to the transaction and you don’t get what you call “mid-market rate” which is basically the real rate.
What if we said that you can get the market average rate by sending money between different countries and there will not be any unexpected charges. If this sounds good to you, then TransferWise is the solution.
TransferWise charges a small fraction of the fees you incur when sending or receiving money overseas with your bank. Many times, you will find that the fees are close to zero.
Keep reading to see our comprehensive TransferWise review, filled with pros, cons, and breakdowns of each product and feature.
TransferWise is a UK based company that believes that money shouldn’t have borders. The company is the creation of Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus.
Taavet worked for Skype in Estonia and was paid in euros even though he was in London. Kristo, on the other hand, worked in London and paid for his mortgage in his native country – Estonia.
Their strategy was simple. They looked up each month to discover the average market rate. Christo then sent the pounds to the UK account of Taavet and Taavet sent euros to the account of Christo.
They both got the money they were promised, and no other hidden payments were made.
From that moment, TransferWise was born, which generated accounts all over the world. Now you simply deposit money into a TransferWise bank account in the country of your choice, and they pay your recipient the correct exchange rate.
Since it started in 2011, TransferWise has grown to over 6 million customers and is backed by investors from companies like Virgin and PayPal.
TransferWise’s features are broken down into several categories depending on how you plan to use the service. At its core, TransferWise is a money transfer service that is most commonly used for international transfers to keep rates low and stick to the actual exchange rate.
Most of the features we will state in our TransferWise review use the same procedure, both when sending and receiving money withing the service. TransferWise then converts the money or saves it in the same currency by depositing it into the account of your choice.
That is pretty much everything TransferWise does. For some reason, the process of sending and /or receiving money overseas may seem complex to you, but TransferWise’s interface makes it quite simple and convenient.
Below are listed the products and services that TransferWise offers to its clients:
TransferWise also offers a mobile app so you can make transfers on the go.
To speed up the payment process, you can also review previous payments and repeat them with the click of a button. This is ideal if you have regular monthly payments. Moreover, they have recently added Apple Pay to transfer funds.
The app is easy to use for business and personal exchanges. You can see the history of your transfers and payments, send money to all of your contacts, and convert money between the accounts you keep with TransferWise.
Another advantage of this app are the notifications your receive about your payments. You can also check the status of your payment if any details re dates are needed to provide.
TransferWise tells you exactly where the money is, whether it’s converted to the end of it or sent to a bank account. They also tell you the approximate date of receipt of money in the mobile application.
In addition, the mobile app of TransferWise provides a quick button to freeze and unfreeze your debit card. Everyone who travels has stories of lost or stolen items. The last thing you want is another person trying to use your debit card while you are abroad. If you are having issues with finding the card, go to the app and block it from being used.
Registration is needed for those who are going to send transfers or use a multi-currency account. The registration process is very simple: prepare a passport, email and phone number.
Below is the process presented step by step:
Verification is this factor that affects the ability to transfer money without delay. Account verification is also needed to keep your money safe as well as to prevent the legitimization of illegal earnings.
You will need to verify your identity and residential address with different documents (only passport is not enough) for each type of verification.
Basically, you can send TransferWise money transfers from your bank account. A debit or credit card will often work. All countries support payments in EUR and USD, even if the local currency is different.
Please follow below instructions to transfer money with TransferWise.
It is important to note that:
On average, most transfers reach the recipient within a couple of minutes. Delivery speed depends on several factors:
Receiving money with TransferWise
To receive a transfer, you do not need to have an account. You can send money to a bank account or card. Different banks are supported for each country and all you need to do is provide the sender with an email. You will receive instructions from TransferWise on how to enter the details.
It is very important that the name of the recipient does not differ from the name of the owner of the bank card.
TransferWise offers cheap transfers with transparent fees. And, most importantly, a very favorable exchange rate. What is the transparency of commissions? Everything is very simple.
From the moment the payment is created, you can immediately see the full cost. The same applies to the exchange rate of currencies. It’s worth noting that TransferWise fees do not change after the payment is made.
SWIFT transfers are accompanied by commissions of intermediary banks. Transfer does not have access to this information and does not track it. Also, he does not know in advance about the amount of the upcoming commission.
The amount of the commission depends on the amount, conversion rate and method of payment for the transfer. The larger the amount, the higher the commission.
For example, for sending from EUR to CAD:
Limits
Now let us talk about limitations. It is important to consider the individual user limits in each bank. The maximum amount can be much lower.
Minimum amount: € 1 / $ 2.
Maximum amount: € 1,200,000 / $ 1,000,000.
Exchange rate
The company uses a real-time average exchange rate. This is the course listed on Google, XE, Yahoo Finance, or Reuters. This makes TransferWise money transfers the most profitable on the market. Compared to competitors, this service does not mark up the exchange rate.
Transferring money from TransferWise is is 14 times cheaper than PayPal. That’s because PayPal uses its own exchange rate.
Now let’s touch on the issue of reliability and understand how secure this service is.
TransferWise is quite reliable money transfer company, and here are the main reasons to believe this:
According to the privacy policy, they encrypt all of their users’ data using the HTTPS protocol. CVC and CVV codes of bank cards are not saved. Every time they need to be entered again. Licensed and controlled by the UK Financial Services Authority FCA.
License 900507, with the right to make transactions with electronic money. Under the rules set by the FCA, TransferWise is required to keep all funds from its customers separate from the money they use to run their company.
Statistics in 2019 showed that every month $ 4 billion is transferred through TransferWise, which speaks of the enormous trust of users. It is also worth mentioning company’s key investors: Richard Branson, PayPal founder Max Levchin and Peter Ciele.
Several other TransferWise security measures include:
One of the things that TransferWise does really well is their customer service. Their helpful and professional personnel can be contacted either by telephone, via email, or, when you are a registered user, by using their instant chat system.
TransferWise offers telephonic customer service for 14 different countries in 10 different languages. They have two separate lines for personal and business users, and these lines are open during office hours from Monday to Friday.
TransferWise has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot with over 8 million people using their services, making them one of the most popular transfer providers out there.
After researching people’s comments, reviews, and opinions, one can say that the service is legit and rather reliable as many had successfully sent money. However, there are numbers of cases with money transfer delays or accounts problems.
Here are some positive reviews from TransferWise users:
“Use it all the time, it’s not a scam and have been very impressed with the speed in which money is sent. Just set up an account and all the options on how to send are there. You can use your card or bank transfer.” ~SnowWomble on Reddit
“It’s the only thing I always used since I moved from Spain. Super easy to use and fast… On top of that, the cheapest ones out there in terms of fees. They always apply the current exchange when transferring the money.” ~sercosan on Reddit
There are negative reviews as well:
“I had a borderless account with TransferWise, and they deactivate my account for some reasons and from last one month I’m waiting to know the reasons and still waiting for my refund. I’ve already contact to customer service so many times, but they just say they can’t help me with this and I have to email them.” ~Pitanjal on ConsumerAffairs
“I have been using Transfer Wise for a little more than a year now. I was initially very satisfied – transfers were often faster than promised, and fees were low. But recently fees have increased significantly, which has reduced TransferWise’s advantage over services.” ~ Jill on ConsumerAffairs
To conclude, TransferWise is a fantastic platform for sending money internationally. It was created by two people who have experienced the same problems themselves and created a tool out of their own frustrations.
Streamlined onboard play, low fees and excellent transparency ensure it only gets stronger and better. You know that your funds will be protected from huge investors and with the security of the FCA.
While it is primarily a company for European, American, Singaporean and Australian users, TransferWise is expanding its market to various other parts of the world.
What is great is that most of the major currencies are supported in some way.