Wise is a London-based worldwide money transfer company that was formerly known as Transferwise until 2021. They rebranded it “Wise” when its services (which went beyond just international money transfers) grew. Did anything change after their rebrand? Was there any improvement in the services they offered? Our Wise review will help you to know more about their features and feedback from current customers.
Wise Overview
The Wise App offers quick, easy, fair, and affordable services for international money transfers. It was founded by two friends in 2010 and Wise is one of the largest international money transfer companies in the USA and the rest of the globe because of a mix of sleek and catchy branding as well as some of the lowest prices in the currency exchange sector.
Wise is used by more than 12 million individuals and organizations worldwide, ranging from casual users who occasionally send modest payments, to large merchants and customers that send millions of dollars each month. Merchant services that they offer are extensively liked and used by businesses across the world.
The Wise USA service is designed for efficiency, clarity, and openness. Making an account is very simple, and they provide best-in-class exchange rates. Recipients can anticipate receiving their money shortly after the sender initiates a payment.
The company’s communications are excellent as well, and they offer fully functional mobile apps for Apple and Android phones.
Due to all of this, they have become a highly adopted and people frequently use their service to send money to friends and family. Even better, compared to using your local bank, Western Union, or PayPal, they are significantly less expensive. Today, Wise has three key areas; let’s take a closer look at each one individually.
How Safe is Wise?
Wise is a trusted source of international money transfers. To safeguard user accounts and transactions, the platform uses two-factor authentication. The security operations team at Wise continuously monitors to protect users’ personal information and financial information. To safeguard the data from even the most sophisticated fraud, Wise also has a specialized fraud team.
Both the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the US and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK oversee the regulation of Wise. Additionally, it holds US state licenses. The SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, and PCI DSS certifications are among those held by the Wise. Additionally, Wise has an ISO 27001 certificate and complies with GDPR.
Wise Features
It only takes a few minutes to create a free account, and Wise will assist you through the process. You can register for an account by logging into your Apple, Facebook, or Google account in addition to providing personal information like your name, date of birth, address, and phone number. Most money transfer firms don’t offer this login alternative.
After you’ve created an account, Wise may need to confirm your identity. Usually, this involves providing a photo of your photo ID and documentation of your address. Normally, it takes two business days to finish this phase. The amount of money you are transferring and the location from which you are sending it determine whether you need to verify your identification. Wise does not verify your identity until you make your first transfer.
- Debit Card: If you already have a Wise account, you can apply for a Wise debit card, that is valid in many, but not all, countries. The card contains a $9 one-time cost. You are permitted two fee-free ATM withdrawals per month, each for a maximum of $100. After that, each withdrawal will cost $1.50. Any withdrawal above $100 is subject to a 2% fee.
The card can also be used to make purchases via Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as online.
- Several Currency Accounts: You can send, hold, and receive money using this free account in a variety of currencies. Wise allows you to send money from the US to more than 80 different destinations and supports 54 different currencies. The available nations and currencies are continuously updated.
In our Wise review, we found that small merchants and freelancers across the globe loved the intelligent multi-currency account. This might make managing money internationally simpler and less expensive. People who regularly travel, have foreign income or expenses, or who live, work, or study overseas. Check out the Wise multi-currency account to see how simple it is to keep, convert, send, and spend in a wide range of foreign currencies, whether you need to pay for expenses overseas because you have a holiday property or you get paid as a freelancer by clients in other countries.
- Large Transfers: If you send large quantities of money frequently throughout the month or at once (more than the equivalent of £100,000 in U.S. dollars per transaction), Wise will charge you cheaper rates.
- Smart Assets: You can invest funds from your Wise account through the Wise Assets program in the iShares World Equity Index Fund, which has shares of Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla among other companies.
- Accounts on Wise.com: It only takes a few minutes to register for a Wise account on the company’s website. You have the choice of using your current Google or Facebook account or just entering your email address and generating a password. Although you don’t need to enter any bank account information to open an account, you will need to do so before you can make a transfer to prove your identification.
- You don’t need an account to obtain the most recent exchange rates, in contrast to many other services of a similar nature. Find out precisely how much a transfer will cost you without an account by using the online transfer calculator on the Wise website.
- Options for Transfer Funding: Wise only handles transfers from one bank account to another. In contrast to many of its rivals, it offers far greater flexibility in the way you can fund those payments. You can wire transfer funds directly from your bank account, submit payments via ACH, use a debit or credit card, or any of the above.
- Use the online calculator to determine the optimal strategy because costs differ for each choice. The cost of funding a transfer using a credit card is particularly high because you must pay both Wise’s per-transaction fee and the cost of processing the transaction.
- Mobile App for Wise: Wise provides a free iOS and Android mobile app. You can use it to start transfers, manage your account, and get access to the online calculator for anticipating transfer fees. Both versions of the software are your best choice if you need to make transfers from almost anywhere because they have garnered primarily positive customer reviews.
- Business Services: For independent contractors and companies that must support international employees’ payroll, Wise additionally provides extra features. The batch payment tool, which can process up to 1,000 payments at once, is the most helpful feature. In most circumstances, payments should come within one to two days, making this alternative quicker than what is often required for individual users.
- Transfer Termination: Compared to most other providers, Wise is more accommodating when accepting transfer cancellations. Usually, you can cancel a transfer via Wise’s website or mobile app if you need to.
Wise Prices & Rates
Wise’s website is among the most transparent when it comes to cost disclosure, but it doesn’t offer a comprehensive list of rates or fees. Instead, it has a calculator on its website. Simply enter the desired transfer amount, the currency you’ll be using, the currency that will be used to pay the receiver, and the method of funding the transfer. The calculator will generate a detailed breakdown of every expense related to the transfer. You may check the cost of using Wise’s service as well as the amount the recipient will get. .
Use Wise’s online calculator without creating an account to experiment with the different alternatives and get a solid idea of which funding option will be the most economical. As long as it gets your payments within 24 hours, Wise guarantees the rates shown on the calculator.
There are no fees associated with opening or maintaining an account with Wise. The amount being transferred, the currency the recipient will receive, and the mode of payment all affect transfer fees. For instance, a recent check revealed that the costs to transmit $1,000 (with the recipient receiving Mexican pesos) from the U.S. to Mexico ranged from $9.12 with a bank account to $46.19 for a credit card.
A percentage of the sent amount serves as Wise’s fee. Wise uses the mid-market exchange rate, commonly known as the “actual” exchange rate, to determine the cost of converting money from one currency to another.
Wise to Transfer Money:
Three rates are used to calculate the cost of your money transfer and the amount your recipient will receive.
- Exchange rate: The price of one currency concerning another currency is known as the exchange rate. For instance, you would look up how much one US dollar is worth in EUR if you wanted to convert US dollars to EUR.
- Midmarket rate: When major banks trade currencies with one another, they do so at the midmarket rate, also known as the interbank rate or interbank exchange rate.
- Exchange rate markup: When calculating the cost of your transfer, most providers add an exchange rate markup. To make a profit on the transfer, they offer their clients an exchange rate that consists of the midmarket rate plus an additional percentage, or markup.
Instance: If the service charges a 2% exchange rate markup, you will receive 19.6 pesos for every dollar if the midmarket rate for U.S. dollars to Mexican pesos is 20 pesos per dollar. With a midmarket rate of $500, you would send 10,000 pesos, but with a 2% markup, you would only send 9,800. Your recipient will receive less money in their currency the larger the markup.
Agreement Terms & Early Termination Fees
Easy to Understand:
There are no long-term commitments, annual or monthly fees, or early termination penalties. You will nevertheless be subject to a set of legally binding Terms and Conditions, which does not imply that there is no contract at all. However, Wise’s contract is unlike anything we’ve seen in the fintech sector and is significantly superior.
The US version is written in straightforward English and excludes all of the confusing legalese that renders most contracts virtually unintelligible to anyone other than attorneys. It is available for quick access on the Wise website, and each component has a hyperlink to make it simple to obtain the information you need. We urge you to familiarize yourself with it if you’ve registered for an account, even though trying to read the full document at once may put you to sleep due to its length.
No Termination Fee:
You can close your account at any moment under the terms and conditions of Wise by contacting customer care. Although you should move any remaining cash out of your account as soon as you can, there are no fees or penalties for doing so. Additionally, the business reserves the right, under the terms of the agreement, to close your account unilaterally. Before doing so, Wise will provide you with two months’ notice.
You shouldn’t be concerned unless you actively use your account to launder money or for another fraudulent activity. Wise doesn’t seem to cancel accounts for extended periods of inactivity, in contrast to certain other money transfer businesses.
Market Perception
Based on real customers reviews, complaints, and common issues at Wise
Good Wise Comments and Endorsements:
Several consumer video testimonials are shown on Wise’s YouTube channel. These stories are typically brief yet seem quite genuine.
Additionally, the business has over 148,000 reviews on Trustpilot, and more are being added almost hourly. The business has a 4.6 out of 5-star rating on average, with 85% of customers giving it an Excellent rating and the remaining 7% giving it a Good rating. This overwhelmingly positive customer feedback is impressive for a business that has experienced such rapid development in its short time in operation.
Customers laud Wise for its affordable overall rates, quick and seamless transfers, and top-notch customer support.
September 25, 2022
- “Easy to use and very dependable”
Hassle-free and dependable. On each occasion I utilize Wise for an overseas transfer, I’m always blown away by how wonderful it is. They communicate clearly, the money is transferred more quickly, and it costs a tiny fraction of what it would transfer money directly from the bank. I appreciate Wise’s amazing assistance.
Critical Wise Comments and Criticism:
Based on some of the customer’s reviews, the following typical issues currently appear during Wise money transfers:
Canceled transfers and account deactivation: Due to this issue, several clients had their accounts canceled without prior notice. This could happen due to “security concerns, detection of multiple accounts, and conflicts with our Acceptable Use Policy,” according to Wise. The business will instantly close your account if it suspects that you are using it fraudulently or for any unlawful activity (such as money laundering). Naturally, customers who complain about this happening won’t admit that they were acting improperly.
We have no way of knowing how frequently this has been the case, but we tend to think that at least some of the consumers who had their accounts closed were not guilty of any misconduct.
Delays in Finishing Transfers: Customers frequently lament the length of time it takes for their transfer to be delivered. Transfers may take longer than they would if handled by a bank or a regular money transfer service due to the company’s innovative strategy of moving money through various currency pools rather than converting it.
September 6, 2022
- Scammed out of $500. I’ve only recently joined Wise, and I was smart enough to start by going with just $1,000. I made the decision not to carry large sums of cash as I had originally intended to use this card. And I am so appreciative of this. I must admit that I had no trouble getting an email response to every question as long as it was simple.
- They stopped conversing as soon as a difficulty arose and pretended to not comprehend what was going on. At the ATM, my card was compromised, and I was charged more than $500 in error. I’ve been in communication with them about this for weeks, but nothing seems to be happening.
BBB Profile:
Wise presently has a B rating and is not BBB-accredited. (Note that the company’s profile still lists it as TransferWise.) The company now has 209 complaints over the previous three years, 65 of which were filed in the previous calendar year. Additionally, 30 reviews from customers have been made, with an overall star rating of 1.7.
Clean Sales and Marketing Strategies
Wise is one of the most transparent companies we’ve ever encountered, and it has a great website. While the majority of financial services organizations only use their website as a marketing tool, Wise uses it as a very minimal sales tool. Instead, it provides a thorough breakdown of how its services operate and what they will cost you. There are no deceptive promises or sales gimmicks, and the content is easy to understand and explore.
Our Verdict
Although Wise is not a bank, it is governed by the services it offers quite similarly to a typical bank, which implies that it is equally secure.
In our review, we found that it is one of the finest options for sending money from one nation to another. It transfers money straightforwardly and safely in addition to having the lowest pricing. Money is transferred fast, taking only a few hours to two business days for a transaction to settle.
Both personal and professional requirements can be met by using Wise. Business owners can transfer money between different currencies and international destinations with the use of borderless accounts. Wise offers lower prices and streamlines your transactions. They are a great option if you are looking to send money via currency transfer.
