Review of Wise (Formerly TransferWise) international money transfer services 

Wise: low-cost international transfers + user-friendliness.

Transfer costs differ for developed and developing countries. When opening a multi-currency account for receiving bank details (the US, EU, UK, etc.) it is necessary to top up its balance.

Fees for international transfers Wise (Formerly TransferWise)

For convenience, the table shows the fee in the respective currency and / percentage, the minimum fee charged when paying for a transfer from a bank account (direct debit, ACH) is indicated. The fee structure (= all possible surcharges) can be found in the Wise price calculator. The money remaining after deducting the commission will be converted into your local currency at the average market rate, which you can see for example on Google (not relevant for large amounts, they take a percentage of the transfer).

* Minimum amount you can send varies from country to country, but can be as low as $0.93 or 0.5 EUR (with the minimum fee of 0.41 EUR); the maximum amount is limited to $2,000 if using a debit or credit card, but can be up to $1 million (EUR1.2 million) for a SWIFT/ wire transfer.
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Channels and options of Wise international money transfers.

You can transfer money abroad through the Wise website or mobile app.

You can send a transfer from a bank account (including bank debit or ACH, SWIFT or Wire Transfer), debit or credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.

You can only receive transfers to your bank account or card.

Fast delivery of funds to the recipient's account is possible when transferring money via debit or credit card.

The chosen transfer payment option can have a significant impact on the overall costs.
For example, if you transfer 1000 USD to India, you have to pay from 9.26 (ACH, direct debit) and up to 43.43 USD (credit card).
When transferring 1000 EUR the commission will make from 5.58 to 9.64 EUR for fast transfer.
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Wise (Formerly TransferWise) pros.

Low costs: for most countries, a transfer fee is calculated by adding a flat amount under $1 to less than 1% of the transfer amount. The fee is higher when a credit card is used, transfers from a bank account or using debit card are usually cheaper. Your bank may charge significant fees for international SWIFT / wire transfer to your Wise account.

Unlike banks and other international money transfer providers, for currency conversion, Wise (Formerly TransferWise) does not charge markups and uses the mid-market exchange rates.

The Wise website is very convenient. Right on the home page you can find a calculator that allows you to immediately determine the commission for an international money transfer, the site has the mid-market currency exchange rate tracker, the FAQs section is well organized and useful.

The account settings are simple and straightforward, there are several ways to sign up: register with Wise (Formerly TransferWise) using your email address or using your Apple, Google or Facebook account.

 After setting up a transfer, the transfer rate is guaranteed and won't change for a specified period of time; unpaid and unconverted transfers can be cancelled.

Especially interesting is the possibility to open the Wise multi-currency account, which allows its user to send and receive international money transfers at the average market exchange rate and get Australian account number and BSB code, UK account number, sort code and IBAN bank code, Euro bank code and IBAN, the US account, wire transfer and routing numbers and even more; these bank details will enable you to receive payments from Australia, Eurozone, USA, UK at a very low cost.

Wise (Formerly TransferWise) cons.

Some other international money transfer providers (see Xoom, MoneyGram or WesternUnion) have physical locations, which can be of interest to people who do not have a bank account or card.

Transfers usually go longer than those with other operators, and in some cases it can take more than a week to deliver the money from one account to another: a few days for the Wise (Formerly TransferWise) account to be credited, currency conversion + a few days to credit the money to the recipient's account. But usually it takes about three business days.

You can reach the customer support by phone only on weekdays during working hours.

The main competitors of Wise on the market of international money transfers.

The main competitors of Wise (Formerly TransferWise) are Azimo, WorldRemit, MoneyGram, OFX, Remitly, Ria, WesternUnion and Xoom (subsidiary of PayPal). You can read our reviews of most of them by following the corresponding link.