This is a service I have been using for a while, so I decided I will share some thoughts. Keep reading for my honest TransferWise review.
My Story
I will start by telling you a little story. If anyone is interested you can read my story more in-depth here.
But let’s cut to the chase on this one. So, I am originally from Bulgaria and have been living in the UK for a while now. I first moved in 2016. And I had some needs to send money back home, or get money sent to me.
I also have a lot of friends all over the place, so sending money back and forth was a nightmare to say the least. Especially for Eastern Europe, banks there charge crazy amounts for foreign currency transactions. I am talking something in the sorts of £30 for a £200 transfer.
Then I tried different services such as Moneygram or Western Union. I thought they are going to be at least reasonable. Well, not really. Same crazy fees that ended up costing more than 10% of the transaction. Honestly, I never thought that something that seems simple like sending money would be so difficult.
Luckily, a friend of mine showed me this thing called TransferWise. It was a rather new service back then, so at first I was a bit reserved to use it. So I tried with small amounts of money and it gradually grew on me. Let’s get into the details on what is it, how to use it, is it for you and more.
What is TransferWise
In short it is a service that allows you to send money around the world. All you need is a debit card. The beauty of the thing is that charges a tiny fraction of the cost of normal bank foreign currency transactions.
It is regulated by the Financial Conducts Authority(FCA) in the UK.
Some Background
Transferwise is created back in 2011 from people, who had a very similar problem that I had. It’s created by two Estonians, living in the UK – Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann. They had the problem of not being able to send money in an efficient manner, so they had to spend a lot of money on exchange fees and bank fees.
So they came up with this solution called TransferWise that lets you transfer money across the world in a fast and efficient manner. It also allows you to convert different currencies at the current exchange rate. And, especially for everyone living in Europe that can be a pain in a lot of cases.
For example I personally have to convert from GBP to EUR to BGN quite often. If I have to go through exchanges every time I can see my money slowly evaporating in fees.
A Look at TransferWise
Let’s see how this thing works, how you can create an account and all the logistics. So, to create an account is actually as easy as it gets. You click here, you click on register, enter your email and create an account. Pretty much the same procedure as every other app or online service these days.
Then you get to choose on how to send your money, what currency you would like to use and all that. Here is a video that explains the process very well.
The whole procedure is actually really easy. All you need is a debit card or a bank account and you are good to go. You also have the option of creating a debit card called the borderless account.
The Borderless Account
What is this is basically a debit card that lets you send and receive money with low fees across the world. It supports most major currencies around the world and you can open an account from a lot of countries.
This is a video that explains the borderless account very well.
In short- you choose your base currency that you want to operate with and your account gets created in that currency. Then you can add and exchange different currencies within the app when you need it. You also receive £200 of free withdrawals abroad every month.
At the moment I don’t have this card, but I plan on getting one for my mom and then one for me. It has no monthly fees, so she can just use it when needed to send or receive money from abroad.
She can also use it for traveling as the banks in our countries are honestly garbage. Withdrawing from an ATM within the country costs decent amount of money, let alone ATMs abroad. So this would be a good solution to use when needed.
I personally don’t have that much of a problem since UK banks are generally decent in that regards, but I would probably get one of those cards for when I need to exchange money on the go. After all it have no monthly fees, so not much to lose really. Which brings me to the next point.
How Much It Costs
What I generally like about TransferWise is that they are incredibly transparent with their costing. This shouldn’t really be that much of a good news, but transparency is quite hard to get in the finance sector. Most of the time you don’t really know what exchange rate you are paying or if there are going to be some extra fees here and there, which has always bugged me.
Happily here you get to know the price of every transfer you make. You pay a certain % fee for every transfer and that’s it. No exchange rates or anything like that. You pay the official exchange rate of the day.
Now, different currencies will have different fees, so you can play around in their dashboard here. You can input how much you want to send and what currency and they provide you with the exact sum you will receive.
As for the borderless account you pay £5 for the card and that’s that. You don’t have monthly fees or anything like that. You also have £200 of free monthly withdrawals from ATM abroad. The fee after that is 2% in case you go over.
What I Like About It
The first thing I like about TranserWise is they have changed the whole industry a lot. Today you have a lot of similar services, but before your only choice was a bank transfer or something like Moneygram, which is pretty much the same.
They gave me an option to send and receive money back home, so I will always appreciate them for that.
Another thing I like is how transparent they are with their service. You always know exactly how much you are sending or receiving. Often that is not the case with banks, especially talking about exchange rates.
One more thing is that I can generally trust them. They are regulated by the Financial Conducts Authority(FCA) in the UK. You can also contact them easily either by phone or email. They also provide 2 step login option and security is one of their strong points for sure.
What I Don’t Like About It
I believe they have been kind of stagnating for a while. Their service is great, but I believe they can improve further on what they have already built. They can use their scale and reduce the prices even further, or bring more innovation in the field.
A lot of newcomers in the space offer very similar prices to them. I believe the Transferwise infrastructure is much stronger than most of those newcomers, so they can further improve and innovate in the space.
Also the borderless account is nothing too special. It is a good option for many people, but there are many similar options now, at least in the UK. Don’t get me wrong- it’s still a very useful card, but nothing out of the ordinary in the field.
Is It Worth It
Overall – yes, the service is worth it. You don’t really have any commitments to them or anything, you can just create an account and use it whenever you need it. Even with the debit card- you can have one and use it anytime you need it. You don’t have any recurring fees or anything.
So I don’t really see a reason on why it wouldn’t be worth it. It’s still the easiest way to send money abroad in different currencies.
Who Is It For
It’s for people who either travel a lot, or who have friends or family abroad. I personally find their service very useful, because I travel a lot and also have friends and family all over Europe. TransferWise makes it very easy for me to send and receive money.
Another use I can see is for their borderless account for people, who buy a lot of things overseas. If you buy stuff overseas their borderless account is very useful, as it doesn’t overcharge you on exchange rates.
It is also a great tool for digital nomads and expats. A lot of people that live in other countries or continents have trouble sending or receiving money. Transferwise is a neat solution to that.
Overall it is a useful card to have around when you want to buy something in foreign currency, or if you want to send or receive money.
Who Is It Not For
Honestly, if you don’t really travel much you don’t need their service or their borderless account. It is made for people who happen to exchange currencies every now and again. For example if you are from the US or the UK and don’t really travel, or send or receive stuff from abroad, you will find no use for this.
The main point of Transferwise is to save money from exchange rates. If you don’t happen to exchange currencies, there is nothing you will save. Hope you get my point.
Summary
Overall TransferWise is a nifty tool that have personally saved me a lot of hassle and money when having to exchange currency.
It is a good option for expats and people who travel a lot. There are now other apps with similar functions nowadays, but this is the one I use, so I wanted to share it with you in case you need to use something like this.
Also want to let you know that some of the links in this article are affiliate links. That means that at no extra cost to you, I receive a small payment if you decide to use the product. Still, this doesn’t change my objectivity in any way. It is your personal choice on whether or not you use a given product. I am here to give you my personal unbiased opinion, the decision is all yours.
I am also only affiliated with products that I have personally used and know how they work. Just want to be transparent with you and provide you with this disclaimer.
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