Formerly named TransferWise, Wise was founded in 2011, with its headquarters in London. Its offices are now spreading all around the world.
Wise is mainly an online account you can transfer or receive money to and from abroad. You can send money abroad with low fees. It’s favored by many clients because of its transparency and its use of real exchange rates.
Wise offers many advantages to both individuals and companies, compared to other international money transfer applications.
How the Money Transfer Works With Wise
First of all, the company has many accounts throughout the world. If you decide to send money abroad, first you pay the local currency into the local account of Wise. Then, the overseas recipient receives the money from the Wise account in that country. So, the recipient in fact receives the local currency of the country they are in. This means that your money does not travel from one country to the other. Wise sends the same amount from the local account.
To give an example of this, consider you’ll send €1,000 from the US to a friend in the UK. The first thing is to link your US bank account to your Wise account. Then, you fill in your friend’s UK bank information. Now, Wise transfers €1,000 into its own US account. It then gives an order to the UK account. Now, the UK account sends the amount to your friend’s account in pounds. So, Wise money transfer not only transfers but also exchanges the money at the same time.
Transparent: You Can See the Fees Beforehand
It is through the transaction fees that Wise makes its profit. Before you complete your transaction, you can see the calculated amount of the transfer fee. On its homepage, there’s a converter you can use to learn the amount beforehand.
There are no hidden fees in Wise. Therefore, you can see exactly what you need to pay at each step. The fees are also quite low, and Wise uses the mid-market exchange rate, not the tourist rate.
It’s a fact that you’ll pay different fees every time depending on the transaction and the currency. Fees also vary depending on the speed of the transfer. Still, you’ll be shown the fees easily on the homepage beforehand.
Another feature is the “guaranteed rate”. This means that Wise locks in the exchange rate it has indicated before you send the money. This prevents the rate from going up before the money reaches its destination.
Multi-currency Account is Another Useful Feature
Formerly known as TransferWise borderless account, the multi-currency account provides multiple accounts. You can keep money in more than 50 currencies on this account. When you relocate or travel abroad, you can use it like a local.
It also comes with a debit MasterCard. You can use the card in more than 200 countries. You’ll only pay £5 when you order the card. Other than this, you’ll not pay for any card transaction if you have a relevant currency.
You may have a British pound (GBP) account, and you want to send money to a GBP account. In that case, Wise automatically uses the GBP balance. If you’ll send more money than you have, it converts from another currency to close the gap. It’s also possible to convert from one currency to another when one of the balances is too low. You can also transfer money from a card, bank/Swift transfer to your Wise account.
Business Account is Also Available
It is easy to open a Wise business account from anywhere in the world. Through the business account, you can pay people abroad in the related local currency. You can also pay invoices and receive payments from clients.
It proves useful for small businesses and sole traders as well. Also, Wise offers different business accounts depending on the size of the business. You can pay 1,000 people at once, with a low transaction fee. It shares lots of the same features with individual Wise accounts.
Regulators Work in All Wise Countries
As you can see, Wise pays attention to the funds’ security and transparency. There are also authorities in the countries that Wise operates in. They regulate the company accordingly in each country.
In short, Wise has proved its reliability through these 10 years. Today, it has 10 million customers actively making transactions. The transparency and the relatively low transaction fees have made it a much-praised application.
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