If you’re looking to send money overseas, the many options available can get a bit overwhelming. While OrbitRemit is Australia and New Zealand’s most trusted online money transfer platform, they’re not the only option.
One alternative in the digital money transfer market is Wise (formerly known as TransferWise). Wise is an online account that lets you send money overseas, get paid in different currencies and spend money internationally with the Wise card.1
Like most money transfer platforms, Wise was launched in 2011 with the goal to make international transfers cheap, fair and simple.2
In this article, we’ll go through the key components of international money transfer with Wise and how they can help you to make a transfer.
What currencies does Wise support?
Wise supports many currencies in various formats. Customers can hold and convert money in 40+ currencies, send money to 73 countries and get account details to receive money in 8+ currencies.3 Check out Wise’s coverage here.
What does Wise charge for an international money transfer?
The fee charged by Wise changes depending on the service, how you pay and which currency you’re sending to and from. You’ll always know the total cost, including any fees before making your payment.
It’s free to send money from your account balance to someone else’s Wise account if it’s the same currency. If you’re sending money to another Wise account and currency conversion is needed, the payment is converted using the mid-market rate and a low fee will apply.4 If you send money to a bank account outside of Wise, there will be a conversion fee dependent on the currency.5
Transfer fees for sending to an account outside of Wise include a fixed and variable cost. The fixed fee covers the cost of the transaction and the variable fee covers the cost currency exchange.6
What is Wise’s exchange rate?
Wise uses the mid-market rate, which is the midpoint between the buy and sell rates on the global currency markets. Wise uses various independent rate providers to gather this information in real-time during the day.7
You can access Wise’s rate tracker to see the current mid-market rate and how it’s changed over the last 30 days, as well as sign up for rate alerts or to be notified when the rate reaches a certain value.8
How long does a money transfer with Wise take?
Converting money from one currency to another using Wise can take up to two days, but will usually take less than 24 hours to reach the recipient.9 Converting money between your Wise account balances is instant.
Wise provides an estimate of how long your transfer should take when you input the details. The more information provided, the more accurate the estimate will be. The estimate is based on 4 key things – the send and receive currencies, payment method, time of payment and security checks.10
How to sign up with Wise?
To open a Wise account and start sending money internationally, you can download the Wise app or visit the Wise desktop site and click register. Create your account using an email address, Apple ID, Google ID or Facebook details and add your personal information by following the prompts.11
You will need to become verified using photo ID, proof of address and a picture of yourself holding the ID. Getting verified can take up to two days.
Once verified, you can top up your balances, order an international debit card and start making international transfers.
How to contact Wise?
If you need support, Wise recommends first checking their Help Centre, followed by your email to see if you’ve been contacted by the support team already.12 If you can’t find the solution in these places, log in to your account to contact customer support via phone or email.
Can I trust Wise with my money?
In short, yes.
Wise adheres to strict regulatory guidelines in order to ensure your money and personal details are protected. Not only does Wise send more than $8 billion around the world every year, they use a number of safety features to protect customer’s money, including account verification, 2 factor identification and 24/7 anti-fraud measures.13
In Australia, they are regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and hold an Australian Financial Service (AFS) licence to be able to carry out business (ref currency shop). They are also registered with the Financial Intelligence Unit (AUSTRAC) as a money remitter.14
If you found this page while comparing options for online money transfer, you’re in the right place! As we already mentioned, OrbitRemit is Australia and New Zealand’s most trusted international money transfer platform, with a 4.9/5 star rating on Trustpilot from over 30,000 reviews. Don’t believe us? Even Wise agrees we outrank other providers! Check out what they had to say about us in the article excerpt below.
Sources
- Wise Help – Tips for getting started with Wise ↩︎
- Wise About – Our story ↩︎
- Wise Business – Multi-currency banking ↩︎
- Wise Blog – Transfer between currency accounts ↩︎
- Wise Help – How much does it cost to send money from a balance? ↩︎
- The Currency Shop – Wise fees ↩︎
- Wise Help – What’s the real exchange rate ↩︎
- Wise – Mid-market rate ↩︎
- Wise Help – How long does converting money take? ↩︎
- Wise Help – How long does a transfer take? ↩︎
- The Currency Shop – How to receive money from overseas using Transferwise ↩︎
- Wise Help – How do I contact Wise? ↩︎
- Wise Help – How Wise keeps your money safe? ↩︎
- The Currency Shop – Transferwise safety ↩︎
- Wise Blog – Is OrbitRemit safe in Australia? ↩︎