Money transfer comparison | Compare best exchange rates - Wise (2024)

We always move your money as quickly as possible. You can see an estimate of how long it’ll take by putting some basic details into our transfer calculator on our homepage.

But when you actually set up your transfer on Wise, your estimate will change. The reason for this is simple — the more information we have about your transfer, the more accurately we can tell you how long it’ll take. And it depends on these 4 things:

1. The countries you’re sending from and to. Every currency and country is different. Converting your money can take a maximum of 2 working days, but it’s very rare that it takes this long. And how quick your transfer arrives depends on how quickly your recipient’s bank can process your money, as well as the ways you’re able to pay in the country you’re sending from.

2. How you pay. Some payment methods are quicker than others. For instance, card payments are normally instant, while bank transfers take longer. You’ll see how long each payment method takes when you set up your transfer.

   If you’re sending money from GBP, we offer different types of transfers like Low cost transfers and Fast and easy transfers. In this case, the speed of your transfer will depend on the type you choose.

3. What time you pay for your transfer. We can only move your money during normal banking hours. And things may take a little longer if the country you’re sending to has a national holiday.

4. Security checks. We might need to verify things like your ID, address, or where you got the money from, when you make a transfer. We call this process verification, and it helps us keep you and your money safe. Verification can add extra time to your transfer on top of the initial estimation.

You can see the full breakdown of fees for your transfer route on our pricing page.

Wise only charges you a low service fee and uses the real, mid-market exchange rate for conversion. The fee is taken from the money that you send to us. The rest is converted and sent to your recipient.

More about pricing.

The important thing to remember is that there is only one real exchange rate. Sometimes this is called the mid-market rate, interbank rate, and spot rate, amongst other things.

The real exchange rate is the midpoint between the buy and sell rates on the global currency markets and it constantly fluctuates. It's the rate you find on Google, finance.yahoo.com, etc., and it’s the rate Wise gives you when you send money to over 70 countries.

With some currencies, we offer a guaranteed rate.

You can see more information on our dedicated mid-market rate page.

Your Wise account is a bit like having local accounts all over the world.

It's a multi-currency account that lets you keep money in over 40 currencies, and convert between them at the real exchange rate whenever you need.

That's cool to start with, but on top of that you also get your own personal account numbers and bank codes for a number of currencies. For instance, you get a UK sort code and account number, which anyone in the UK can use to send you pounds. You'll get paid as if you live there, with zero fees.

Oh, and it's completely free to set up.

More about Wise account.

In a word: yes!

With Wise, you get the real exchange rate (the one you see on Google and Yahoo), and you pay a small fee. The service is fair, transparent, and costs far less than high street banks and other currency exchange services.

But I don't usually pay a transaction fee!

Unfortunately, this is what many have been led to believe.

But there's no such thing as a free transfer. Your nasty surprise is hiding away in an unfair exchange rate. Whether you've been told it or not, on average you're losing around 5% in fees.

The good news is, we built Wise specifically to free people from those fees.

Finally, transparency and fairness in finance. It's about time!