Wise

Wise formerly TransferWise is a London-based startup launched by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann in 2011. Taavet Hinrikus was a former first employee at Skype. He mentioned his trouble of getting paid and sending money within different countries had brought him the idea to establish Wise. He then set up Wise with his friend, Kristo Käärmann.

Now in 2021, Wise has now expanded to a 2,200 employee business, accumulating over $1.1 billion USD of fundings and covering over 50 countries.

First free transfer

To get free first transfer of 5000 HKD, send us your details by filling the contact form and we will send you link to open an account with the bonus. /goto/wise

A New way of Sending Money Abroad

It is a new way of sending money abroad because you don’t really transfer the money out the country but use their local accounts in different countries to complete the transfer.

It is run based on a peer-to-peer technology. For example, if you want to transfer 100 pounds from the UK to the USA, the system tries to spot someone from the USA who would like to transfer from there to the UK. By so doing, the money does not actually go out of the countries, saving lots of procedures, but the money is sent.

Clear, no hidden cost, cheaper than banks

You can go to their website and there is a convenient transfer calculator to find out how much your recipient can exactly get. It shows you the 0.5% fee Wise fee you have to pay (minimum fee being 4 HKD) and the exchange rate. Easy and quick. You can also use calculator on our home page to see comparison to other services.

Also, they claim themselves to be providing the best rate, which is the market rate with no hidden cost. If you want to play safe, you can also check and compare the market exchange rate to see if they are providing the suitable exchange rate.

Credibility

Wise has high credibility and reputation on the Internet. The founder of this UK based company was said to be one of the first employees in Skype and when Wise becomes more well-known, it was widely reported by the Telegraph and The Economist.

Different transfer service comparing websites collect reviews from users. Wise has a consistency of collecting positive reviews from users. For example, TrustPilot has accumulated a high score of 9.5 out of 10 from users.

International

Of course, if you are sending money abroad, what you need is that they are able to operate in both the sending and receiving countries. Popular destinations that you can transfer to are:

  • The United Kingdom
  • The United States of America
  • SEPA Countries (Countries accept EURO transfer, e.g. France, Germany, Austria...)
  • India
  • Canada
  • Australia
  • Other Asian countries (e.g. Singapore, Korea, Hong Kong…)

However, you should be aware that as there are different deals and different restrictions in different countries and regions, the money you are able to send, the sending methods and requirements could be different. Wise has a complete list on their supporting countries.

Easy

If you have all the needed information with you, it is easy and fast. It takes 1 - 4 working days to complete a transfer. To set up an account, you need:

  • an email address
  • a password Then, fill in your personal information (name, address, Date of Birth, etc). After that, you can start filling in information of your transfer:

Wise calculator

To make a successful transfer, you should know:

  • The amount you want to send
  • The recipient's bank
  • The recipient's bank account number
  • The recipient's full name
  • The recipient's email address
  • The recipient's bank iBAN (for some countries) Depends on the country of recipient, the information you need could be different.

Recipient's details you need to fill in iBAN if you are sending to European countries. However, some countries do not require it, e.g. Hong Kong.

You can still send the money if you don’t know their bank details. However, your recipient needs to read the email sent by Wise to proceed with the transfer.

Transfer without knowing bank details Information you need to fill in if you don’t know the recipient’s bank account.

Although it is relatively convenient to send money abroad by Wise, we recommend you to read the details of sending money to your designated country to avoid disappointment.

Various payment methods

Beside bank transfer, you can pay Wise by debit or credit card, Apple Pay, or Android Pay, which allows you a lot of flexibility. However, you cannot pay by cash or cheque, so beware of this.

Developed and Up-to-date

Its scale has grown bigger and bigger. Now they have their own app in both Apple Store and Google Play. So this makes your money transfer easier, especially after you have all you account set up. Sending money overseas will be as easy as a pie.

Wise has their own twitter account as many big organizations do, and they update it quite frequently. You can always follow their latest news and insights and this gives you more confidence in the company too.

Security

Wise is regulated by different local regulatory bodies respectively. Wise is legit and has to follow Financial Institution regulations as banks and other financial institutes do. In the countries they operate, they have to follow various anti-money laundering, fraud and compliance laws. For example, in Australia, it is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and in Hong Kong they are regulated by the Customs and Excise Department (CCE). They have obtained traceable license number which could be found on their website.

As for the data communication, according to Wise, all the transactions are safely protected by the industry standard HTTPS encryption to keep the information safe.