Item: Wise
Rating: 10
Author: Marcelo de Vasconcellos

Overall Satisfaction with TransferWise

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I live in Brazil, and sending money abroad has always been a hassle. Besides the bureaucracy, there are these expensive taxes for sending the money. Transferwise solves these problems beautifully. Right now, I am living in the Netherlands as a visiting scholar, sent by my institution in Brazil. Since I receive my monthly payments into a bank in Brazil, Transferwise allows me to effortlessly transfer the money to my Dutch account. The money arrives very quickly and, most importantly, Transferwise's taxes are significantly lower in comparison with those of regular banks. In addition, while in bank transfers you only know the exact value of the taxes after the transaction, in Transferwise the amount is clearly stated from the beginning, avoiding unpleasant surprises.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It makes really quick transactions. You can transfer money to any personal account abroad really fast.
Transferwise charges very little for their service, in comparison with regular bank transfers and traditional providers as Western Union.
It shows the charges for the transaction up front. Such a cost is fixed, avoiding unpleasant surprises afterward.

Cons

TransferWise (at the time of this review) does not allow one to transfer money to all kinds of business accounts. This can be a limitation for people who want to use it as a way to pay directly for goods and services.
Sometimes it has problems with some credit cards. But the most popular types are accepted without problems.
TransferWise accepts fewer currencies than other services. But it seems like this is a temporary problem, and the company is making efforts to support transferences to all of the currencies.

Return on Investment

The money transfers became faster and more reliable.
The monthly transferences became cheaper since we started to use TransferWise
The clear pricing information up front, without waiting for quotes, helps to decide quickly how much to transfer.

Alternatives Considered

We had used bank transfers for several years, but TransferWise outdoes them in almost all aspects. It leaves out most of the bureaucracy, and it is agile and much cheaper. Also, TransferWise reliably sends messages as each step of the transaction is completed. Perhaps TransferWise's main limitation is that it does not support many currencies yet.

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Illustrator CC, EditPlus

Likelihood to Recommend

TransferWise is a practical way of paying employees abroad.
It can be used to pay for services and goods (but in most cases, the receiver must have a personal account).
Since most of the banks charge a small monthly fee for keeping an account active, TransferWise can be a cheap and fast way to make small transfers, helping people who need to maintain bank accounts in different countries.

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