Wise vs Remitly – Send Money Fast with Low Fees

Last updated on January 28th, 2024 at 03:26 am

Wise vs Remitly – With Wise taking the top spot when it comes to the cheapest way to transfer and send money abroad, Remitly is a very strong contender. Read here Revolut vs Wise and Wise vs Payoneer

Sending money between Wise accounts gives you the ability to take advantage of Wise’s low fees and low exchange rates. You can receive your money in 50+ currencies or get it directly to your bank at very low fees and the best exchange rates. Remitly also offers the same features, and even allows you to receive your money in different ways – direct to your bank, as mobile money, cash pickup, or even direct to your home.

We’ll compare Wise vs Remitly below to see their features, and their Advantages and Disadvantages so you can make the right choice.

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Wise and Wise’s Top Features

Send Money for Free between Wise Accounts

Wise (formerly known as Transferwise) is one of the top multi-currency accounts used by a lot of freelancers and travelers around the world at the moment because of their very favorable rates.

The main advantage of having the possibility of a personal account with Wise is that transfers between two personal Wise accounts are completely free. No hidden fees. Even if the one sending you money is a client or an employer, no fees will be charged.

Competitive Conversion Fees with Wise

If you’re sending a payment in a different currency, a small fee is charged. And right now, Wise is known to have some of the most competitive when it comes to conversion fees. This is Wise, formerly known as Transferwise, is very popular for its least-cost personal transfers.

Multicurrency Account with Wise

With Wise, you can hold up to 50 currencies, and you can send and receive money in all these currencies. This helps you receive money for freelancing work, pay others, or send money between friends and family in a safe and non-costly way.

The Wise Card

In addition to being able to use Wise to send and receive money, and hold it in various currencies, you can now have the Wise Card to use your money and spend it online or offline. Right now, it’s not available for everyone yet who has a Wise account but it’s constantly expanding.

The Wise card is currently available for residents of these countries and regions who have a Wise account.

Europe

Austria, Belgium, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (only Metropolitan), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Gibraltar (British Overseas Territory) and the UK Crown Dependencies: Guernsey, Isle of Man, and Jersey.

Other countries in the European area:

Andorra, Åland Islands, Saint Barthélemy, Curaçao, Falkland Islands [Malvinas], Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Greenland, Guadeloupe, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Cayman Islands, Monaco, Saint Martin (French part), Martinique, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Réunion, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, San Marino, Sint Maarten (Dutch part), French Southern Territories, Holy See, Virgin Islands (British), Wallis and Futuna, Mayotte

Asia

Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan.

Oceania

Australia and New Zealand.

North America

Canada and the US (except for residents in Nevada).

Latin America

Brazil.

Remitly and Remitly’s Top Features

Send Money Fast and Cheap Abroad

Remitly’s main focus is money remittance. If you need to send money from the United States and other countries, to countries like the Philippines, Mexico or other countries, then Remily could be just what you need. They offer low prices and various ways to deliver your money so your receiver have the options to receive money especially if they have no bank account or if it’s a weekend and you’d rather receive the money a different way.

Remitly allows delivering money through various ways: By home delivery, by bank transfer, to a mobile money app, or cash pickup.

Deliver Money Fast with a Debit Card

You can deliver money in just a few minutes to your recipient if you’re using a debit card. This is best for emergencies or in times you really need to send money fast.

24/7 Customer Service

Remitly Customer Service has a really good reputation with it’s 24/7 support in English and Spanish. Remitly also have its live chat in English, Spanish and French.

Wise vs Remitly – Costs to Send Money and Exchange Rates

Sending and Receiving Money with a Wise Account

Sending Money with Wise

Wise tries to process international business transfers as soon as possible, so it’s possible to receive money instantly or on the same day. More usually, transfers can take from 1-2 business days, depending on the currency and payment method. You’ll always see the expectation dates on the app or website, at the time you process the payment.

Withdrawing money from your Wise currency account can be as simple as sending money to your local bank account. It works the same way as the ‘send money’ function so the same speed should apply as above.

Receiving Money with Wise

With the Wise Business account, you can receive payments in 10 currencies. This feature allows you to receive money in your account, like a local, stored in local currencies.

When you’re using Wise to receive money, you’ll have access to a US routing number, IBAN, UK sort code, and more for a one-time fee of $31.

This is one of our favorite features – something a lot of digital nomads need. We can work with various clients around the globe, and save that money in our Wise account in local currencies so that fluctuations are avoided, and we can withdraw just when we need them, and in currencies we like. Depending on the bank account you have, you’ll always need to withdraw in the local currency of your bank, unless you’re using a card that is directly issued by Wise.

Wise won’t charge you for receiving payments to your account details, with the exception of receiving a US domestic wire transfer and a SWIFT transfer that can cost about $4,14 per transaction.

You won’t be charged for receiving ACH payments.

Setting up your account details takes about a few minutes with Wise. Once you have your details ready, you can share these payment details to receive payments from clients, anywhere around the world.

You can also set up direct debits. You can also withdraw profit from sales platforms and convert between currencies using the mid-market rate. 

Sending and Receiving Money with Remitly

Sending Money with Remitly

Remitly gives low fees with good exchange rates. Money transfers and how fast they go to recipients will depend on how fast you want the recipient to receive it, and fees depend per country. You can check the exact fees here.

Let’s look at this example, sending money from the United States to Mexico:

There are 2 ways that you can send money through Remitly: Remitly Express and Remitly Economy. Prices will differ for the two, with Remily Express giving you an option to send money to your recipient within minutes for an additional rate.

Here are rates from a few countries you can transfer money to with Remitly:

Sending money to Mexico

Remitly Express	$19.40	$0 Fees when sending minimum $500 $3.99 Fees when sending less	Transfers Money in MInutes
Remitly Economy	$19.80	$0 Fees when sending minimum $500 $3.99 Fees when sending less	Sends money in 3-5 business days

Sending Money to the Philippines

When sending money through Remitly from the US to the Philippines, you can either choose for your recipient to receive money in Philippine Peso or US Dollars:

When recipient receives Philippine Pesos: $0 Fees when you’re sending to a Mobile Wallet, Bank Deposit or Debit Card. $3.99 fees if they are receiving through cash pickup or home delivery.

When you want your recipient to receive money in the Philippines in US Dollars, here are the fees:

0.5% of the amount you’re sending if recipient gets money by bank deposit or debit card deposit

1.5% of the amount you’re sending plus $2.99 if recipient is receiving via cash pickup

Exchange rates – Wise vs Remitly

Wise Currency Exchange Rates

One of the more popular features of Wise is that they use an ‘interbank-exchange rate’ more known as the mid-market exchange rate. Easier explained this allows Wise to have one of the best exchange rates when it comes to money transfers around the world at the moment. Go to Wise to get the exact rate. Wise rates are considered more favorable than bank rates.

Remitly Currency Exchange Rates

Remitly also offers really good exchange rates. For example, sending from the US to the Philippines, exchange rate is 1 USD for PHP 56.94

Wise vs Remitly – More Features: Convenience and Speed

How fast can you Receive Money with Wise

Ahh, instant sending and receiving of money is now a very important feature.

Wise tries to process international business transfers as soon as possible, so it’s possible to receive money instantly or on the same day. More usually, transfers can take from 1-2 business days, depending on the currency and payment method. You’ll always see the expectation dates on the app or website, at the time you process the payment.

Withdrawing money from your Wise currency account can be as simple as sending money to your local bank account. It works the same way as the ‘send money’ function so the same speed should apply as above.

How fast can you Receive Money with Remitly

With Remitly, Remily Express lets you send money within minutes, while Remitly Economy will take 3-5 business days, depending on the country you’re sending to and how they are supposed to receive the money.

Convenience in Receiving Money: Wise vs Remitly

Both Wise and Remitly provide a lot of convenience in receiving money. This is the main reason for e-wallets and digital banks. Managing payments are easy as well, as you can do this with both the official website and their apps.

Wise allows you to send money directly to bank for most countries or to their Wise account if they have one, and other countries have additional ways to receive money.

Remitly allows you to send money direct to bank, through cash pick up locations, to a mobile bank wallet or home delivery.

Security and Reliability with using Wise vs Remitly

Happy to say that both companies have the highest standards when it comes to security and their customer service. Both are huge international companies that can support these features.

2-step login for example allows you to put extra security in all your logins.

Wise will kick you out of the system after 10 tries of an incorrect password and will ask you for more verification.

Wise vs Remitly: Pros and Cons

Wise Pros

1. Wise (formerly Transferwise) biggest selling point is it provides a low-cost way to send money or transfer money internationally. Whether you’re paying/receiving money for work done, or sending money to friends and family, Wise is guaranteed to give one of the lowest costs in the market at the moment.
2. Wise allows immediate transfer of money using a debit or credit card.
3. No exchange rate markups – this is the Wise ultimate promise. The biggest differentiator they have among all the payment transfers available online is Wise’s use of the midmarket rate. Wise doesn’t charge a markup on the exchange rate.

Wise Cons

1. The biggest con of using Wise is that they only offer you to receive money ONLY to a bank account. Other money transfer services offer multiple ways for you to receive your money transfers.
2. Bank transfers can be slower than others. For example, if you funded your transfer through a bank account, the transfer can take up to a week, if not more. This is mostly because of Wise’s process wherein money is initially deposited to Wise’s bank account receiving money, the conversion process after, then the delivery to the recipient’s bank account. For the UK, Germany, India, and Mexico, the average waiting time is about 3-4 business days. Still not very bad, but definitely not an immediate transfer option.
3. US Phone customer support is only available by phone, from 10am – 3pm Central Time on Weekdays.

Remitly Pros

• Fast delivery using a debit card. Remitly has the ability to deliver money to recipients within minutes if you use a debit card.
• Free and/or cheap delivery options. The Remitly Economy option allows you to send money for fees as low as $3.99 or send over $1,000 for $0 to some countries.
• Promotional rates. First-time users of Remitly will get a significantly cheaper promotional rate for a limited amount of money, depending on the receiving country. (Expiration dates on these promotions can be changed by Remitly at any time.)
• Robust customer service. Phone service is available 24/7 in English and Spanish, and live chat is also available 24/7 in English, Spanish and French. Remitly’s FAQ section of its website has a clear list of common questions sorted by category and is available in more than a dozen languages.
• Strong mobile experience. Remitly’s mobile apps offer a resoundingly positive experience, earning a 4.9-star rating for iOS users and 4.8 stars for Android users, both on a 5-star scale.

Remitly cons

• Low sending limits. At $2,999 to $30,000 per day (depending on how much information you provide to confirm your identity), sending limits are much lower than some competitors’, some of which don’t put a cap on how much you can send.
• Credit card fees. Funding transfers with a credit card costs an extra 3% of the transaction amount, which is similar to what some competitors charge (though less than others).
• Long delivery times for Economy option. Cheaper transfers, using your bank account, take three to five business days for delivery.

Verdict: Which Way Should You Send Your Money – Wise vs Remitly

Both Wise and Remitly are trusted ways to send money around the world. Remitly can be a good choice if you’re sending $500 or higher because you can take advantage of lower fees and there are a lot of ways your recipient can receive money, including cash pickups and home delivery.

Wise on the other hand has amazing rates especially because of their ‘interbank-exchange rate’. The best way you can take advantage of best rates is to check the exact rate on the day you’re sending money and compare the exchange rates plus fees. Wise usually wins here but consider adding all fees.

Hope this helps you on deciding whether to send money through Wise vs Remitly. See you on our next article and let us know if you have questions.