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How to Send Money Internationally with Wise.com: TransferWise Review for Travellers
Do you need to send money abroad? TransferWise (now Wise.com) is the most trusted way to do so.
Wise.com an online service that allows individuals and businesses to transfer their currency internationally at low, transparent rates. Instead of using a market exchange rate, they use a real exchange rate (aka. they don’t inflate their fees massively) when they do a money transfer.
With global coverage of over 70 countries, it can be used by anyone around the world! You can connect local bank accounts or use a free Wise multi-currency account that works in different countries.
You just need an account with them and then you can easily transfer funds without worrying about hidden fees or other charges. So if you are looking for a way to save on your international transactions, this is the perfect option!
Iโve used Wise.com (formerly TransferWise) for years.
When I moved to New Zealand, I needed a way to get my currency from Canada into my New Zealand bank account. But I didnโt want to pay hundreds of dollars to traditional banks for a wire transfer. And I didnโt want to risk carrying around a travellerโs cheque for large amounts of money for days (are they even still a thing people use??).
So I did some research and landed on TransferWise. Iโve never looked back!
To help you decide if Wise.com is right for you, read my honest review of using the service to transfer money around the world. Iโll even break down how it works so you can start transferring your money securely and cheaply ASAP!
Best Way to Transfer Money Internationally
Wise.com (Formerly TransferWise)
Best for: Travellers, Expats, and Digital Nomads
Pros and Cons of Wise.com
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cheap International Transfers | Some Delays with Transfers |
| Competitive Exchange Rates | Requires Documentation for Large Transfers (Over $1,000) |
| User-friendly | Only 70 Currencies |
| Transparent, No Hidden Fees | No Cash |
| Fast | |
| Knowledgeable Customer Service | |
| Free to Sign Up |
What is Wise (formerly TransferWise)?
The Name
Wise.com used to be called TransferWise.
Why did they change it?
Because they’ve branched out from just doing money transfer services. Now they also have a multi-currency, borderless account that you can hold. And they offer debit cards.
You’ll see me use both names throughout this article. It’s also partially because it’s still known by this name across the internet.
The Service
Wise.com is an online service that allows people to transfer money abroad cheaply and easily.
It was developed in 2010 by two friends who realized that money transfers shouldn’t be a hassle. You shouldn’t be wasting money on bank transfer fees, spending hours lining up to get your own money, or struggling to figure out which forms you need.
They developed a sleek and efficient online platform with some of the lowest currency exchange fees in the world.
If that’s not a recipe for success, I don’t know what is!
They quickly became the leading international money transfer provider for the USA and have become massively well-known in the travel world.
Although they didn’t design the program specifically for expats, the system operates perfectly to help people who live abroad, or move regularly as a digital nomad, transfer their money with ease – and without losing half of it to fees.
A Wise money transfer is cheaper than using your local financial institutions or Paypal to send money. And their customer support team ensures that any questions you have are answered ASAP, so you don’t have to wait around for days for an answer.
Thanks to Wise.com, I didn’t have to live off of $12 for 5 days when my job hunt in New Zealand took longer than I expected. I got my money in two days, so I wasn’t living on cup noodles!
How does Wise Work?
Wise is very easy to use. Once you send your first Wise transfer, youโll see how easy it is!
Before you commit to using TransferWise, you can use their free calculator. This allows you to check how much it will cost you to convert your money to foreign currencies, and what the exchange rate is.
This isnโt a gimmick or promotion, where the costs will suddenly increase once you sign up.
They are very upfront about the exchange rate and exactly what itโll cost you to send your money abroad. They even include the Wise charges so you donโt have to worry about hidden costs (like with Paypal).
Once youโve decided that you want to work with Wise.com (because honestly the rates have always been so much lower than any other money transfer companies I’ve checked), you can sign up for a free account.
You will not be charged for your account ever!
Then you complete the process of sending your money (Iโll go over this in the How to Send Money with Wise.com section).
Wise holds your funds in a local account. Then they use peer-to-peer services to complete your transaction seamlessly.
You wonโt even notice it happening!
They donโt actually send your money abroad.
Instead, they hold the money until they find someone who is looking to complete an opposite transaction. For example, if I was looking to send $100 CAD to Europe, and someone else was looking to get $80 CAD from their European currency, TransferWise would match us up. Then theyโd swap out our money.
So Iโd get that personโs currency and theyโd get my Canadian dollars.
This sounds confusing, but to your eyes, youโll just see that you get the full amount of your conversion for a cheaper price.
Most people donโt even realize that this peer-to-peer system is in effect! (I didnโt until years after Iโd become a devoted user).
And your personal details will never be shared with the other party.
Itโs super smart because it saves all of their consumers a lot of time and effort.
You arenโt paying a middle man to convert your money for high rates when you can just swap with someone looking for your currency.
Iโve used Wise.com to send money around the world and have always been enthused by their cheap, quick, and effective transfers.
They usually predict that transfers will take longer than they do, so Iโve always been pleasantly surprised to receive my money faster than I expected.
When to Use Wise (and When Not To)
Wise.com isn’t always the best option for travellers looking to transfer money internationally.
Wise is the right choice when:
- You want to transfer money quickly, but can wait up to 5 days to receive it
- You donโt want to pay high bank fees to get your own money
- You prefer to pay the best exchange rate possible
- You like easy to use services that wonโt give you a headache
- You want to track your transfer
- You want your money protected by two-factor authentication and other security features
- You want to send money to yourself or a person with a bank account on the other end (even for local transfers)
- Youโre happy to receive the money in your account and not in physical form (aka. direct debits, not withdrawals)
- You have an internet connection to make the transfer (you donโt need it for the rest of the process)
Wise is the wrong choice when:
- You want the money to arrive within 24 hours
- You donโt have an email address to create an online account
- You love banks and want to spend days fighting over wire transfer fees
- You want to physical payment options for the transfer, like cash or cheque
- The recipient doesnโt have a bank account
- You want to get the money as cash (you can do this by withdrawing it from your local account once itโs received, but Wise only offers digital bank transfers)
- You donโt want to be updated on your transfer regularly and like living in confusion about when it might arrive
Expat Review of Sending Money Internationally with Wise.com
I can’t do a TransferWise review without telling you my own experience!
I first found TransferWise when I was moving to New Zealand in 2018. I had heard of it before, but was fine living off of Canadian credit and debit card fees.
When I was moving to New Zealand with my Working Holiday Visa, I pre-booked a place to live after my month of travel was over. It helped calm my anxiety about moving to a new country that was so far away to have somewhere to stay.
But I had to pay them.
The company recommended I use TransferWise (the only smart thing they did in the months that I lived there).
When I saw how easy it was, I was hooked!
I started using it religiously to send money abroad, including multiple times to my New Zealand bank account when I was running low due to extravagant activities and the delay in finding a job (thanks Christmas holidays!).
When I moved to the UK, I used TransferWise to send money whenever I could.
However, my school in Oxford only accepted wire transfers from international sources. When I had to go through the hassle of a wire transfer (which never ended up working!), it solidified my love of TransferWise.
You see, I had tried to pay my tuition and send money for the second semester of my schooling so I wouldn’t need to be making multiple transactions. As it was more than $10,000 CAD, it would have cost a bit more on TransferWise.
I decided to be cheap and tried to do it through my bank.
Little did I know that it would cost me $200 CAD to send my own money to myself. And that they would have misprinted an O as a zero on the form, thus rendering it useless.
For months, I had to hold onto this useless cheque that had thousands of dollars pinned to it virtually. I couldn’t get them refunded until I was back in Canada, which until COVID I hadn’t planned to do for a few years.
It was incredibly stressful holding onto that money, having to get my parents to help me pay my school fees while waiting for me to pay them back, and knowing that the exchange rate was massively fluctuating in the meantime.
If I hadn’t fought for them to refund all of the fees at the original exchange rate for weeks, I would have lost about $1,000 to the process all for their error.
When I went back to using Wise.com, I had the money in my account within 36 hours, and I could track it along the way.
It was such a breath of fresh air and made me 100% convinced that it’s the best way to transfer your money internationally.
I even use it for my business now, both to send and receive foreign funds. It’s made working as a freelancer so much easier and has saved me thousands in hidden Paypal exchange fees.
So my review of TransferWise is 10/10 stars for expats, digital nomads, and travellers. This is the only international money transfer app that you need in your life!
TransferWise Fees
There are a few variables that affect the TransferWise fees that you will need to pay for your international money transfer:
- Amount of money you are sending
- Method of payment
- Exchange Rate
These variables mean that your costs will likely never be the same between transfers, especially because exchange rates are constantly in flux.
To help you predict how much your money transfer will cost, I’ve included a breakdown of how TransferWise’s fees work.
Breakdown of Fees
1) You will first be charged for the amount that you are sending. Wise charges a percentage fee based on the amount of currency you are sending. It is typically under 1%, depending on your currency.
This cost is how they fund the system of TransferWise.
You can see this amount on the calculator listed as “Our Fee”.
For example, for a $1,000 CAD transfer, the cost is $6.09 CAD in their fees.
2) Next, you will need to determine how you want to pay for your transfer. This incurs flat-fee costs.
These costs are (for a $1,000 CAD transfer):
- Direct Debit: $2.49
- Debit Card: $15.36
- Credit Card: $21.62
- Domestic Wire Transfer: $0.92 + Bank Fees
- Bill Payment: $0.95 + Bank Fees
3) Next you have to factor in the exchange rate.
This isn’t technically a fee, but a company that uses a higher exchange rate will cost you more money, so I think it fits to talk about it here.
Wise.com uses a mid-market rate. On any day, they are within the top 3 most competitive rates. My bank is usually a few % higher than they are, which means that it would cost me more to transfer my money as I would be getting less of the new currency.
Wise doesn’t have this issue!
Plus when you do the calculator to check your exchange, Wise.com locks that exchange rate in for 48 hours. That gives you plenty of time to shop around without fear that you’ll lose the good exchange rate.
You can view the exchange rate on the calculator under “Guaranteed Rate (48 hours)”.
Lowest Fees
To prove that Wise.com has the lowest fees, I checked how much it would cost to do a similar transaction on a few other sites.
Via my local bank, the cost would be over $80 CAD to send $1,000 CAD to the US And with my credit card, the exchange rate was 5% worse than with Wise.com for a purchase of $1,000 of USD goods.
On Paypal, I first had to make an account before I could even see how much the transfer would cost me. It would cost me $42. Their exchange rate was 2% worse than Wise.com. So I would be getting less USD than I would from my Wise.com money transfer.
Currencies You Can Send and Receive with Wise.com
| Australian Dollar | Japanese Yen | Indonesian Rupiah |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgarian Lev | Hungarian Forint | Indian Rupee |
| Brazilian Real | Croatian Kuna | Malaysian Ringgit |
| Canadian Dollar | Norwegian Krone | |
| Swiss Franc | New Zealand Dollar | |
| Czech Krona | Polish Zลoty | |
| Danish Krone | Romanian Leu | |
| Euro | Turkish Lira | |
| Pounds Sterling | Swedish Krona | |
| Hong Kong Dollar | Singapore Dollar | |
| US Dollar | Emirati Dirham |
First Transfer Free!
Because I know it’s expensive to travel and we all want to save money, use my promo link today and you’ll get your first transfer of $800 (or USD equivalent) free!
This is not a scam. I used a similar promo myself for my first TransferWise money transfer. It’s what got me hooked, although I was under no obligation to ever use the system again.
Transferwise International Money Transfer Limit
TransferWise is very helpful to use, but there are some limits. Expats may find these challenging if you’re looking to move your full retirement savings to another country in a single lump sum.
I never hit a limit while transferring money internationally, but that’s partially because I was looking for work, so I didn’t send money to sustain myself for more than a month at a time.
The maximum amount you can ever send with TransferWise is 1.5 million dollars. This is applicable for USD and CAD.
However, that amount can only be sent via Local Wire Transfer (which has higher bank fees).
Alternatively, your transfer limit is $3,000 CAD or USD when sent with a credit or debit card. Or $9,500 CAD or USD for Direct Debit transactions (with a limit of $30,00 in a 2-week period).
These lower amounts are through systems that have a lower cost. This means that it’s not as expensive to send money more regularly in this way.
I recommend that students and slow-mads like myself stick with the Direct Debit transaction limit. However, expats looking to permanently relocate should use the wire transfer option to incur a one-time fee that will cost more.
Is Wise (formerly TransferWise) Legit?
Yes!
Wise is VERY safe to use. In fact, I trust them more than working with my bank to send money, as that has routinely been lost or denied.
But don’t just take my word for it.
Wise is regulated by a number of international and natural financial bureaus, which ensures that your money is safe.
Additionally, your money is safeguarded, or kept in separate accounts where the owners cannot use those funds for the business. That means that your money isn’t powering the company in a pyramid scheme-style payment. Instead, your money is held separately.
Wise is also especially secure for users. Your customer information is always secure, so it will never be leaked in a data breach. This ensures that your bank records are sealed so no one can get into your account.
You can even opt for 2-factor authentication for every login.
With over $4.5 billion being transferred every month, they understand that Wise needs to be secure and operate above board. They work with local regulatory boards around the world, including Financial Crimes sectors, to ensure that you are taken care of and your money is safe.
Monito has given them a 10/10 score for Trust & Credibility. They even say that their security-wise employees fully trust and use Wise.com regularly.
Setting Up a TransferWise Account
To set up your account you will need:
- A piece of identification such as
- Passport
- Driver’s License with Photo
- Immigration ID or Residence ID
- Military ID
- A proof of address document such as
- Driver’s License
- State ID
- Bank or Credit Card Statement
- Bill with Address
- Local Government Documents
Have those two pieces of ID ready for the following process.
Be sure that the documents are legible, not expired, and clearly show your name, date of birth, address, and picture.
- Create a free account.
- Sign up using an email and a strong, unique password OR sign up with Google/Facebook.
- Verify your email.
- Follow the instructions in the email to verify.
- Send your identity verification document and address verification document. This can be in a scan or a photo uploaded to the system.
- Wait to be verified. This can take 1-3 days, but in my case it took less than 6 hours.
- Start transferring!
How to Send Money with Wise.com
Once you have your free account, it’s easy to send money with Wise.com!
Before you start, you will need:
- The recipient’s full name
- Does the recipient have a Wise.com account? If so, you don’t need their bank details.
- If not, you will need their bank details.
- OR their email address for them to input their bank details.
Ok, let’s start transferring.
- Open Wise.com and log in.
- On the upper left hand side of the screen there is a green button that says “Send Money”. Click this.
- This takes you to the transfer calculator page. Enter the amount that you want to transfer, the correct currency, and the new currency you want it to be delivered as. You can then select the method of sending the money to determine the cost and the time it will take.
- If you want to schedule a payment or make it recurring, click the blue calendar button beside the green “continue” button. This will open a calendar where you can pre-schedule payments or make them repeat.
- Click continue.
- Select your recipient. You can choose yourself and input your own bank details; someone else and enter their email or bank details; or select a business/charity for bill payment or donations.
- Fill out these sections appropriately then continue to the “Review” page.
- Review the details of your transfer and edit anything that needs changing. You can input an invoice number or some form of reference for your book keeping.
- Then click “Confirm and Continue”. Your payment is on it’s way!
- You can now track the payment and so can the recipient.
How to Receive Money with Wise.com
To receive money from others, simply give them your name. If you are a Wise.com account holder, they’ll be able to find you in the system.
This means that they won’t see your bank details except for the final numbers of your account. This protects your security, but allows you to verify that it’s you.
Once they send the money, you’ll be notified that a transfer is on its way and will be notified again once it arrives.
If they are sending money to you without your bank details, you’ll get an email asking you to input your bank details for the transfer.
If you don’t have a Wise.com account, you can still receive funds, but you won’t be able to get a notification of the funds unless they also input your email.
Wise vs. Paypal vs. Bank Wire Transfer
I’ve used all three methods to send money internationally to fund my travels and my expat life.
So let’s compare them.
| Wise.com | Paypal | Canadian Bank | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee for $1,000 Transfer Abroad | Under $10 | $40-50 | $80+ |
| Time it Takes | 1-3 Days | 1-7 Days | 2+ Weeks |
| Can Send Via Email | Yes | Yes | No |
| Competitive Exchange Rate | Yes | No | Yes |
| Track Your Transfer | Yes | Yes | No |
| Can Send $1.5 Million+ | No | No | Yes |
| Multi-Currency Account | Yes | No | No |
| 24/7 Customer Support | Yes | No | No |
| Regulated by Financial Bodies | Yes | No | Yes |
| Cash | No | No | Yes |
Wise Multi-Currency Account
As a traveller, I love this feature of the new Wise.com.
The multi-currency account (previously the TransferWise Borderless Account) is a game-changer!
It is an account that lets you hold up to 55 different currencies and exchange them for cheap exchange rates.
This account is perfect for expats, digital nomads, freelancers, and travel addicts.
The account is a digital bank account that you can use around the world. It allows you to hold different currencies like it was a local bank, so you don’t have to pay exchange fees for accepting USD or converting money back to your home currency.
It includes the details of a:
- US account with a routing number
- British account with a sort code
- European IBAN
- Canadian account number
- Australian account and BSB code
- New Zealand account (save the IRD hassles!)
- Turkish Lira account with an IBAN
- Hungarian forint and account
- Singaporean account
- Romanian Lei account
- and more!
This account has saved me so much time and energy.
I used to have accounts around the world (well technically I still do since I haven’t closed them all yet). They’d have some spare change left in them from when I lived locally before I moved. Then I had to worry about converting the money and sending it abroad, when I wasn’t always sure what I had in those accounts.
It also made it such a hassle to hold so many different cards at a time. My wallet was bursting!
As a freelancer, it was challenging too when people wanted to pay me for my work in different currencies. One of us would lose a lot of money on the transfer, even though I’d be happy to receive GBP or USD since I go to those countries all the time.
With the multi-currency account, you can have local banks around the world without any visas or landed immigrants requirements!
I wish I’d had this when I was fighting the banks in New Zealand over their IRD paradox.
Pair the account with a Wise Debit Card and you’ll be able to shop the world over without incurring additional fees!
Note: the account is free to open! But it does cost money to convert currencies between the accounts, just like it would if they were other banks.
I love the Jars feature that allows you to put money aside to save. This has been super helpful with my blogging expenses, as I can keep aside some money to save while I pay out my employees with the rest.
It can also help travellers keep an emergency fund in that currency available at all times.
And it can help expats save long-term!
Click here to open yours today!
Wise Debit Card
I’m so excited that the Wise debit card is now available in Canada. For a while, it was US only.
Open a Wise debit card to be able to make the most of your multi-currency account.
How does it work?
When you use the card in a country, it will automatically use the local currency from your multi-currency account. If you don’t have that currency, it will auto-convert the cheapest currency in your account.
For example, if I went to the US and used the card, it would use the USD I have in the account. However, if I used up the USD and continued to use the card, it would switch to using whatever currency I had in my account that had the cheapest conversion rate.
When tied with your multi-currency account, it can also work as a MasterCard visa, wherever MasterCard is accepted.
What you can do
- Make online payments in over 150 currencies
- Make in-person payments in over 150 currencies
- Add your virtual card to Apple Pay or Google Pay
- 2 free ATM withdrawals overseas per month (up to $350 CAD total)
Click here to get yours today!
Avoid Expensive Fees
No annual fees!
No transaction fees!
Hallelujah!
Canadian banks are notoriously horrible for foreign transactions. It costs $5CAD for a single withdrawal in most cases, if not more.
If it’s free, there are massive hidden costs, like needing to keep a certain amount of money in the account that you can’t invest.
I’ve spent literal years wasting money on international transfers and withdrawals, opening and closing savings accounts with different banks to try in vain to find a good travel account. Now I can safely rely on TransferWise’s debit card to help me out.
The only negative I can find is that I can’t invest the money in those accounts. But since I don’t keep large sums in there, it’s not a real issue for me.
As long as I’m not paying fees, at least the money isn’t being reduced in the accounts even if it’s not growing.
Click here to get yours today!
Real Customer Reviews of Transferwise
I don’t want you to just take my word for it, so I’m sharing the positive and negative reviews that have been said about TransferWise and my opinions on them.
The majority of customer complaints are related to:
- Transfers taking longer than expected (usually due to an unexpected delay or lack of documentation provided)
- Need to provide documentation before being able to send large sums of money
Positive reviews focus on:
- Reliable service
- Ease of use
- Fast money transfers
- No hidden fees
- User-friendly
- Customer service is helpful with all issues
- Inexpensive
Wise.com is so wonderful that they have a whopping 4.6 /5 score on Trustpilot, with over 142,000 reviews! (For reference, Paypal has a score of 1.2/5).
Note: Most negative reviews are about the business accounts with Wise.com.
I will note that Wise.com has a lot of problems with those accounts and I have witnessed them firsthand. However, their personal accounts are excellent!
Small businesses are better off using Paypal – even though the rates are higher – if you need an international business account. Wise can still to the international bank transfers fine.
Review 1
Automation is one of my favourite parts of TransferWise. It means you need minimal internet and can do your transfers in seconds!
Review 2
I can’t speak to American banks, but typically you do have to wait and see with things like this. Banks are notoriously slow for processing data and TransferWise can’t control that, nor can they do any more than you can with your US bank.
Review 3
I agree, Wise.com has only improved over the years.
Any time you have an issue an report it, they fix it immediately!
Review 4
Another reason I love TransferWise: their support team are so good!
I’ve had them fix issues like this for me within hours.
Review 5
I’ve experienced the same! Excellent exchange rate, quick replies, and speedy transfers.
Review 6
I’ve never had this issue as it went through to email with the document request ASAP.
I’d recommend trying a different email address, especially if you’ve checked your junk folder.
Sometimes support can also get you to send the documents to them via a link.
Review 7
It’s true that sometimes money transfers take time. But that’s pretty typical with sending money overseas. TransferWise does their best to be the fastest option on the web, but your bank may slow them down.
Also it’s normal for them not to be able to cancel a wire transfer, as a bank needs to process this. Once they start, they cannot be undone.
Trust me, I tried with my botched wire transfer to the UK!
Wrap Up: TransferWise Review
TransferWise is the cheapest way to send money internationally.
They are licensed by banking authorities in both the UK and the USA, so you know that they’re safe.
Even better, they safeguard your money in their own bank account, so you’ll never lose it if TransferWise goes bust!
With excellent online communication and a great app, you’ll feel very secure working with TransferWise to send money.
Plus, it’s free to sign up and they have an excellent currency exchange rate. Send your first transfer for free!
You can do everything online or on the app so you don’t need to talk to anyone to set things up if you don’t want to.
As an expat, digital nomad, and freelancer, I can say that Wise.com is the best tool I have in my belt for dealing with international money transfers. I now use it weekly in my life – and you should too!
Best Way to Transfer Money Internationally
FAQs About Sending Money with Wise.com
Is TransferWise safe?
Yes!
Not only can I vouch for it, but online scores show that it is completely safe to use.
Monito gave them a 10/10 Trust & Credibility Score.
Every user is verified with a passport identification.
The company is licensed in both the US and the UK with the local banking authorities. These include the Financial Conduct Authority, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Additionally, they safeguard your money. This means that they can’t use your money to run their business. It has to be kept in a separate account. So if the company ever folds, your money will still be there for you to take out.
Plus with the excellent online communication and the ability to track your funds, you’ll feel very secure working with TransferWise.
How fast is TransferWise?
It depends!
You’ll see the time estimates for your transfer when you select the method of payment.
Typically, it takes 1-3 days for a transfer to be sent.
The fastest transfers happen when you use your debit or credit card to pay. The slowest transfers are bill payments or wire transfers, as they require liaising with your bank.
You can track your transfer in real time to see how long it takes.
Plus, you can get an estimated delivery date when you are using the international money transfer calculator on Wise.com.
Almost all of my transfers have arrived in under 2 business days.
How much does TransferWise cost?
It varies!
TransferWise charges a percentage fee based on how much money you are sending. It is typically under 1% of the currency. For example, for a transfer of $1,000 CAD to USD, the charge was $6.09 CAD.
On top of that, there is a fee for the method of payment.
Using the cheapest method, direct debit, it costs $2.49 CAD to send $1,000 CAD to the United States.
This is far lower than the $42 CAD Paypal charged or the $80+ CAD my bank charged for the same transfer.
Click here to find out how much your transfer costs.
Does Wise have a mobile app?
Yes! Wise.com has a mobile app that works on both Apple and Android.
You can do everything you can do on the website via the app.
It has a high rating on the App Store, and I find it very easy to use as long as your screen is big enough for you to see the amounts (i.e. not a tiny Nokia).
Is Wise the cheapest way to send money internationally?
It depends!
In most cases, yes Wise.com is the cheapest way to send money internationally.
It depends on how much money you’re sending, where you’re sending it to, and how you’re paying for it.
According to Monito, in 2021, Wise was on average the cheapest money transfer service. This means that on 1/5 searches, they were the cheapest way to transfer money.
When I’ve done my own tests, they have always been the cheapest, and I’ve been sending money internationally regularly since 2017!
Do I need a Wise account to receive money?
Nope!
You just need a bank account at the other end to accept the money. Alternatively, you can use a Wise multi-currency/borderless account if you have not set up a local bank account yet.
Does my recipient need a Wise account to receive money?
Nope! You just need their bank details and their name to send them money easily through Wise.com.
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- Moving and Living Abroad Guide
- 28 Pros and Cons of Living Abroad: Why You Should Move to Another Country
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It depends – the best country to live in as an expat will depend on your unique needs. I developed this free quiz to help you figure out where is right for you!
📍 How do I pick a country to live abroad?
It depends – picking a country to live in is hard. That’s why I developed this $7 course to share all of the steps I’ve taken when deciding to move to 20+ different countries, and how I handle homesickness when I get there.
Ultimately, making the choice of where to move is going to be hard. But the hardest thing is deciding to move abroad at all!
💼 How do I get a job as an expat?
You can find work abroad via local job boards or temp agencies. My favourite way to work is remotely, so I always look for jobs on FlexJobs.com when I live abroad. They hire for 100% remote roles only.
If you’re looking to teach English abroad, Premier TEFL has the best online course to get you great work!
💰 How do I open a bank account abroad?
Wise.com offers free global accounts, and the cheapest money transfers. Since it can be a headache to open bank accounts in different countries (it took me 2 months in the UK!), Wise.com is a great solution.
I actually use it as my primary bank now worldwide due to the multi-currency debit card. (Read more)
👯♀️ How do you make friends abroad?
Meetup.com – Meet likeminded people who share a similar hobby with Meetup! It’s free to join, but some activities may cost money, like if you go to a cafe and get a coffee.
🙀 I don’t speak the language. Can I still live abroad?
Learn languages in no time with iTalki! Moving abroad is an opportunity to learn the language. You don’t need to know it before you leave home.
💻 Do I need a VPN?
Yes! – VPNs allow you to access more of the internet. From US Netflix in the UK to social media sites banned in Asia. It’s a really helpful and cheap thing to ensure your online activities aren’t restricted.
🧳 What’s the best luggage for living abroad?
This is my favourite luggage set for long term travel. You can read more about my review of types of suitcases for travel here.
🏡 How do I tell my friends and family I want to live abroad?
Take this $7 course and learn the exact script I used to tell my family I was moving abroad … and then when I did it again. I even include tips for prepping your family, and for how to handle family who aren’t supportive.
✈️ Whatโs the best site to buy cheap flights?
To find cheap flights, I recommend Skyscanner. (Read more)
🏨 Whatโs the best site to find cheap hotels?
To find cheap hotels, I recommend Booking.com. (Read more)
Or stay for free with Trusted Housesitters!
🚗 Whatโs the best site to rent cars abroad?
To find cheap rental cars, I recommend Discover Cars.
🚗 Whatโs the best site to find tours?
To find epic tours, I recommend Viator.
