By Anwar Hussen Mohammed – The increasing services charges and hidden fees by banks has been one of the main challenges while transferring funds from one country to another. In most cases small business and freelancers receiving their service fees via banks and most money transferring companies are the most vulnerable ones.
This is because the large and hidden service charges result in reduction of the money they receive at the end of the day. On the other hand, big businesses which recruit these freelancers and outsource their services to small business are also forced to incur substantial additional services fees, especially when they transfer large sums of money.
It is with the aim of addressing these challenges and other international payment related bottlenecks that Wise introduced its new innovative services. Wise has managed to help businesses and individuals, mainly freelancers, international travelers, international students, to send money and receive cash instantly in a much cheaper cost compared to banks and other money transferring agencies. Wise is on average seven times cheaper than old-school banks when you send, spend, or withdraw money around the world. That is why it was rated this year as the best money transfer company in the world.
Today Wise is one of the world’s fastest growing tech firms having raised over $1 billion in primary and secondary transactions from investors such as D1 Capital Partners, Lead Edge, Lone Pine, Vitruvian, IVP, Merian Chrysalis Investment Company Ltd, Andreessen Horowitz, Sir Richard Branson, Valar Ventures and Max Levchin from PayPal. Over 10 million people use TransferWise, which processes over £4.5bn in cross-border transactions every month, saving customers over one billion pound sterling a year.
Wise builds products that solve the problems of the clunky old-school financial system, making international banking and cross-currency payments fast, easy, transparent, and ridiculously cheap. Today, over 10 million people and businesses use Wise products to make money easier when they live, work, travel or do business around the world.
The beginning
It was co-founded by two friends, Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Käärmann in 2011. Taavet, who was the first employee at Skype, lived in London but got paid in euros. Kristo worked for Deloitte, also lived in London, and got paid in pounds. But he had a mortgage in euros back in Estonia.
They both moved their money with their banks — which had expensive fees and bad exchange rates. They knew there had to be a better way. So, they put their heads together and invented a beautifully simple workaround – Wise, formerly TransferWise,
What is Wise?
Wise is the global technology company building the best way to move money around the world.
What’s the Wise account?
Wise, is an international account for over 50 currencies, with instant, super-cheap money transfer, a card to spend in any currency, bank details to get paid in 30 different countries, multi-currency direct debits, and other revolutionary stuff.
What are the main features of the Wise account?
• Balances – you can hold and convert money between the 50+ currencies in which we offer Wise balances. We always use the real exchange rate to convert your money which makes our service up to 7 times cheaper than traditional banks.
• Bank details – we offer local bank details in 10 currencies (US dollars, British pounds, Euro, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and Singapore dollar, as well as Hungarian forint, Romanian leu and Turkish lira). You can use these bank details to receive money for free into your Wise account, which you can then convert or hold.
• Direct debits – our US, British pound and Euro bank details allow you to set up direct debits to pay for utility bills or any other subscriptions or automated payments.
• Debit card – with the Wise Visa card, you can spend in over 200 countries without the hidden fees. Add it to your Apple or Google wallets for convenient use.
• Money transfers – send money to over 60 countries at the real exchange rate and low, transparent fees.
• Jars – Money in a jar is kept separately from your balances, if you are saving it for something later. You can’t accidentally spend it with your debit card, and you can’t send it or use it to pay Direct Debits. You can open as many jars as you need to organize your money.
What’s Wise Business?
It’s the business account for going global. It’s the only business account you need to grow and operate internationally — without the high fees, hefty admin, and headache of a local bank.
Who is the Wise account for?
Wise is perfect for anyone living an international life. This includes expats, travelers, freelancers, international students, businesses, and digital nomads. Today anyone who needs to send, spend or receive money internationally will benefit from using the Wise account and debit card.