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Sokin overview
Features | Insight |
|---|---|
Monthly Fee | $0 |
Exchange rate | From 0.3% |
Transfer fees | $0 |
Transaction limits | None |
Multi-currency account | 75+ currencies |
Batch payments | ✅ Up to 5,000 payments |
Expense management | ✅ |
Pay invoices | ✅ |
Receive payments | ✅ |
Marketplace integration | ✅ |
API options | ✅ |
Manage Payroll | ✅ |
ATM Access | ❌ |
Forward Contracts | ❌ |
Scoring Sokin
Sokin offers a strong product in terms of core accounts and batch payments. However, the lack of forward contracts might put off companies looking for more access to currency risk tools.
- Combination of 4 local currency accounts and over 75 holding currencies makes it one of the stronger options
- Batch payments of up to 5,000 recipients, compared to 1,000 from other companies
- 1.2% transaction fee on incoming ecommerce payments is lower than 2% averages in the industry
- Doesn’t support holding South American currencies other than BRL
- No card spending and ATM support
- Doesn’t offer risk management and hedging support
Product offering
Sokin's product offering is strong, with 4 local accounts and support for many other currencies. It falls down due to a lack of card support and risk management services. Batch payments of up to 5,000 are a plus however.
Fees and rates
Transfer speed
Ease of use
Safety and trust
Customer feedback
Online review software is unreliable because it averages out scoring across a company, for decades at a time. To give a clear view of how Sokin is actually performing now, we analysed online review scores from a number of different sources, specifically for the business offering. This chart shows an average score out of 4.47 out of 5, per month, since the start of 2024, when Sokin started gathering reviews. February drops as there were no reviews of relevance online in that month.
Sokin multi-currency accounts
Sokin offers a newer, lesser known, alternative to international finance. The company offers the ability to hold 75 currencies and utilise local accounts. In fact, they offer more local accounts than Revolut Business.
Provider
Supported local accounts and holding currencies
Similarly to Wise Business, Sokin offers the ability to Send/Receive, hold currencies and have a local account.
The options differ depending on the currency, but this freedom is refreshing alongside the likes of Wise Business who have dominated the personal space for many years and have started moving into the business space more recently.
Local accounts with Sokin
For comparison, Wise Business offers 10 local accounts, Airwallex 12 and Sokin 4.
Established money transfer companies that focus on risk management and transfers specifically (like Moneycorp or XE Business) do not offer multi-currency accounts.
Currency | Account details |
|---|---|
USD | Account number |
CAD | Account number, bank code |
EUR | IBAN |
GBP | Account number, sort code |
Holding currencies
Sokin further benefits from the ability to hold up 75 currencies as well.
This means regular transfers in and out can be managed effectively, without a need for conversion.
As a comparison, Wise Business offers around 40 currencies that can be held.
The currencies that can be held are also particularly widespread and all offer sending and receiving ability as well.
These currencies are:
Africa
AOA, XOF, BWP, XAF, CDF, DJF, EGP, SZL, ETB, GMD, GHS, GNF, KES, LSL, LRD, MGA, MWK, MRU, MUR, MAD, MZN, NAD, NGN, RWF, SLL, ZAR, SSP, TZS, TND, UGX, ZMW, ZWL
Asia
BDT, CNH, HKD, INR, IDR, ILS, JPY, JOD, KWD, LBP, MNT, MMK, NPR, PHP, QAR, SAR, SGD, LKR, THB, AED
Europe
EUR, BGN, HRK, CZK, DKK, GBP, HUF, NOK, PLN, RON, CHF, SEK, TRY
North America
CAD, HTG, MXN, USD
Oceania
AUD, NZD
South America
BRL
Other sending currencies
The global coverage offered by Sokin is fantastic in my opinion. The benefit of business transfer companies like Sokin or Wise Business is that they offer the ability to circumvent bank changes for incoming payments as well. The wide range of supported currencies means the Sokin can really aid a business in accessing specific markets.
Expense management
Expense management is listed as an offering by Sokin, but this is more just in the actual payments - which could be for anything.
One of the downsides to an account that offers a lot, is the lack of card use.
Historically, in around 2021, Sokin did seem to offer cards as there are card fees and limit schedules (for Euro in particular). These are no longer active.
Sending and receiving payments
Sokin’s payment platform is simple to navigate, and API integration allows switching between a traditional accounting platform.
This is similar to other fintech’s like Wise Business or Airwallex - although both of these it should be noted are much further in their evolution than Sokin.
That’s not to say it is not useful, but there is an element of work in progress with any new company that should be expected.
Sending mass or batch payments
Batch payment limit | 5,000 |
Sending batch payments through Sokin offers more scope than most money transfer platforms. As leaders in the business space, Payoneer, Wise Business and Airwallex offer 1,000 transactions per batch payment - Sokin offers 5,000.
This is significantly more when considering the number of international employees or payments could run into the thousands, or even tens of thousands, each month.
With this, recipients can also be added in bulk and tagged appropriately as well.
These bulk payments can also be multi-currency.
All-in-all, Sokin’s workflow for bulk payments is easy to use and great to master.
Sending through an integration
Receiving money
Incoming business transfers into a Sokin account can happen in a couple of ways.
Into an account
Any of the multi-currency business accounts on offer can receive money into them.
If this is one of the currencies that can be held it will remain in the account. If this is one of the currencies which needs to be converted, this will happen upon receipt.
Via a payment gateway
Specific to those selling products, Sokin offers a payment solution. This is similar to something like Stripe and falls into the realm of cross border payments more than money transfers.
Because of the eradication of international card fees, the cost for vendors is 1.2% per transaction. For comparison, the Airwallex fee for international card transactions is 3.15% + $0.20.
This gateway can be added to a site and payments in all receiving options offered by Sokin can be accepted. These funds are then transferred to the accessible multi-currency accounts.
This gateway is supported by Open Banking.
Interest on balances
Standard interest on balances with Sokin is 1% in USD, EUR, and GBP accounts. This is anything Sokin users put into a Premium Wallet.
For 60 day periods on these accounts customers can increase this to 3%. This can be renewed every 60 days. This is anything users put into a Boost Wallet.
The difference here is the difference between a standard wallet or boost wallet. The Premium Wallet can be accessed any time, anything in a Boost Wallet only becomes available once the 60 days are up.
As such, businesses should be careful to not lock finances into a Boost Wallet that may be needed.
Account options
Within Sokin there are not any account options. There are no setup fees and no monthly costs either.
Sokin will make its money through exchange rates on top of a transfer.
The simplicity of the offering is a decent feature. The biggest difference is the Premium Wallet and Boost Wallet. The former offers 1% interest and the latter 3% for 60 days.
Feature | Business |
|---|---|
Access to 100+ currencies | ✅ |
Access to local accounts | ✅ |
Earn interest on balances | ✅ |
Multiple user logins | ✅ |
Make batch payments | ✅ |
Receive payments from marketplaces | ✅ |
API access | ✅ |
Accounting software integration | ✅ |
Setup fees | None |
Compare Business Multi-Currency Business Accounts
Selecting a multi-currency account for business can feel a little tricky with different options, local accounts and features. We've broken down the top accounts across the industry at the moment.
Fees and rates when using Sokin
Sokin is fee-free for most things, and uses the exchange rate offered as its core financial income.
Provider
Interestingly, the terms and conditions for Sokin are missing the link for fees - I have contacted them about updating this for users. :
https://sokin.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Plata-Capital-Terms-and-Conditions.pdf
4.1 You agree to pay the Fees as detailed in the Fee Addendum in addition to any
applicable supplementary Fees as detailed on the Sokin website which can be found
at [Link].
Service | Sokin |
|---|---|
Domestic Transfers | Fee free |
International Transfers | Fee free |
Currency Conversion Fee | From 0.3% |
Receiving Fee | 1.2% |
Holding currencies | $0 |
Card Payments | Not possible |
Monthly Fee | $0 |
Setup Fee | $0 |
Payment Tracking | $0 |
Mass Payout | $0 (currency conversion applies) |
Accounting Integrations | $0 |
Additional Fees | Not applicable |
Transfer speeds with Sokin
Provider
Sokin service and account management
Customer service options
Support with Sokin feels lacking in comparison to other providers and the site is very much driven to attract new customers only.
There’s not a huge amount of help for things like rates or queries ahead of sign ups. With this, there are no phone numbers and no email addresses either.
The only support options widely available on the site is a contact form.
Phone support
Availability | Not available |
|---|---|
Response time | N/A |
Languages | N/A |
Whilst there isn’t a clear email support option, it is possible to contact Sokin through a form and have them come back to you. We tested this with a few queries on opening accounts.
Availability | 24/7 |
|---|---|
Response time | 2 days |
Using Sokin
Using Sokin
We testing the following for ease of use
Invoicing
Integrations
Adding multi-user access for employees, roles and permissions
Paying-in and withdrawing funds
For each option the process was simple and easy to follow, Wise is very much a platform where you can see within one or two actions, how to achieve what you need to achieve.
Eligibility and sign up
The sign process for Sokin doesn’t throw up any unexpected hurdles, but you need to expect to have to provide details for KYC and await verification on the account.
Initially, just register to sign up on the site.
Determine local accounts
Wait for verification
Safety and regulation
Provider
Sokin is the trading name of Plata Capital Ltd.
Its registered office is at Plata Capital Limited c/o Mishcon De Reya, Africa House, 70 Kingsway, London, United Kingdom, WC2B 6AH. Registered Number 10958599.
The company is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Department of the Treasury as a Money Service Business (MSB) with the registration number 31000186536142.
There are also different types of regulated in place in Europe, the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore, India, Brazil and Mexico.
Safety measures
Sokin has some security measures in place, notably around fraud prevention. These include regular audits of accounts and looking for changing trends and patterns on accounts.
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User feedback of Sokin
Provider
Customer feedback and user reviews
Sokin is one of the newer providers of business transfer services on the market and the number of TrustPilot reviews available highlight this (17 in total). This being said, these are largely positive.
