- What are the key differences between Wise and Revolut?
- Which brand has lower fees?
- Which brand offers better exchange rates?
- Which brand covers more locations?
- Which brand is faster?
- Which brand offers more transfer & payment options?
- What do users have to say about each brand?
- What brand offers better ease of use, accessibility, transparency & security?
- Additional features
- Final verdict: who is better?
What are the key differences between Wise and Revolut?
Having rebranded as Wise in February 2021 with a view to diversify their products, the company previously known as Transferwise has been a staple in the global remittance world for 10 years. During that time the brand has garnered a reputation as one of the fastest, most inexpensive cross-border transfer providers.
The company manages to stay ahead of the curve through their promise to match the mid-market rate as closely as possible and a transparent approach to currency conversion and transfer fees. With bank accounts across the globe, Wise provides an expert service in moving money seamlessly between international users, offering excellent rates for more than 50 currencies, serving over 11 million customers.
Founded more recently, in 2015, Revolut is a virtual bank and is one of the newer money transfer companies to enter the alternative banking scene. Starting life as a prepaid card and smartphone app, Revolut’s primary product was a Mastercard “designed for a global lifestyle.”
Over the last 6 years, Revolut has expanded their offerings and now have a range of products and services to suit individuals and businesses, with different tiers of membership to suit customer needs. As the company works towards “building the world’s first truly global financial superapp,” we will be taking a closer look at Revolut vs Wise in terms of international money transfer and exchange services.
Which brand has lower fees?
We will be focusing predominantly on the fees incurred during the international money transfer process, including the cost of currency conversions, service charges and exchange rates to look at how Wise vs Revolut compares.
Customers are given the exact mid-market rate, so Wise make their profit through added fees. These fees vary depending on the currency pairing. Debit and credit card fees range from 0.15% – 2%.
Wise has a useful pricing tool which allows customers to calculate the related fees before making a money transfer, ensuring total transparency.
Money transfer fees differ for personal and business Revolut users; the list of fees can be found on the Revolut website and app.
Typical fees include:
- An international payment outside of SEPA (£0.30 – £5.00 depending on size of transfer)
- Currency exchange between 0.5% – 1% depending on size of transfer
- Transfers conducted on weekends and UK bank holidays incur a 1% charge
- Payments over £1,000 per month will incur a “0.5% fair usage fee”
✅ Verdict: And the winner of this round is… Wise
Wise offers lower fees, usually a small percentage of the amount being transferred, and they also guarantee the same mid-market rates on both weekends and weekdays. Revolut has some great deals but their focus on versatile banking services distract from their ability to ensure competitive fees of the same calibre as Wise.
Which brand offers better exchange rates?
Wise offers customers the best competitive rate on all standard currencies, without adding any kind of markup to the price. This means customers are receiving the exact mid-market rate that the banks use.
They also allow all customers to lock in a rate for 24 – 96 hours to avoid currency fluctuations.
Revolut’s strongest exchange rates are for sending smaller transfers in standard currencies.
During the week, when the market is open, Revolut matches the mid-market rate, with no form of markup. However, on the weekends, Revolut applies a markup of 1% to all currencies. For this reason, the exchange rate you receive on a Thursday, may have changed when you go to make your money transfer on Saturday.
Revolut suggests checking the currency exchange rate on the app before making any transfers.
✅ Verdict: Wise wins this one
Due to Wise transparency and ability to match the mid-market rate all day every day, regardless of whether the market is open or not, Wise’s FX rates are unmatched. Many business owners use Wise to send and receive international money transfers for this reason.
Which brand covers more locations?
With Wise, customers are able to hold and manage over 50 currencies, send to over 60 countries and request money from over 30.
Find the full list of currencies you can send to and from over on the Wise website.
Conversely, Revolut allows customers to hold and manage 30 currencies. Transferring money to bank accounts for free is available to customers in over 150 countries.
For a list of unsupported countries, check out the Revolut website.
✅ Verdict: Revolut is the winner of this category
When we compare Revolut vs Wise, both are very well supported across Europe; but Revolut wins due to the sheer number of countries they facilitate money transfers between. Advertised as “The Global Money App” it is no surprise that Revolut covers the most locations out of the two.
Which brand is faster?
Transfers between bank accounts happen in three stages: receiving, converting and delivering. Speed of transfer delivery is dependent on a number of factors including payment and transfer type selected by the customer, sending country and currencies used. For example, quicker delivery is available to those using a debit or credit card as payment.
Wise transfer speeds are as follows:
Low cost transfer: Funds will arrive with recipient within 3 – 24 hours
Fast and easy transfer: Funds will arrive with the recipient within 3 – 5 hours
Advanced transfer: Funds will arrive within 1 – 3 working days
As a UK based company, Revolut can transfer money between UK accounts in under 2 hours. Having said that, the average time for a standard money transfer is 1 – 2 business days depending on the bank, and international transfers have been known to take between 3 – 5 days.
Faster transfer speeds are available to those with certain monthly memberships; price plans are available to view on the Revolut website.
✅ Verdict: Wise is an industry leader for a reason
There are simply more options with Wise and the Fast and Easy Transfer option typically processes international transfer within 3 hours. Revolut is a fast service provider, but the fastest speeds are for UK based transfers, with international payments typically taking a few days to arrive with beneficiaries.
Which brand offers more transfer & payment options?
Payment options include bank account (SWIFT, ACH or wire transfer) debit or credit card and Apple or Google Pay.
In terms of types of transfer options, Wise offers 3 different kinds: Low Cost, Fast and Easy and Advanced.
- The Low Cost option is for those prioritising price, with less concern for the delivery speed.
- As the name suggests, the Fast and Easy option is all about convenience and speed.
- The Advanced option is for money transfers which require the SWIFT network and therefore may incur higher charges
More information about the different transfer types can be found on the Wise website or app.
Virtually all forms of money transfer methods are supported by Revolut, via interbank and intrabank transfers as well as cryptocurrencies, which were introduced by the company in 2018.
Payment options include debit and credit card, as well as bank account transfer; this incurs lesser fees. It is easy to make payments between existing Revolut accounts, using phone numbers.
✅ Verdict: Wise has more options, therefore, wins
When we compare Revolut vs Wise in terms of options, Revolut makes it easy for cardholders to send money, however Wise wins by providing various transfer types and payment options to suit everyone.
What do users have to say about each brand?
Positive customer reviews mention the following:
- Reliable, responsive human contact from customer service
- Transparent fees and charges
- Unmatched, reliable exchange rates
- Cheaper overall price compared to other service providers
- Trusted to safely deliver recurring transfers
Customers who left negative comments refer to:
- Price increases
- Slower processing speeds depending on country/currency
- Random blocking or deactivation of accounts
- Holding funds for unknown reasons
The inclusive rating from over 113,000 reviews of Wise on Trustpilot is 4.7 out of 5, which qualifies them as “Excellent”.
Customers who praise Revolut’s service mention the following:
- Easy to use, intuitive smartphone app
- Great variety of products and features
- Very convenient for overseas travel with minimum fees for spending and withdrawals
- Fast transfers
Negative customer reviews include subjects such as:
- Higher rates on weekends
- Locked out of account or account under review with no reason given
- Poor customer service operated by “bots”
Overall, Revolut has acquired a 4.3 out of 5 from over 75,000 Trustpilot reviews, also qualifying them as a “Excellent” service.
✅ Verdict: Wise has a better reputation
Wise comes off better in the battle of user reviews and is widely revered as the most reasonably priced money transfer provider due to their long-standing reputation and guaranteed mid-market rates. Having said this, despite being 5 years younger than its counterpart Revolut has made a good impression among customers and has received its fair amount of praise.
What brand offers better ease of use, accessibility, transparency & security?
Accessibility: Wise is known to have reliable and responsive customer service.
Transparency: Wise has a reputation for ensuring transparency, often offering to lock in an exchange rate for up to 96 hours.
Security: Not covered by FSCS, Wise does not have a banking license but are covered the FCA. They are a self-proclaimed “low-risk financial institution” who can help you save a lot on international money transfers. However, MoneyTransfers does not recommend using Wise as a primary bank account.
Ease of use: Wise has had over 10 years to streamline and optimise the user experience of their website, and it is now considered one of the best websites of its kind.
According to App Store figures, it would appear the Wise smartphone app is not as popular as the website.
Accessibility: The Revolut app is available in 24 different languages, it is quick to set up an account and offers 24 hour customer service, making it very accessible.
Transparency: The fee structure of Revolut differs for each country. It can be confusing for anyone sending international money transfer to exotic regions.
Security: Revolut is also not covered by FSCS, the platform is considered relatively safe as they did acquire a European Banking License in 2018.
However, if you are intending to move all of your money to a Revolut account, it is worth considering they don’t have any physical bank branches at all.
Ease of use: Revolut’s mobile app is considered very user friendly and has a first class score of 4.9 out of 5 stars (with over 413,000 ratings) on the App Store.
✅ Verdict: Wise excels in this category
While Revolut’s app is accessible, safe and easy to use, Wise has had more time to perfect and optimise their offerings as a money transfer service, and can offer customers more. Wise has a website and smartphone app, whereas Revolut is solely accessible via their app, making it harder to browse services, gauge a quote and lock-in a guaranteed rate for international money transfers for anyone who hasn’t set up an account.
Additional features
- Multi-currency “Borderless” bank account and Mastercard prepaid card: Compatible with Apple and Google Pay and can be used in 200 countries. Read the MoneyTransfers Guide to Multi-Currency Accounts here.
- Assistance with budgeting and saving goals such as Revolut’s Vault, which offers to round up transactions, depositing the spare change, setting up recurring payments or making one-off contributions
- Cashback incentives for account holders
- Cryptocurrencies including BitCoin
- Phone and travel insurance
- Fee-free spending abroad
- Apple and Google Pay
- Various memberships and cards
- Recurring payments
- Direct debit payments
✅ Verdict: Revolut definitely takes the crown for this one
As a new and constantly improving alternative banking service, Revolut is able to offer customers an array of diverse features, products and services; whereas Wise primarily focuses on transferring money at a low-cost. Additional features vary depending on membership.
Final verdict: who is better?
Overall, Wise is the clear winner because of its transparency and no hidden charges approach. You can trust Wise to be upfront about fees at the start of a transaction. Also, they match the mid-market rate for many currency pairs and offer some of the industry’s lowest fees.
Revolut is a good service in limited scenarios, whereas Wise excels for any money transfer requirement. This includes domestic and international transfers. They are the smart option because they offer faster transfers and the best value. Compare the cost of sending money with Wise and you will struggle to find a better alternative.
April is a trained journalist and the Content Editor for MoneyTransfers.com. She has 10 years experience writing about a diverse range of subjects, from financial services to arts and entertainment. When she’s not writing about global remittances she can be found daydreaming about her next holiday abroad.