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Key differences between Zing, Wise, and Revolut
Zing | Wise | Revolut | |
|---|---|---|---|
Founded | 3 January 2024 | 31 March 2010 | 1 July 2015 |
Available in | UK only | Over 40 countries worldwide | 38 countries worldwide |
Costs | 0.6% - 0.75% fees | Around 0.5%, variable | Variable fees based on where and when you transfer |
Speed | Within 24 hours, often instant | Often instant, sometimes up to 3 working days | 2-5 business days |
Transfer limits | £40,000 or equivalent | $1m or equivalent | No limit |
Product offering | Multi-currency account, free P2P payments, 30 exchangeable currencies | Multi-currency account, free P2P payments, 50+ exchangeable currencies | No multi-currency account, exchanges just over 25 currencies |
Ease of use | Easy navigation and sign up | Easy navigation and sign up | More complex due to tiered system and additional features |
Safety and trust | MFA, FCA accreditation, new company | MFA, FCA accreditation, well-known company | MFA, FCA accreditation, well-known company |
Customer feedback | Very limited due to youth of app | 4.5 | 4.47 |
Zing vs Wise vs Revolut - Cost
Winner: Revolut
Overall, Revolut is the cheapest option, but its fee structure is the most complicated. Revolut charges variable fees depending on where you send the money, and when you’re making the transfer. Transfers made outside business days (at the weekend or on bank holidays) incur a 1% charge, and fees vary between the different membership tiers available.
At face value, the costs for all three of these apps appear the same, but there are subtle differences. Zing has slightly higher exchange fees than Wise, at around 0.6% - 0.7%, depending on your currency pair. They also offer free P2P payments to other Zing users, provided you’re not exchanging currencies. They exchange using the mid-market rate, but during testing, Wise rates were always more favorable.
Wise averages at between 0.4% - 0.5%, with no markup on the exchange rate. Like Zing, they offer free P2P transfers to other Wise users, provided no currencies are being exchanged.
Speed - Wise and Zing are faster than Revolut
Winner: Wise
It’s close, but Wise just sneaks ahead of Zing on speed. Both apps are very similar here, with account funding processed instantly and currency conversions usually processed in minutes as well. It’s consistency that sets Wise apart, with its transfers more often being completed in minutes.
Zing claims to make all payments within 24 hours, regardless of the amount or destination.
Revolut pales in comparison. Most domestic Revolut payments are made in a sluggish 2-3 business days, with international payments taking even longer, averaging at 3-5 business days.
Zing vs Wise vs Revolut - Transfer limits
Winner: Revolut
It’s a close match here between Wise and Revolut, but Revolut takes it with its limitless transfers.
Wise is also very generous, with a high limit of $1 million (or currency equivalent), so long as the payment is made by wire transfer.
Zing is far stricter, with a transfer limit of £40,000. This is also the limit on the amount of each currency you can hold in your Zing accounts, while Wise and Revolut have no individual holding limits.
Zing, Wise, and Revolut - Product offering
Winner: Wise
Wise and Zing both have a multi currency account, with Wise letting you hold one less currency than Zing at once - nine. You can also make fee-free card payments with Wise in slightly fewer countries than you can with Zing - around 80. But, with Wise you can exchange more than 50 currencies, send money by ACH, wire transfer, debit card, or credit card payment, and the real kicker: Wise is available in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Zing has potential here, but at the moment it’s no competition. Zing performs very well on the whole; you can hold up to 10 currencies at once in your multi-currency account, the Zing debit card is free of charge, and you can use it to make fee-free payments locally in over 200 countries. What loses it is its availability. Currently, it’s only available for UK residents, putting it in a far lower league than Wise and Revolut.
Revolut services more than 150 countries, but only exchanges around 25 currencies. Additional banking features are available to paid members, but from a money transfer perspective, Wise offers more of what you need.
Ease of use
Winner: Zing and Wise
Wise has always been top of the pile for ease of use, but it’s met its toughest competition yet with Zing. Zing was clearly designed with Wise in mind - the app is streamlined and organized in a very similar way to the Wise app; even the text font and color scheme look similar.
Both Zing and Wise have all the information you need available clearly in the home screen. When you make a transfer, both give you a full breakdown of the fees and rates you can expect, and the process of signing up is also very quick and simple.
The only loser here is Revolut. Its complex cost structure makes the process of transferring more confusing, and the tiered system also makes the app more complicated than its rivals.
Safety and trust
Winner: Wise
Wise has earned its solid reputation in the remittance industry. Their user-friendly app and lack of a tier structure makes Wise the most trusted service of the three. They also offer a more transparent fee structure than Revolut, and pull ahead of Zing purely through their age.
All three providers have full FCA accreditation, allowing them to conduct financial business in the UK. They also offer layered security when logging in, each offering multi-factor authentication (MFA), including the option to record your biometric information to keep logins quick and secure.
As a very young app, Zing has to be marked down on general trustworthiness. All new providers need to earn the trust of their customers, but Zing has a small advantage. As it’s owned by HSBC, it has a large, well-known and highly respected bank behind it, giving them more than enough experience to run a successful remittance business.
Revolut falls down with their complex pricing and tiered membership structure. Users on the basic plan will always hold a doubt that they’re not getting as good a deal as they could be, and there’s always a sense of better offers being hidden behind a paywall. The complex fee structure also erodes a little trust, as it’s difficult to work out how the cost of your transfers has been worked out.
With a bit of time and more reviews from satisfied customers, we expect Zing to be a stronger contender here.
Customer feedback
Winner: Wise
Overall, Wise has an ever so slightly higher average score on review sites than Revolut. Their Trustpilot score averages at 4.2, with a 4.7 on Google Play and 4.6 on the App Store.
Revolut is very similar, with a 4.2 on Trustpilot, a higher 4.7 on the App Store, but a slightly lower 4.5 on Google Play.
At the moment, Zing is too new to be able to pull accurate customer review data.
Other apps
We take a brief look at some of the other apps Zing may be taking on.
XE
XE is available in more countries than Zing, with a higher transfer limit of $535,000. However, fees and exchange rates are considerably higher, and sending small amounts of money can be very expensive.
OFX
OFX has a much larger pool of serviced countries, at just over 170, and no transfer limit. But as a currency broker, its structure is very different to the likes of Zing, Wise, and Revolut. There’s a high minimum transfer limit of $1,000, so small transactions with a debit card aren’t possible.
Wise still holds the crown, but Zing has huge potential
Wise is still in the lead, with Revolut not far behind, but Zing has a strong business model. With the might of HSBC behind it, Zing has great funding for a new money transfer service. As well as this, Zing is already ahead of Wise in some areas, with more currencies available in a multi-currency account, and more countries accepting the Zing debit card.
When it comes down to it, it's only Zing’s youth and UK exclusivity that holds it back. With a small expansion, in a year or so, it could be a serious player in international transfers.
Zing is only available in the UK
If you’re looking to send money from Europe or the US, you’ll need another provider. We recommend Wise. If you’re making a transfer from South America, Global66 is a good way to send money abroad. If you’re sending money from somewhere else, OFX and XE are widely available.
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