Why the brouhaha over TransferWise?
While I love the slick look of TransferWise, I struggle to justify using it to make my transfers. To me, a transfer service should provide the following 3 things in that order:
- Best Rate
- Fast Delivery
- Security
Everything else really is just bells & whistles that are nice to have but won’t really change my decision in any material way.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of TransferWise vis-a-vis 2 other services (Xoom & Remitly) that I’ve used in the past. The rates were sourced within minutes of each other so there shouldn’t be any discrepancies.
As you can see, Transferwise is comparable to Xoom, but Remitly gives you a significantly better rate. That difference starts becoming even more apparent as your amount becomes larger.
So — what is it that makes Transferwise such a revolutionary idea as opposed to the others? I understand and appreciate the transparency & using IBR rates, but in the end it doesn’t really end up being cheaper, does it? Of course, these are rates to India. I didn’t really look into transferring to other countries where it may potentially be cheaper than the others.
But for my specific use-case, I can’t see it being the best option, yet.
