How is Wise so much cheaper than the banks?

It comes down to our internal costs vs. theirs.

Founded on transparency

As Estonians living in London, Taavet and Kristo sent money abroad a lot. But they always got less than they expected. It turned out that while their banks were touting low fees, they were giving them bad exchange rates.

The system wasn't transparent.

Taavet and Kristo started Wise to change that. To give people a fair rate – while also charging low fees.

To do those things, they had to build a more efficient way of sending money.

The truth about bank "fees"

Markup Lowdown Showdown

Beware of bad exchange rates

How much a transfer really costs is made up of two things – the fees, and the exchange rate. Banks often say they have low, or even no fees, but they might hide extra fees in a marked-up rate. Click the next tab to see where those hidden fees actually go.

Cheaper for us means cheaper for you

Banks have a lot of costs that we just don't have. They have to charge high fees or inflate the exchange rate to cover those costs, while we can be open about our low fees – and our fair exchange rate. To see where we got the information on the left, click here.

So how much do you save?

We check our prices against banks and other providers to show you how much you could save with us. To compare all the rates and fees, click here.

The truth about bank "fees"

Where our fees go

Finance isn't fair if it's not transparent. Financial institutions should show you where your money goes. For example, when you wire 1,000 USD to EUR with us, here's what you pay for.

A new way to move money – without the middlemen

Committed to cutting costs

We've gained a lot of customers, which has brought down our costs – and let us lower our fees. Our goal is to make it completely free to send money internationally.

More about our mission

The Wise Story

Another key to their success - Wise has shifted more than £3bn of customers' money since 2011 - is the simplicity of design
Read article

Wise takes a machete to the hefty fees that banks levy to send money across borders.
Read article

Encouraging the financial services industry to become more transparent is the raison d’être of Wise
Read article

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