Monito & TransferWise partner to bring transparency to the money transfer industry

Losing money sucks. Sadly, the old school money transfer industry is saturated with schemes and systems that overcharge consumers through sky-high costs and inflated exchange rates—and many of these charges are so well hidden that the consumer isn’t fully aware that they’re being overcharged. That’s where Monito and TransferWise come in. We are both solving a problem most people don’t know they have. After all, how can a customer be aware of extra charges and extortionate exchange rates if the information is not easy to find? It shouldn’t be this hard to find a cheap way to send money abroad.

Monito and TransferWise are two very different companies, but we share many of the same values and goals. Transparency is a mission we’re both committed to. We both argue that transfer costs should be clear and simple. We want to make it as easy, cheap and fast as possible for people to send money abroad. And we think that the widespread practice of displaying opaque, undesirable exchange rates to the customer is straight up wrong and dishonest. We don’t think it’s fair to hide what some might refer to as ‘details’—especially when those details cost people a lot of money. We’ve made it our mission to educate and inform people on how the money transfer process works and what we are doing to expose the misleading pricing practices that are so commonplace.

So what’s the deal with this price-gouging?

Traditional financial institutions (like banks or PayPal) don’t usually tell their customers the full story, making it impossible to know how much you’ll be charged. There is a standard, mid-market exchange rate (also called the interbank, spot or real exchange rate)far morebecause the exchange rate is so disadvantageous to the consumer. What’s worse is that many people are unaware of the problem, and we want to change that.

How are TransferWise and Monito transparent?

Monito is a money transfer comparison website. It’s like booking.com, but instead of comparing hotels it compares dozens of money transfer providers including TransferWise. Both TransferWise and Monito clearly display the details: we show the cost and speed of all transactions, and always use the mid-market rate as a benchmark. We’re pulling away the curtain and showing you the real costs so you can make an informed choice.

Example of TransferWise exchange rate when sending Euros to British pounds versus the one offered by Spanish bank Banco Sabadell. The rate with Banco Sabadell is 2% above the mid-market exchange rate.

Example of a comparison of providers when sending US dollars to Polish zlotys on Monito.com. In this instance, TransferWise’s exchange rate is better than the mid-market rate.

We apply transparency to our business too. TransferWise regularly shares how it calculates its fees and rates, like they did in this TransferWise Q1 2018 mission report. The report goes on to explain their new fee structure for certain currency routes and sets out which areas in the transfer business that are still frustrating (and what they’re doing to fix this). TransferWise also calls on you to join them in the fightto support EU legislation that would make currency conversion less expensive and more transparent, so we can put a halt to the hidden fee problem. The company regularly commissions independent research that reveals the dodgy exchange rates other providers in the industry use, like this blog that illustrates the results of a Consumer Intelligence research project that compared TransferWise to PayPal.

Monito has published its own facts based assessment of why PayPal isn't a great international payment solution and regularly conducts research and provides analysis about money transfer providers—in 2018, Monito published a UX benchmark study (in collaboration with remote user-testing company Userbrain) around new customers’ experience when sending money with a bunch of money transfer sites, including TransferWise. The results showed that new TransferWise users had a very positive online journey transferring funds on their website. Additionally, Monito provides regular independent reviews of transfer providers (including — you guessed it — TransferWise)calculates its own Global Score to evaluate money transfers companies. Transparency (along with credibility, security, fees, exchange rates and customer satisfaction) is a significant part of the formula. When Monito calculates the score, they inspect the nitty-gritty of each transfer provider’s inner workings, evaluating details such as the ratio between hidden fees and total fees, whether the FX margin is clearly disclosed, whether the company engages in misleading marketing and how accurate the real-time transfer quote is for customers that haven’t registered with the money transfer service.

Monito and Transferwise have a lot in common. We’re doing everything we can to provide you with objective points of view and arm you with real numbers and solid facts. We’re both obsessed with injecting transparency in the sector and are working hard to transform the money transfer industry so it stops lining the pockets of traditional financial institutions who resort to deceitful pricing practices. We’re here to change that reality and offer a transparent money transfer solution.