Currency exchange comparison
Our currency exchanges are up to 3x times cheaper than those offered by popular high street banks. This means that in an aggregate comparison to major Australian banks, customers could save up to AUD 8.40 when sending AUD 250 abroad with Wise. Compared directly with CommBank, Wise is up to 4 times cheaper. Our team looked at the cost of exchanging currencies with 5 popular high street banks in Australia (ANZ, CommBank, ING, NAB, Westpac) between 15 January 2025 and 19 January 2025.
Research methodology
The data for the research was collected between 15 January 2025 and 19 January 2025, using various data sources including: the currency exchange rates available publicly on the websites of the banks listed, currency exchange calculators (also provided via those banks' websites), and where neither of these were available customer accounts which we used to simulate a currency exchange.
We calculated the “cost to exchange” AUD 250 to EUR, GBP, NZD, and USD using each of the other providers. The “total international transfer cost” includes any taxes, fees, or commissions applied by the provider, in addition to what we'll call their “currency exchange markup.”
The “currency exchange markup” is the amount added to the mid-market rate by each provider when completing an exchange.
Ideally, a buyer would exchange money at the mid-market rate, which is the midpoint between the buy and sell prices of any two currencies. This is the best scenario because providers usually have different buy and sell prices, and the further they are from the mid-market rate, the less money the buyer gets from the exchange.
We then compared the average of the other providers’ “international transfer cost” of AUD 250 to EUR, GBP, NZD, and USD with our own.
International transfer speeds are based on claims available on competitor websites as of 6 Nov 2024 and compared to our internal speed data.
Research results
On average Wise was 3x cheaper when exchanging AUD 250 to EUR, GBP, NZD, and USD. By quoting ‘up to 3x cheaper,’ we can be confident that this remains true, even when rates fluctuate.
Wise’s average cost to exchange was AUD 2.50, whereas the average cost to exchange at popular high street banks was AUD 10.90 when exchanging AUD 250 to EUR, GBP, NZD, and USD.
Comparison Data Average Total Cost (AUD) for transferring 250
*Any blank entries in the above tables represent where data was not available
*Any blank entries in the above tables represent where data was not available.
