Paysend Vs Wise: Which Money Transfer App Is Better? (2023)

September 22, 2023

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Many financial technology start-ups are vying for customer growth in the money transfer category. Challenger banks and newer money transfer companies seek to supplant legacy banks and corporations that have been around for decades. They attempt this by offering efficient, low-fee, and transparent mobile-first applications. Fintechs typically market to individual and business customers who travel frequently, live abroad, freelance, and sell products globally. Let’s review a few innovative fintechs and banking apps regularly making headlines.

Paysend Overview

Launched in 2017, Paysend is a global financial tech company on a mission to change how money moves worldwide. Its customers transact via card-to-card from 50+ countries to over 90 countries. Its partnerships with Mastercard, Visa, UnionPay, and a global banking network offer a fast, simple, and affordable way of sending money to credit cards and bank accounts.

Paysend focuses on building the next big thing: a customer-centric global fintech hub. Its seamless payment ecosystem enables businesses and consumers to hold, spend, and send money internationally. It’s disrupting the world of money with creativity, simplicity, and innovation.

Paysend is available on Apple and Google Play app stores and offers a web app. It has an “Excellent” score on Trustpilot.

Wise Overview

Founded in 2011, Wise (formerly TransferWise) is on a mission to make a positive, irreversible change in the world of finance. Built by and for people who live global lives, Wise makes sending money abroad fair, accessible, and up to eight times cheaper than traditional banks and money transfer companies.

Wise focuses on people on every continent to help them live, travel, and work internationally. It wants to support a financial experience without borders to support instant, convenient, transparent, and eventually free money movement.

Wise is available on Apple and Google Play app stores and offers a web app. It has an “Excellent” rating on Trustpilot.

Products & Services

Paysend products and services include the following:

• Personal and business accounts
• Money transfers
• Multi-currency account
• Open banking
• Online payment
• Prepaid debit card
• API

Wise products and services include the following:

• Personal and business accounts
• Budgeting and analytics
• Currency exchange
• Expense management
• International bank account details
• Investment account
• Money transfers
• Multi-currency account
• Online payment
• Prepaid debit card
• Mass payouts/batch payments
• Third-party money transfer solutions
• API

Revenue Models

Paysend makes money by charging fixed fees on money transfers and marking up exchange rates. Their prepaid debit card generates interchange revenue.

Wise makes money by charging fixed and variable fees for transfers, conversions, investments, excess holdings, and incoming USD wire payments. Their prepaid debit card generates interchange revenue, and an ATM charge on monthly withdrawals exceeds a predefined amount. It generates revenue as a third-party money transfer solution for financial companies, such as bunq and N26. For business accounts, it charges for batch payments and accounts in multiple currencies.

Comparison

Exchange Rates

Paysend marks up rates by 1 percent or more. They state, “By cutting out all intermediaries and consequently lowering costs, Paysend can offer extremely competitive exchange rates, providing the best possible value for our customers.” However, PaySend doesn’t provide the “best possible value” because they don’t offer real-time rates.

Wise exchanges currencies at mid-market and real-time rates, the best rate customers can get. Try their calculator below.

Fees & Commissions

Paysend charges fixed fees compared to Wise’s variable and fixed fees. Therefore, outcomes will differ depending on the amounts and currency destinations.

Supported Currencies

Paysend and Wise enable customers to send and receive money from an extensive list of countries.

Single Currency Transactions

Paysend and Wise support single-currency transactions. For example, someone in Germany can send euros to someone in France.

Processing/Delivery Times

Depending on the currencies, both companies can process international money transfers within three days.

Transfer Limits

With Paysend, you can send up to £800, €1,000, or $1,000 per six months without providing any additional documentation. These limits can increase upon submission of other documents, including proof of ID and home address.

Wise customers can send up to a million dollars per transfer depending on the currencies.

Transparency

Paysend’s transaction calculator provides fewer details compared to Wise. Also, Wise offers a more user-friendly, searchable, and comprehensive help center.

Other Products/Features

Paysend’s PayLater allows you to redeem money for goods and services purchased within the last 30 days from one of its selected merchants, with the option to pay the money back up to 14 days later at 0 percent interest. The maximum credit allowance for any PayLater payment depends on a few factors and varies from £50/€50 to £200/€200.

Wise offers the following:

• Get local bank details for ten countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada.
• Schedule and track transfers.
• Send large amounts of money of up to 1 million dollars.
• Work anywhere and link your account to Amazon, PayPal, and more to receive payments.
• Hold cash, bonds, or stocks using iShares ETFs managed by BlackRock.
• Compare your sending and spending activities across months and categories.

Referral Program

Both companies have referral programs. However, only Wise has an affiliate program.

• Paysend referral program
• Wise referral program

Recap

PaysendWiseExchange ratesxFeesIt depends on the currenciesIt depends on the currenciesSupported currenciesxxProcessing timesxxTransfer limitsxTransparencyxOther products/featuresx

Recommendation

Paysend is legit and offers an innovative method to transfer money, card-to-card transfers. Users can send and receive money via Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay in China. Its processes differ from most providers because it doesn’t require banks for transactions. On the other hand, Paysend charges fixed fees and markups, which are standard among money transfer companies, including Azimo, Remitly, WorldRemit, and Xoom.

Wise is the benchmark for money transfer companies. It offers real-time rates, low fees, efficiency, high limits, and transparency with every transaction. It doesn’t get much better than that. Secondly, it continues to add products, services, and features to improve its value proposition. Case in point, Wise Mass Payouts is a robust alternative to PayPal Payouts.

Paysend has some advantageous currency routes, but I cannot sign up or use its service. I’ll continue to use Wise until a competitor allows me to transact at mid-market rates at no cost. Wise’s low fees, real-time rates, multi-currency accounts, and transparency make it one of the best companies for holding, sending, spending, and receiving money.