Transferwise Review : Personal Experience (+ Free Valentine's Day Gift Included)

When I left the UK , I still had a bank account balance with my earnings from my day job. At the time I left ,in September 2015, the exchange rate was 1 GBP = 1.5162 USD. I figured I would still leave the money in the account for future transactions. I could shop online, spend during visits to the UK and I was even able to make a few transactions in the US, as expected, with the exception of a few smaller stores.

Fast forward to December 2016, Brexit happened and the reality of visiting UK had significantly diminished. I didn't have any family in the UK or business interests and I wasn't quite shopping with UK retailers. So why did I need some of my money in pounds ? Besides forex trading and currency risk hedging, I had run out of reasons. I decided to transfer my funds to my US account. The first thing I did was an international transfer through Barclays. The average market rate was 1.2366 USD/GBP on the 21st of Decemeber but I was charged 1.19 USD/GBP plus an additional fee of £15. Fortunately, for me this transaction didn't go through but I didn't realize until 3 days later.

I decided to look for other options. I checked out Paypal since I already had one but their offered price was even worse than my bank, 1.18 GBP/USD and additional transaction fees of about 3.9%.  Bust! This is when I came across Transferwise! They offered live forex rates as seen on google.com, xe.com. yahoo.com and dailyfx.com etc for as low as £2. It turns out  this can be up to 10 times cheaper than with the bank because it's a peer-to-peer platform. I decided to try it out! As I was using this for the first time , I assumed there was risk involved and so I opted to start with a small amount. I made the deposit on the 24th of December through my UK bank . Payment are made through your bank so you won't be sharing your password and it's safe. The average exchange rate on that day was 1.2271 USD/GBP but I was offered 1.2292 USD/GBP by TransferWise and 2 business days for processing. The exchange rate fluctuates instantaneously as with the live market rates.

In 8 minutes, I received an email that they had received my deposit.

On the 27th of December I received an email explaining the transfer was complete and to be expected the next day.

Sure enough I received my money on the 28th of December. I felt like I could safely trust Transferwise now so I transferred the rest of my funds. Unfortunately the exchange rate had weakened a little by that time, so I was a bit bumped by that ,but on the bright side it was still a lot better than the rate my bank offered me and I was given a shorter processing time of ONE business day! So I was pleased about that!

Now I am not sure why they have different processing times but they tell you before you commit to payment, so that is pretty fair. Overall, I have no complaints or negative experience. I'm happy I chose to use TransferWise vs whatever is out there. Lucky for you, the exchange rate has gone up to 1.2523 GBP/USD (14 Feb 2017) and you can get a FREE transfer here! 

Happy Valentine's Day