TransferWise — An Online Payment Gateway That Accepts Payments Globally

8 min readMay 27, 2021

Online payment gateways have become increasingly popular since the advent of the internet. And today, TransferWise (Wise) is one of the best online payment gateway providers in existence.

What Is A Payment Gateway?

A payment gateway can be described as a merchant service made available by an e-commerce application service provider.

An e-commerce application service provider works by authorizing direct Online payment or credit card processing. It does this for various businesses such as online retailers, omnichannel retailers, e-businesses, and traditional brick and mortar retailers.

A payment gateway facilitates payment transactions by transferring information between payment portals such as mobile phones, websites, interactive voice response services, and acquiring banks or front-end processors.

Some payment gateways offer an online payment card that enables customers to withdraw and spend their money.

Some examples of online payment gateway providers include TransferWise, PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and Amazon Payments.

What Is Transferwise?

TransferWise (currently known as Wise) is a financial technology company founded in January 2011 and is based in London.

TransferWise is a private company that was rebranded to Wise in early 2021 to reflect that it has expanded from being solely an international money transfer company. The company now offers several other services in addition to its international money transfer service.

TransferWise offers various services such as invoice payments, banking (without a bank), people payments, money transfer, cash management, and debit cards.

With TransferWise, clients can make low-cost and fast payments to their investors, suppliers, employees, customers, and freelancers worldwide.

Clients of TransferWise can also use their bank payments system to initiate several international transfers by making just one payment.

Clients can also make all the payments that they want by using the company’s API.

At TransferWise, clients are sure to enjoy easily implemented payments, well-organized payouts, a safe and secure system, and above all, a great experience.

TransferWise clients will also be able to enjoy support in relation to account management, efficient tracking, efficient reporting, automatic payments bounce back reconciliation, currency management, a very secure and compliant system, sanction screening and AML monitoring, up-to-date regulation compliance, and bank-grade security.

Fierce competition exists between online payment gateway providers, and TransferWise has risen to the top in recent years.

Is Transferwise Safe to Use?

The answer to this question is yes. TransferWise is very safe to use. TransferWise is one of the biggest money transfer companies operating in the UK.

The company currently has a monthly turnover of over £4 billion. Millions of customers use it in several countries around the world.

Also, TransferWise is regulated by the FCA (financial conduct authority) and several other regulatory bodies.

This makes TransferWise very safe to use.

Does Transferwise Work in the USA?

Yes! TransferWise works and is available in the USA. With TransferWise, clients can send money more quickly and cheaper than many old school banks.

Also, money can be transferred through TransferWise at publicly available exchange rates. There are no hidden exchange rate fees.

With TransferWise, you can quickly receive your pension, salary, and more in the USA. If you require an online payment card, then you are covered. You can get a TransferWise debit card and spend money in the local currency. You can also relatively easily and quickly move money between countries by using a TransferWise debit card.

While you are on holiday in the USA, you can go shopping with your TransferWise debit card and pay for goods at publicly available exchange rates. With TransferWise, you can be sure to avoid hidden bank exchange rate fees and high foreign transaction fees.

TransferWise has a meager fee that they ask you to pay, and they are upfront about this from the get-go. With the TransferWise debit card, there are no annual card fees to pay.

Is Transferwise Better Than PayPal?

If you wish to make a comparison between the best online payment gateway providers in the world, then PayPal should certainly be part of your list.

PayPal is a San Jose, California, headquartered company that operates an online payment system. PayPal facilitates online money transfers in several countries worldwide.

The company is a payment processor utilized by several auction sites, online businesses, and top online retailers.

The company was founded in 1998 and had revenues of over $17 billion in 2019.

Cost

When it comes to online payment gateways, the cheaper it is, the more popular it will be. The fees payable by a client and the payable exchange rates fees will usually determine which payment transfer system a client would use.

On the whole, fees at TransferWise are generally lower than fees at PayPal.

Exchange Rate

It is very easy to check the exchange rate between two currencies at any given time. All you have to do is Google it.

You must realize that customers who are changing money from one currency to another will hardly ever pay the interest rate seen online (for example, on Google).

Companies will always add their fees to current interest rates, which means that you will receive less money when making a currency exchange transaction.

PayPal charges a fee of up to 4% when you do a currency exchange transaction.

However, TransferWise will always utilize the midmarket exchange rate when doing a currency exchange transaction. This means that TransferWise does not make any money when you use it to do a currency exchange transaction.

This makes TransferWise better than PayPal in terms of exchange rate fees.

Fees

When you use PayPal, you can be expected to pay fees of between 0.5% and 7.4%. These fees are paid on top of the amount of money that you transfer.

On the other hand, TransferWise charges a fee of only 0.5% to make a money transfer when it comes to major currencies.

The 0.5% fee that TransferWise charges applies only to major currencies such as the UK pound sterling and the US dollar.

In the case of other currencies, you can be expected to pay a fee of up to 1.5% for a currency exchange transaction.

This makes TransferWise better than PayPal when it comes to the fees that both companies charge.

Speed

Speed is a crucial factor when it comes to choosing what payment gateway you want to use.

Depending on the currency, it will take TransferWise between 1 and 4 business days to complete a transfer after receiving your payment.

On the other hand, PayPal takes about 3 to 5 business days to complete a transfer after receiving your payment.

TransferWise is the winner once more when it comes to speed as most TransferWise money transfers take roughly 1 to 2 business days.

Convenience

All you need to do if you want to sign up with TransferWise is type in an email address and choose a password. It’s that simple!

Anyone who wants to sign up to PayPal will have to follow a few more steps and provide the company with more details.

Therefore, when it comes to signing up, TransferWise is the winner here.

Security

Security is and will always be of the utmost importance when it comes to online payment gateways.

In this case, it’s not a choice, but it is an obligation. Both PayPal and TransferWise operate worldwide. There are various regulations in every country in which they operate, which must be strictly followed.

Both TransferWise and PayPal have very robust security systems. Therefore, there is no clear winner when it comes to security.

Conclusion

Overall, Transferwise is better than PayPal when it comes to cost, exchange rate, fees, speed, and convenience. In terms of security, both companies follow all the relevant regulations and are very secure. So, is TransferWise better than PayPal? You decide.

Can I Use Transferwise In The USA?

The answer to this question is yes!

TransferWise can be used in the USA. TransferWise was founded in London in 2011 and is still a UK-based financial technology company.

Will My Bank Charge Me to Use Transferwise?

The short answer to this question is no!

Your bank will not charge you to use TransferWise. But let me explain further.

TransferWise operates bank accounts worldwide. The company has local bank accounts which carry out transactions in the local currency.

So, you do not need to use intermediary banks when you want to transfer your money from one country to another. The reason for this that TransferWise already operates bank accounts locally.

You will, therefore, not be charged any additional international money transfer fees by your bank. This is because you will be sending money locally from your bank account to a bank account that TransferWise owns and operates in your country or your community.

Can I Use Transferwise As A Bank Account?

To a certain extent, you can use your TransferWise borderless account in the same way that you would use your bank account, albeit not in all circumstances.

TransferWise also offers an online payment card. You can use a TransferWise debit card to make payments. However, the TransferWise debit card is only currently available in certain countries.

Also, with TransferWise, you can make payments to other accounts and receive payments by using your TransferWise borderless bank account details.

How Much Money Can I Keep in My Transferwise Account?

In most cases, in US dollars, TransferWise has a limit per transfer of $250,000 for personal accounts with an annual limit of $1 million.

When it comes to business accounts, the limit per transfer is $3 million, with an annual limit of $5 million.

How Can I Withdraw Money from Transferwise?

You can easily withdraw money from an ATM using your TransferWise debit card.

How Do I Receive Money from Transferwise?

All you need to do to receive money through TransferWise is contact the business or person who needs to send you some money.

You then have to give them the details of the currency and your TransferWise account details.

After the transfer has been done, you will receive the funds in 1 to 4 business days.

TransferWise.com