FYI - Wise & Revolut Notes

Sorry if this was obvious to others, but having googled the fees for wise and revolut, I didn't pick up on some important details.

Wise has no membership cost, and seems to charge a fee of 0.6% for USD to GBP. It's hard to be sure about wise fees as I couldn't find anything published, except "from 0.39%" and this older post https://wise.com/us/blog/fees-changing-usd-jan-18-gbp

Revolut is free and paid "plus" version (£40/year).

The free allows for £1,000 per month with no fees, the plus allows for £3,000 per month with no fees. So if you were to use all the allowance, you'd have £36,000 for £40 fee, or 0.1%. That's not a huge savings, but works out to about £120/year cheaper than wise.

FX over the "no fee" allowance, Revolut is 1% fee for the free account, 0.5% for the plus account.

Note that Revolut chages a different rate at the weekend - https://help.revolut.com/help/wealth/exchanging-money/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-an-exchange/will-i-be-charged-for-exchanging-foreign-currencies/

I hope this helps, and let me know if I've got anything wrong.

Sorry if this was obvious to others, but having googled the fees for wise and revolut, I didn't pick up on some important details.

Wise has no membership cost, and seems to charge a fee of 0.6% for USD to GBP. It's hard to be sure about wise fees as I couldn't find anything published, except "from 0.39%" and this older post https://wise.com/us/blog/fees-changing-usd-jan-18-gbp

Revolut is free and paid "plus" version (£40/year).

The free allows for £1,000 per month with no fees, the plus allows for £3,000 per month with no fees. So if you were to use all the allowance, you'd have £36,000 for £40 fee, or 0.1%. That's not a huge savings, but works out to about £120/year cheaper than wise.

FX over the "no fee" allowance, Revolut is 1% fee for the free account, 0.5% for the plus account.

Note that Revolut chages a different rate at the weekend - https://help.revolut.com/help/wealth/exchanging-money/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-an-exchange/will-i-be-charged-for-exchanging-foreign-currencies/

I hope this helps, and let me know if I've got anything wrong.

While Wise does charge 0.6% they do give fee refunds to UK customers - see the following:

https://wise.com/help/articles/7dmzR1bODHUCVTvD52Qi8D/fee-refunds-for-customers-in-the-uk

The refund amount is variable but has averaged 40% over the last few months - brings the WISE fee down to around 0.36% Note that the refund is paid back in £, although the original fee was paid in $ (just to make it more complicated!)

The other thing to contend with is the exchange rate, for example, just now (same time both transactions), $10,000 USD

Wise - after $43.37 fee = £7,944.02
Revolut - no fee = £7,906.63

Fees is therefore only one component of what you'll get!

The other thing to contend with is the exchange rate, for example, just now (same time both transactions), $10,000 USD

Wise - after $43.37 fee = £7,944.02
Revolut - no fee = £7,906.63

Fees is therefore only one component of what you'll get!

This is almost exactly the same amount of difference between my Wise and HSBC accounts. I have UK and USA HSBC accounts and they brag about their no fee transactions when shifting money between accounts but when I do a comparison and have 2 windows open, the Wise account is always around £40 to £50 better than the HSBC amount on a $10,000 transfer. I used to be prepared to wait a couple of days for the Wise transfer but now with the Wise app it is just as fast as using HSBC to HSBC. (Only takes seconds)

This is almost exactly the same amount of difference between my Wise and HSBC accounts. I have UK and USA HSBC accounts and they brag about their no fee transactions when shifting money between accounts but when I do a comparison and have 2 windows open, the Wise account is always around £40 to £50 better than the HSBC amount on a $10,000 transfer. I used to be prepared to wait a couple of days for the Wise transfer but now with the Wise app it is just as fast as using HSBC to HSBC. (Only takes seconds)

What I like about WISE is there's no guesswork about how much will arrive in my account on a transfer - it's instant.

I have my US SS paid into WISE each month - I always get an email notifcation from WISE each month on 3rd of each month  at between 5:05am & 5:10am  telling me I've been paid!!. I can then choose when or if to transfer to HSBC - depending on exchange rates available at the time.

I use Wise for transfers.  Never had a problem.

At the risk of stating the obvious, though, I wouldn't keep large sums in Wise for any longer than necessary as it's not a bank.  Thus any funds, at least those in a GBP account which is managed by Wise Payments Ltd, isn't FSCS regulated and not subject to the £85k compensation scheme should things go south.  (Revolut is probably the same.)

I use Wise for transfers.  Never had a problem.

At the risk of stating the obvious, though, I wouldn't keep large sums in Wise for any longer than necessary as it's not a bank.  Thus any funds, at least those in a GBP account which is managed by Wise Payments Ltd, isn't FSCS regulated and not subject to the £85k compensation scheme should things go south.  (Revolut is probably the same.)

I agree. Wise do layout their money safeguards on their website.

https://wise.com/gb/blog/how-we-work-to-keep-your-money-safe-and-available-at-wise

For customers of Wise Payments Ltd, sending or holding money in the Wise account, we safeguard it in keeping with Wise’s regulatory obligations in the UK. We do this by holding a mix of cash in banks, investments in secure liquid assets (mainly government bonds) and a comparable guarantee. We also keep your money separate from the money we use to run our business. For more information on how other Wise entities safeguards funds see here

Update on WISE fees

Their ears must have been burning! - received this email from them yesterday on their fees:

The fees for sending USD to GBP have gone from 0.33 USD + 0.50% to 0.55 USD + 0.43%

I still find that the WISE exchange rate is better - at the moment $/£ is 0.792362 vs Revolut 0.79108 - not a huge difference but for larger transfers WISE becomes more beneficial.

Comments noted on WISE not being a bank - FSCS protection is good - I'd just hate to see it tested in a real world environment