Wise Customer Reviews
Tell us what you think of this provider.
The money has never reached the recipient
I made a transfer to a Canadian company 1.5 months ago, and the funds have not yet been received. After multiple emails, Wise insists that the money was paid out. However, I have received an official statement from the recipient’s bank confirming that the money has not been received. Wise’s complaints department sent me a final letter stating that, according to their records, the funds were paid out.
Additionally, Wise states the following in their Customer Agreement regarding their responsibility for losses:
Quote from Wise’s Terms:
“Our Customer Agreement also explains our responsibility for losses in Section 29:
29.1 Unforeseeable loss or damage. We are not responsible for any loss or damage that is not foreseeable. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time the contract was made, both we and you knew it might happen, for example, if you discussed it with us during your sign-up process.
29.9 We are not liable for things which are outside of our control. We (and our affiliates) cannot be liable for our inability to deliver or delay because of things which are outside our control.”
Despite these terms, Wise has not been able to resolve this issue, and the money has still not been delivered as promised.
find it irresponsible that Wise does not conduct any investigations into the matter. The Canadian bank associated with Wise is unable to provide any information, as everything goes through Wise. Wise must be capable of tracking the funds and providing precise details about where exactly the money is, who received it, and to which bank account it was deposited.
I would advise everyone to be cautious when transferring large sums of money with Wise. They are not capable of executing a secure money transfer!
Beware: Wise’s Unethical Policies and Unresponsive Support Cost My Business
I am sharing my experience with Wise to warn fellow business owners about the serious risks and unacceptable practices you may encounter if you choose to use their services.
My business, is a legally registered travel agency in the UK, and I relied on Wise to manage payments for my photography and cultural tours, primarily in South America. Things took a turn for the worse when Wise froze my account and accused my business of violating their Acceptable Use Policy, citing my once-a-year humanitarian trip to Cuba.
Despite explaining multiple times that:
No Cuba-related transactions were ever processed through Wise (I use a separate European bank for this purpose),
My tours comply with the “Support for Cuban People” category authorized by OFAC, designed to help Cuban citizens outside state control,
Wise completely ignored the facts. Their customer support team responded with automated messages, refused to engage in any meaningful dialogue, and even lied, claiming they didn’t monitor my emails—despite clear evidence to the contrary. After days of chasing them and providing thorough documentation, they chose to close my account without justification.
The Consequences:
Wise left my business in chaos, disrupting essential transactions and client arrangements.
Their rigid policies align with sanctions widely condemned by the global community, and in doing so, they indirectly support humanitarian suffering.
The Bottom Line:
Wise is unreliable, unresponsive, and unethical. If your business has any complexity or humanitarian focus, beware: Wise will shut you down without notice or explanation, and customer support will abandon you. Their actions have serious real-world consequences.
Avoid Wise if you value your business stability or require ethical and accountable financial services. There are far better alternatives out there that won’t put your livelihood at risk Beware: Wise’s Unethical Policies and Unresponsive Support Cost My Business
Great service
Cost effective and efficient
Ex pat on tour
Best transfer rate by far for low value (£1000 to £100,000), low cost – pound to euro exchange rates; I wouldn’t use anyone else.
Simplicity
It is so simple to use,the rates are great and takes seconds to reach my destination
Okay value for money
Better than competitors
There for the long haul.
I have found Wise reliable and very solid, with many international transactions completing in seconds!
One of the better ones
If only they were as cheap as they used to be
Misapplication of Sanction Rules
This financial service banned my transfer to a person residing in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Their rationale was that, in their opinion, Zaporizhzhia is under sanctions. However, this is inaccurate. While the Zaporizhzhia oblast is partially occupied and the occupied areas are under sanctions, the city of Zaporizhzhia remains under governmental control. They have conflated these distinct situations. Despite providing them with numerous resources to clarify this, they have not reviewed them and now intend to restrict my account. This demonstrates a significant level of incompetence in the current political and legal situation.
5/5
Wise Expert Review
In this review of Wise, I tell you why it is such an excellent money transfer app, what we dislike about it and how it compares on service and price to the best money transfer apps for sending money abroad.
Wise Won Best Money Transfer App in the 2025 Good Money Guide Awards
Provider: Wise
Verdict: Wise is one of the best (and cheapest) money transfer apps for sending currency abroad since it pioneered peer-to-peer (P2P) low cost international payments. Wise helps people send money abroad for much less than it would cost to do it through a high street bank. It was launched as TransferWise in 2011 as a P2P currency network, but has since grown to provide money transfers to over 15 million customers sending more than £9 billion a month.
Is Wise a Good Money Transfer App?
Yes, Wise is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to send money abroad. Highly recommended. Wise also won Best Money Transfer App in the 2025 Good Money Guide Awards.
But in a nutshell… Should you use Wise? Yes. Is it cheap? Yes. Is it easy to use? Yes. Is it safe? Yes.
Since Wise was founded back in 2011, I’ve followed its progress. There are many firms that shout loudly about wanting to disrupt an industry. But most of the time, it’s marketing hyperbole.
However, in Wise’s case, it has disrupted how we send money around the world – by making it cheap and making it easy.
The only reason not to use Wise is if you already bank with Starling, as the fees are pretty similar and you probably don’t want another app on your phone if you don’t need it.
Truly Disruptive
A few years ago, before Wise was founded, I wanted to send €30 to a friend in Munich. It was an absolute nightmare. I was banking with NatWest, which wanted £20 as a minimum fee for sending the money to a European bank account. Next I tried PayPal – still expensive. So I withdrew €30 in cash from a Euro cash machine in London, put it in an envelope and sent it through the post.
The only other option was the inconvenience of visiting a Western Union shop.
Thankfully along came TransferWise. It was a boom time for money transfer apps but this one had the best story: it was circumventing “evil” banks by transferring money abroad using P2P networks. If you needed to transfer €30 to Germany, it matched you with someone in Germany who wanted to transfer €30 to England. No need to do any FX, and therefore less in fees to pay.
It also had fantastic marketing – for example stripping off to the pants in front of the Bank of England to protest “rip-off” banking charges. It was a stroke of genius, really, as British people love seeing naked people, and hate banks.
Of course liquidity gaps need to be filled when there isn’t someone on the other side of your transaction and TransferWise used firms like Currency Cloud (now owned by Visa) to ensure that customers always got the best price.
Richard Branson was also an investor. So there you go.
Over the years, Wise as grown by being easy to use and charging low fees.
How Does Wise Work?
Wise offers international money transfers and a multi-currency account with a pre-paid card. You can send 40+ currencies to 160+ countries, and hold 40+ currencies in a Wise account.
You can pay into your Wise account by debit card, credit card or bank transfer. If you have funds in a multi-currency account, you can use those to fund a transfer when sending money abroad. And you can choose to lock in a rate for up to 48 hours.
Wise says international transfers typically arrive in seconds.
Wise matches up buyers and sellers of currency in different countries, rather than physically transferring money internationally.
Wise Customer Service
We’ve marked Wise down a bit as it doesn’t provide a telephone number. This is fine for small transactions but if you’re sending a large amount of money abroad, you may be better off using a currency broker. Wise does offer a call back service for amounts over £80,000, though.
With a broker, you can phone up an account executive or dedicated dealer, who can provide updates on your transfer or help out immediately with any issues.
But all in all, Wise customer support, is fairly efficient.
Is Wise Safe?
Wise is about as safe as you can get for sending small amounts of money abroad.
Wise is not a bank – it doesn’t have a banking licence in the UK but is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority as an “e-money business”, which means funds are ring-fenced but not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Wise is listed on the LSE (LON:WISE) with at market cap of around £11.7 billion, as at June 2025. That is well up from where it was at its IPO, but even though lots of tech firms listed in 2021, it was a pretty bad time to come to market, and most have performed poorly since then because of overall market conditions and over ambitions venture capitalists wanting a return on their investments. So the stock markets also think Wise is pretty good.
Since TransferWise launched, the group has grown to provide money transfers to over 15 million customers sending more than £9 billion a month.
It’s a shame it is planning on ditching the London stock markets for the glamour of high valuations in the US.
Using a listed app is helpful as you can see how it’s faring financially. If the Wise share price starts to go down, this could indicate potential financial problems and be a sign to switch to a different app.
Apps & Platform
Wise makes it incredibly easy to transfer money abroad – the app is really simple to use. If you have a large amount of money to send, you’re better off with a currency broker because they can help with market timing and lock in exchange rates with forward contracts and currency options. Plus if you ask nicely and are transferring enough money, a broker might undercut Wise’s exchange rates and fees. Remember, that in FX, everything is negotiable.
Wise is also venturing into other products, like multi-currency bank accounts and investing.
Pricing
Wise is among the cheapest money transfer apps and it displays the fees clearly on the website and app, but it’s not the absolute cheapest. We found Atlantic Money offering GBP-USD transfers at the interbank rate plus £3. But I suspect that isn’t sustainable and it’s only one corridor, while Wise offers 21 currencies. If you want to know more about Atlantic Money, you can read my interview with the founders, Neeraj Baid and Patrick Kavanagh (who helped build Robinhood), and make up your own mind about the service.
Research & Analysis
Wise doesn’t really have any currency forecasts, which is fine because exchange rates are hard to predict. But it would be nice to have at least some commentary on the markets.
We’ve given Wise a mid-ranking for research and analysis as it does provide lots of excellent guides online and has a good insight tab on the app which can help you see where your account money is being spent.
If you want currency forecasts, you can read our regularly updated analysis of whether now’s a good time to buy USD or EUR.
Is Wise a Bank?
No. The company does not hold a UK banking licence and your balance is not protected by the FSCS.
Wise is primarily a low-cost international money transfer app that allows you to save money when sending money abroad. However, Wise provides some of the features that banks also provide, such as holding and exchanging multiple currencies, and sending and receiving payments. And you can have a multi-currency account with a pre-paid debit card.
The firm is authorised as an “e-money” provider, which means your money has some protection but not as much as it would have with a bank. Money in bank accounts is protected by the FSCS guarantee, which covers balances up to £85,000 per eligible person, per bank.
Wise lets customers send payments to more than 160 countries and spend internationally with the Wise card. Local bank details are provided for up to 9 currencies including US dollars, pounds sterling and euros.
If you are looking for a bank account in the UK, you can see a list of current bank account switching offers here.
Pros
- Cheap
- Easy
- Fast
Cons
- Phone support hard to find
- Only suitable for smaller transfers
- Pricing (5)
- Currencies (4.5)
- Online Platform (4.5)
- Customer Service (4)
- Research & Analysis (3)
Overall
4.2Wise Facts & Figures
| 💱 Total Currencies | 50+ on offer |
|---|---|
| 💵 Min Transfer | £1 |
| 💰 Max Transfer | 1.2m EUR |
| 🛒Customers | 10 million+ |
| 🏛️ Founded | 2011 |
| 🏢 HQ | London, UK |
| ⚖️ Regulated | Yes- by the FCA |
Account Options | |
| 🧍 Personal Transfers | ✔️ |
| 👔 Business Transfers | ✔️ |
| 📅 Currency Forwards | ❌ |
| 💸 Currency Options | ❌ |
| 🤝 Personal Service | ❌ |
| 📱Phone Dealing | ❌ |
| ⌨️ Online Platform | ✔️ – very intuitive & easy |
| ⭐ TrustPilot Rating | 4.2/5 |
| 🌐 Website | Visit Wise |
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.
You can contact Richard at richard@goodmoneyguide.com
