I’ve used TransferWise for money transfer and receiving international freelance payments in my borderless account. This is my honest TransferWise review and why I think it is a much better alternative to Payoneer, Paypal, traditional bank wires or exchange kiosks.

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My Personal TransferWise Review

As a freelancer based outside of US, it is always a headache to receive payments from the websites I work for. So far I had been using Payoneer and Paypal to make do. But those methods would cost me almost 15% in transaction and withdrawl fees alone. If I made $100, when that payment was deposited into my Payoneer account it would become $98 ($2 deposit fee). Then each time I used the Payoneer Mastercard debit card, I lost around $3 to Payoneer and another $5 to the local ATM machine as transaction and withdrawl fees. Also just to keep the Payoneer account active, they charged $29/year. All in all of that $100, I would end up only getting about $85. Paypal was no better. I didn’t have other options until last month when I heard about TransferWise.

I signed up immediately and went through their verification process. When I received $133.16 from my freelance work, I was glad that there was no fee! I received the amount in full. (Payoneer would have deducted $2.7) Then as a test, I transferred $100 to my local bank account in my country. I received $98 out of that $100. In total I only paid $2.7 total fees, compared to $15 fees on Payoneer. I am going to stick with TransferWise for sure.