worldremit

Founded: 2010

Headquarters: London, UK

Offices: United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Japan

Regulated by: FCA, ASIC

Trading channels: website, mobile app, agent locations

Founded by Ismael Ahmed in 2010, worldremit was started with the support of venture capital firms Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), and Accel Partners. These firms pumped $100 million and $40 million into the company respectively. Most recently, the company also secured $40 million from Leapfrog Investments to boost user numbers from the current 2 million to 10 million. The greatest strength is that it provides plenty of ways to transfer and receive funds. You can make transfers through their website, mobile app, over the phone or even in person, and pay by bank transfer, credit or debit card, and cash. Receiving money with worldremit is very convenient because their clients have a variety of options to choose from; Bank deposits, cash pickups, mobile money and mobile airtime top up. An important thing to keep in mind is that these options do vary with the recipients or senders countries.

With worldremit, you’re allowed to send money to more than 140 countries. In some countries, recipients can receive another currency rather than their own, although worldremit supports more than 70 currencies. For example, if you want to send money to South Korea, then your recipient will get USD instead of KRW. Most transfers are fast delivery in 1 day, or even in minutes. Also some are cheap, but not all.

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Overview

>Instant transfers are available to some countries

>Low flat transfer fee NZ$3.99 for major countries in Europe and North America

>Mutiple options for recipients including cash pickup

>Transfer amount ranges from several thousand, to no upwards of 50,000 NZD

Payment options: International bank transfer, debit card, credit card

Delivery options: Bank deposit, cash pickup, mobile money, airtime top-up

Minimum transfer amount: There’s no min transfer amount (£1)

Maximum transfer amount: varies depending on country (up to 50,000 NZD)

Currencies available:

Sending options

You are only allowed to send your local currency to other countries. For example, if you register an account in the UK, then you can only send GBP to other nations.

Receiving options: 70

AOA, ARS, AUD, EUR, BHD, BDT, XOF, BAM, BWP, BRL, BGN, BIF, KHR, XAF, CAD, CLP, COP, KMF, CRC, HRK, CZK, DKK, DOP, EGP, FJD, GMD, GHS, GTQ, GNF, HNL, HKD, HUF, INR, IDR, ILS, JMD, KES, KWD, LBP, LSL, MRU, MXN, MAD, NPR, NGN, NOK, OMR, PKR, PHP, PLN, QAR, RWF, WST, SCR, SLL, SGD, ZAR, LKR, SEK, TZS, THB, TOP, TND, UGX, AED, GBP, UYU, VND, ZMW, USD

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Transfer Fees

worldremit doesn’t charge any fees on the first transfer for its customers.

The transfer fees vary according to the country you’re sending to. For transfers to the majority of countries, including Europe and North America, there is a flat fee of US$3.99 regardless of the sending amount. To other countries, fees range from $0.01 to $25. For example, if you want to send money from the United States (USD) to South Africa (ZAR), the transfer fee is only $0.01, while from New Zealand to Kuwait, the fee reaches the maximum of $25.

Exchange Rate

worldremit earns a profit from the exchange rate, which you will be charged from 1% to 6% over the mid-market rate, depending on the country and currency. For the currency EUR (NZD to EUR), the markup on exchange rate tends to be slightly less than 1%. worldremit has the highest margins on rates for some African countries, around 5% to 6%.

Delivery Speed

worldremit has the ability to deliver funds to your recipients instantly with a cash pickup option from its branches. For some countries like China, there’s only airtime available, which is instant top-up as well. But if you choose the option of a bank deposit to receive the money, it usually takes 1 to 3 days to complete.

User Experience

worldremit has the most efficient customer support among its competitors. You can reach them by phone, 24/7, thanks to its many call centers across the world (Asia, Australasia, Europe, USA & Canada, and the UK). You’re encouraged to use the mobile app, which is very friendly rather than the website. worldremit is known as the ‘WhatsApp of money’, making transfers as easy as sending a message.

It also provides a detailed breakdown of transfer costs, exchange rate, and speed, after you choose a country to get started. Such information is available to anyone without logging on to the platform. Its website has 3 language options, English, French and Spanish. The FAQs section is clear and helpful, with answers to all your common questions.

On the downside, this online money transfer service only allows you to send one currency to other countries. For instance, let’s say you register an account in New Zealand, then you can only send New Zealand Dollars. If you need to send another currency like USD, you have to create an account in the US and deactivate your New Zealand account. It’s unhelpful for those who want to transfer multiple currencies.

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