Transferwise Borderless Account Review

Transferwise Borderless Account Review

I've been using Transferwise for several years. Recently they created a new product called "Borderless Account", which allows you to hold money in various currencies. You can essentially use Transferwise as a bank, and have many "Balances", each one accepting a different major currency. You are given a real bank account number with real sort/routing code etc.

It has an optional debit card which can be used overseas without the usual big bank charges.

I often send money back to Australia, so I thought that I would give it a try.

What Is It For?

If you are a person who has ties to more than one country, then you probably have bank account in those countries. This can be a pain. If you need to accept money in another currency, then up until now, one of the only easy ways was via Paypal. However Paypal transfers are quite expensive, and are not "real" bank transfers. The other party also needs a Paypal account. This is where Transferwise saw an opportunity.

The use case is for accepting money in another currency, using real bank accounts via a single portal. The crazy thing is that any person can open up a real bank account, with real local sort/routing banking codes for that country. I was tempted to open an account in other currencies just because!

Opening a Balance

If you are already a Transferwise customer, then opening a "Balance" is as easy as selecting a currency, then a couple confirmation clicks. They really nailed the user experience here. It was frighteningly easy to open a Balance in GBP.

One important thing to note is that they only give you your account number and sort/routing number AFTER to send some money to it yourself.  I sent £20 to the standard Transferwise account, with my user number in the description. My account and sort code were instantly available. So this meant I could send myself some GBP.

I went ahead and sent £10 to my new bank account via it's sort code and account number. It arrived within seconds!

The entire process was:
1. Open the account - Select a currency, and click a couple confirmations
2. Get my sort code & account number - Send £20 to the standard Transferwise account (with my customer reference ID in the description)
3. Test my new account - Send any amount to the new account

It took only a few minutes in total.

Sending Money

Sending money from a Balance requires the normal Transferwise flow, until you get to the end.

I decided to send 10 AUD, and it was super simple. But there is a catch...

Take a look at the fees (see image below).



The fee incurred when sending from the Balance is higher than ALL the other types of ways to complete the transaction. It's even more expensive than using a credit card. This seems crazy, considering all the other services require 3rd party companies. I wonder how these fees add up when transferring larger amounts.

Features I Want To See

I like to automate my life where possible, so I would love to see the following:
1. Automatic scheduled exchange between Balances
2. Automatic scheduled exchange between Balances when the exchange rate reaches a desired threshold
3. Automatic transfer from a Balance to a 3rd party account, when the Balance reaches a threshold

I did take a look at the Transferwise API, and all of this is actually possible, with the possible exception of exchange rate notification. I might see about writing an Azure Function App to do all of this for me :)

Final Thoughts

Opening a "Balance" is frighteningly easy, and I was tempted to open up Balances in countries which I have never even been to. The addition of a debit card seems very useful as you don't get charged massive fees when overseas, however if you already have an account with Revolut, Monzo, Curve etc. then you might not care.

There is a slight temptation to close all of my bank accounts, and just use Transferwise. However,  realistically, this seems reckless. No one knows what will happen to banks, Transferwise, and governments in the future, so I would rather spread my risk.

There are a couple features which I'm sure Transferwise have considered. Everything I can personally think of doing is available in their API So I look forward to seeing this product evolve.

I hope you found this review helpful.