Sending money via Wise - eventually free ?

[Gaybutton]

I noticed this on Wise's new page ( https://wise.com/ ).

Sending money shouldn’t cost the earth, so we built Wise to save you money when you transfer and exchange internationally. We charge as little as possible: right now a tiny fee, eventually free.

Are you interpreting this the same way I am - that at some point receiving retirement pension payments will become free? Sounds real good to me . . .

[Jun]

Sounds rather unlikely to me.

Wise market cap = £4.9billion. Shareholders will want to see some returns.

In their last financial year, they turned over £560 million, which I presume is mostly forex fees. That's how these things usually work for forex businesses. The gross profit was £371 million and admin costs were £328million, leaving profit before tax of £44m. Ie less than 10%. Or to put it another way, over 90% of your fees are needed for costs.

To offer free transfers, either they need to strip an awful lot of cost out, or find some other way to make money out of us.
Maybe 12 hours of excruciating Lazada advertisements for a free currency transfer ?
I'd rather pay the fees.

[Gaybutton]

Sounds rather unlikely to me.

Then why would they say that? Why tell people to expect it if it isn't going to happen?

[windwalker]

Perhaps they went to write, "essentially" free?

[Jun]

Then why would they say that? Why tell people to expect it if it isn't going to happen?

Are you suggesting that PR and marketing departments never lie ?

I've been using Wise for approximately 5 years. Their charges now are about the same as when I started. Far cheaper than some alternatives, but there isn't much sign of progress to zero cost so far.

Also, any objective without an implementation date is meaningless.

[Gaybutton]

Are you suggesting that PR and marketing departments never lie ?

Of course not, but I would be surprised if that's what Wise is doing. What would be the point?


"In the world of advertising there is no such thing as a lie, only expedient exaggeration."
- Cary Grant (Roger Thornhill), 'North by Northwest'

[Jun]

Of course not, but I would be surprised if that's what Wise is doing. What would be the point?

Free publicity.
Creating a good image of the company.

If they don't quote a timeline, they can't be held accountable.

[Gaybutton]

Free publicity.
Creating a good image of the company.

Both of which they could have without blatantly lying.

I hope you're wrong. I don't think they need free publicity and they already have a good image - which they would lose if they are lying. I think they're really going to do it or they wouldn't have said so.

We'll see.

[bi-top]

They could remove the fees, and degrade the conversion.
"oh wow! it is free. But why did they give my only 28b to the dollar when it is 34b locally?"

They may be saying this because Western Union did this for a while with some destinations.

WISE RATES PAGE:
We charge as little as possible, and we’re on a mission to drop prices until we’re eventually free.

[Jun]

They could remove the fees, and degrade the conversion.

In addition to the competitive charges, one of the joys of Wise is the nice transparent pricing, with a clear fee and a perfect mid-market exchange rate.
I don't think they would want to lose that.