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TransferWise announces $280M investment

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Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#21

Post by javindo »

seanalltogether wrote: post #7

Transferwise has been a godsend for me the past couple years as I've been moving my life to the UK from the US. XE was bought out awhile ago and hiked their fees up, while banks like HSBC have always had high rates to begin with. Although I'm wondering if jumping on a bitcoin exchange like GDAX to go from USD -> bitcoin -> GBP would be even cheaper these days?

With the ever increasing price of BTC you could even end up inadvertently making a small profit on the transaction. That being said, with the volatility of it you could also lose all of your money in an instant.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#22

Post by dovdovdov »

a_d wrote: post #2

I used to study remittance flows for a living. This was a problem that was (is?) begging to be solved. Incumbents like Western Union have always been very expensive and borderline evil. There are well known “corridors” of remittance flows that are still yet to be captured - like Kerala (India) Saudi Arabia (Middle-east more generally); Mexico US; US LatAm etc. My guess is TransferWise captured the UK Poland corridor…

It's clearly a service mostly depending on eastern (central) european migrants working in the UK.

I wonder if brexit doesn't fall through what will it do to their single leg business.

And even if brexit fails, these people will become less and less dependent of their home country. (moving close family to the uk, paying off mortgages)

So yeah, my point is these untapped areas can dry off quick. (I'm talking a decade maybe)

Or there are stupid investors who don't want to invest into this no-brainer goldmine. :)

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#23

Post by richardknop »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #20
richardknop wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only for ATM withdrawals. If you are in first world country where card payments are well integrated this is not issue for you. Granted, in many developing countries you need cash so this will be issue.

Haha, have you never been to Germany? Tons of places still don't take credit cards.

I'm from EU (Slovakia) and not that far from Germany but surprisingly I have never been to Germany (not counting transit when I traveled through Germany in a train/bus or had to change flight) for some reason. I have always wanted to go but somehow I find places I want to go to more all the time so my travel to Germany keeps getting pushed down the list :D

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#24

Post by rb666 »

seanalltogether wrote: post #7

Transferwise has been a godsend for me the past couple years as I've been moving my life to the UK from the US. XE was bought out awhile ago and hiked their fees up, while banks like HSBC have always had high rates to begin with. Although I'm wondering if jumping on a bitcoin exchange like GDAX to go from USD -> bitcoin -> GBP would be even cheaper these days?

From Trumpland to Brexitania, you just like a challenge?!

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#25

Post by [deleted] »

javindo wrote: post #21
seanalltogether wrote: post #7

Transferwise has been a godsend for me the past couple years as I've been moving my life to the UK from the US. XE was bought out awhile ago and hiked their fees up, while banks like HSBC have always had high rates to begin with. Although I'm wondering if jumping on a bitcoin exchange like GDAX to go from USD -> bitcoin -> GBP would be even cheaper these days?

With the ever increasing price of BTC you could even end up inadvertently making a small profit on the transaction. That being said, with the volatility of it you could also lose all of your money in an instant.

[deleted]

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#26

Post by thesimon »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #20
richardknop wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only for ATM withdrawals. If you are in first world country where card payments are well integrated this is not issue for you. Granted, in many developing countries you need cash so this will be issue.

Haha, have you never been to Germany? Tons of places still don't take credit cards.

Maybe 2-3 years ago, but at least in the cities the card acceptance is quite good. Berlin in particular and cafes in general being the exception.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#27

Post by mcjiggerlog »

andy_ppp wrote: post #13
tomseldon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in the UK, have a look at Monzo. Not a credit card, but very useful to use abroad. They don't charge a transaction fee when abroad, and the currency conversion is tracked to the MasterCard rate (whereas other providers tend to do card issuer + their own cut on top). Result is it's very cheap to use abroad. :)

They actually plan to start charging for this because ATMs charge them: £200 free allowance per month, 3% charge for withdrawals thereafter everywhere outside the UK From here: https://monzo.com/blog/2017/09/13/atm-fees-abroad/ I would have just transparently passed on whatever the ATM charges rather than this weird 3% fee.

I'm a Monzo user and really unhappy to find this out. I spend most of my time in mainland Europe and the free transactions and no ATM fees are the only reason I am a user.

Can anyone comment on how Revolut compares? One pain point is that I always get asked if I want to pay in GBP or EUR, or even the cashier selects without asking me, in which case I get massively ripped off if they select GBP. With Revolut will the card look like a EUR card whilst travelling in the Eurozone?

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#28

Post by mcjiggerlog »

seanalltogether wrote: post #7

Transferwise has been a godsend for me the past couple years as I've been moving my life to the UK from the US. XE was bought out awhile ago and hiked their fees up, while banks like HSBC have always had high rates to begin with. Although I'm wondering if jumping on a bitcoin exchange like GDAX to go from USD -> bitcoin -> GBP would be even cheaper these days?

Same here whilst moving from the UK to Spain. Also, their borderless accounts are a lifesaver when working with international clients.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#29

Post by richardknop »

dovdovdov wrote: post #22
a_d wrote: post #2

I used to study remittance flows for a living. This was a problem that was (is?) begging to be solved. Incumbents like Western Union have always been very expensive and borderline evil. There are well known “corridors” of remittance flows that are still yet to be captured - like Kerala (India) Saudi Arabia (Middle-east more generally); Mexico US; US LatAm etc. My guess is TransferWise captured the UK Poland corridor…

It's clearly a service mostly depending on eastern (central) european migrants working in the UK. I wonder if brexit doesn't fall through what will it do to their single leg business. And even if brexit fails, these people will become less and less dependent of their home country. (moving close family to the uk, paying off mortgages) So yeah, my point is these untapped areas can dry off quick. (I'm talking a decade m…

It started as that but it has expanded since. There are lots of people using Transferwise all over the world now. People going to vacation or living in Japan, for example, can save money by using TW.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#30

Post by kreetx »

gedrap wrote: post #3
a_d wrote: post #2

I used to study remittance flows for a living. This was a problem that was (is?) begging to be solved. Incumbents like Western Union have always been very expensive and borderline evil. There are well known “corridors” of remittance flows that are still yet to be captured - like Kerala (India) Saudi Arabia (Middle-east more generally); Mexico US; US LatAm etc. My guess is TransferWise captured the UK Poland corridor…

> TransferWise captured the UK Poland corridor and expanded from there. Close! They started with UK Estonia, both co-founders are Estonians. IIRC in the very very early days, the whole settlement was done by users themselves over a Skype group.

You are right, but the Poland corridor was probably the key to proving the model though.
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