You could drop the links for now, it was quite frustrating trying to figure out why the FAQ link wasn't working, whether it was my ad blocker (often the case).
Interesting concept, I was chewing on something similar a few months ago and excited to see someone put this into action. Looking forward to following your growth. - JS
I have only implemented 3 providers - Transferwise, TransferGo and Currencyfair. I started this project around a week ago and want to gather some feedback as it's currently a proof of concept.
I am working on adding more providers. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
In addition to some other suggestions, xoom was bought by paypal a while ago - before transferwise and before they were bought by paypal, they were my go-to for international transfers.
This seems heavily weighted reliant on transferwise. I picked a combo where I'm familiar with the many options, and it only listed Transferwise. Stopping short of making unsavory correlations here, I'll just say you should research adding more options before advertising it.
Bottom line: they're all kind of the same, except TransferWise is generally better... Plus they're customer service is _awesome_. I'm not a TransferWise employee or shareholder, but been using the service since the start, and been blown away by the quality of service.
My story is that I made a big transfer (400k+) on the day before the Brexit vote (cause I thought that Brexit wouldn't happen, and the pound would bounce back). Because of the trading volume on that day, TransferWise missed the deadline. So I got in touch with them, they told me that they would give me the best rate between the one that I had locked in and the live market rate the next day. Basically I didn't lose 10k+ because they're decent guys.
Their borderless accounts are great, I needed to transfer some money from family in Australia and through them it was super simple: local transfer -> convert to USD -> local transfer.
TransferWise has a dedicated team working on a pretty similar tool to compare fees and rates for sending money abroad. They have a lot of banks and other fintech companies: https://transferwise.com/gb/compare/
Are you just using their data and adding your affiliate link to it?
If you observe closely from that list most of the companies that are on there are banks. They don't really include competitors because they know that their rates will always beat the banks.
+ Failing to select an amount to send should raise a flag.
+ Entering a negative amount to send should raise a flag.
+ After viewing a result, if I hit `back` on my browser (say, to compare results for a different transfer amount), it resets the currencies to their defaults (for me, U.S. and Argentina). It would be nicer to remember my selections.
Love this idea. I'm currently looking for a way to be sent money from Mexico (to the UK), and was disappointed that the site currently had no suggestions. On that note, it's probably better to show an error message instead of an empty table when that happens.
I also have some accessibility suggestions; if you're looking to improve things on that front hit me up.
1. You may want to invite suggestions via the website itself so that visitors don't get the wrong impression that you're just some affiliate for transferwise.
2. consider publishing a roadmap that you update with suggestions from this HN discussion.
3. Some way to report errors or surprises via the web site itself.
4. A disclaimer that you are not vouching for any agency that you are mentioning at your website.
>1. You may want to invite suggestions via the website itself so that visitors don't get the wrong impression that you're just some affiliate for transferwise.
This.
I tried some random tests and often Transferwise was the only result, so at first sight I had that impression.
Maybe you could add a "detail" drop down menu (or whatever) where you list all the services you considered with "service not available from country A to country B".
As a side note, it seems to me like the "engine" has only a small subset of states/countries.
Your data for Transferwise seems to assume the worst-case scenario of fees with a wire transfer. For example, you say US$100 to GBP nets $6.85 in fees.
But looking right now from my dashboard, if I send with my balnace, the fee is $1.18. With ACH its' $1.73. With credit card it's $4.81. With debit card it's $2.27. The worst and most-cumbersom option is wire transfer, but that's what your system defaults too?
That's a decision I made during development in order to get this proof of concept out as quickly as possible and gather some feedback. This price is what I am getting from their API and for bank transfers.
I am glad you picked up on this because I thought of placing a button which says "More Info" which will have a popup and display all options and fee. You've just validated my assumption and it's something I will be working on adding.
I'm based in UK and we have a lot of comparison sites such as GoCompare, MoneySuperMarket, etc. but none of these has the vertical I am targetting. That's what initially sparked the idea.
In terms of the target audience, I would say it's quite broad because this is something that quite a few people use on multiple occasions. Right now, I will be targetting individuals who live abroad and remit money back to their country and then start expanding further to individuals who travel, individuals who want to purchase large assets abroad, etc.
Thanks for sharing those sites - I had never come across them and Monito pretty much looks like where I would like to be in the future. I'm going to have two angles a) for individuals and b) for businesses. After having a quick look at the links you provided these sites only seem to cover (a). I would like my site to be the go-to place for money transfers, for individuals and businesses.
Maybe none of the providers I work with the support that route. I will be adding a few more integrations in the upcoming week or two - hopefully we should be able to get some results for US > PK.
This is great! Would have definitely help me out when I moved to the US.
People don't realize the fees banks charge for currency conversion is not the entire story. My bank offered me 'no-fee' CAD to USD transfers but were giving me a 5% worse exchange rate than competitors. Be careful out there!
Basically, but a stock that trades in Toronto with CAD, call your broker to move it to the US side, then sell it for USD.
Convert any amount for 2 brokerage charges (2x$10 for me).
Yes, it exposes you to stock market fluctuations for that stock for a few hours or days (depending on your broker), but at least you get to stay in the market instead of the money being “dead”.
Arbitrageurs keep the prices exactly in sync several thousand times per day.
75 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 156 ms ] threadI am planning on adding a lot more content to the site, including reviews within the next 2 weeks.
Are you sure you didn't build a transferwise clickbait? I know for a fact there are other services that do this transfer.
I am working on adding more providers. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
Could you let me know the combinations you searched so I can get those implemented at some point?
My story is that I made a big transfer (400k+) on the day before the Brexit vote (cause I thought that Brexit wouldn't happen, and the pound would bounce back). Because of the trading volume on that day, TransferWise missed the deadline. So I got in touch with them, they told me that they would give me the best rate between the one that I had locked in and the live market rate the next day. Basically I didn't lose 10k+ because they're decent guys.
Are you just using their data and adding your affiliate link to it?
If you observe closely from that list most of the companies that are on there are banks. They don't really include competitors because they know that their rates will always beat the banks.
You should look at other companies...
If you have any more suggestions or feedback please let me know. This is only a proof of concept and I am very keen on improving it further.
If you have any suggestions regarding more providers or services please let me know as I am keen in improving the site.
+ Failing to select an amount to send should raise a flag.
+ Entering a negative amount to send should raise a flag.
+ After viewing a result, if I hit `back` on my browser (say, to compare results for a different transfer amount), it resets the currencies to their defaults (for me, U.S. and Argentina). It would be nicer to remember my selections.
I also have some accessibility suggestions; if you're looking to improve things on that front hit me up.
2. consider publishing a roadmap that you update with suggestions from this HN discussion.
3. Some way to report errors or surprises via the web site itself.
4. A disclaimer that you are not vouching for any agency that you are mentioning at your website.
This.
I tried some random tests and often Transferwise was the only result, so at first sight I had that impression.
Maybe you could add a "detail" drop down menu (or whatever) where you list all the services you considered with "service not available from country A to country B".
As a side note, it seems to me like the "engine" has only a small subset of states/countries.
However, point noted. Will add something to make this more obvious.
But looking right now from my dashboard, if I send with my balnace, the fee is $1.18. With ACH its' $1.73. With credit card it's $4.81. With debit card it's $2.27. The worst and most-cumbersom option is wire transfer, but that's what your system defaults too?
I am glad you picked up on this because I thought of placing a button which says "More Info" which will have a popup and display all options and fee. You've just validated my assumption and it's something I will be working on adding.
I ask because I love the idea of building a search engine for payments, given how fragmented and localized the money-transfer market is.
Also, I'm familiar with a few sites that are similar: https://www.monito.com/ https://www.fxcompared.com/ https://www.saveonsend.com/
I'm curious about what gap in these services you're hoping to fill.
In terms of the target audience, I would say it's quite broad because this is something that quite a few people use on multiple occasions. Right now, I will be targetting individuals who live abroad and remit money back to their country and then start expanding further to individuals who travel, individuals who want to purchase large assets abroad, etc.
Thanks for sharing those sites - I had never come across them and Monito pretty much looks like where I would like to be in the future. I'm going to have two angles a) for individuals and b) for businesses. After having a quick look at the links you provided these sites only seem to cover (a). I would like my site to be the go-to place for money transfers, for individuals and businesses.
People don't realize the fees banks charge for currency conversion is not the entire story. My bank offered me 'no-fee' CAD to USD transfers but were giving me a 5% worse exchange rate than competitors. Be careful out there!
Basically, but a stock that trades in Toronto with CAD, call your broker to move it to the US side, then sell it for USD.
Convert any amount for 2 brokerage charges (2x$10 for me).
Yes, it exposes you to stock market fluctuations for that stock for a few hours or days (depending on your broker), but at least you get to stay in the market instead of the money being “dead”.
Arbitrageurs keep the prices exactly in sync several thousand times per day.