Remitly vs Western Union

What Remitly offers

Remitly provides overseas money transfer services to:

• Foreign Bank Accounts
• Cash pick up locations
• Mobile Money solutions (not available in all countries)

Remitly also offers a regular transfer service for people who need to do repeated international money transfers for the same amount each time. For example, monthly pensions.

Remitly does not offer

• Personal account management
• Travel debit cards
• Digital wallet services

Sending limits apply to customers for international money transfers.

Western Union lets you transfer money to most countries in the world, either to bank accounts or to cash pickup locations.

What Western Union does

• International money transfers
• Cash pick-ups
• Bill payments
• Transfers to inmates
• Prepaid card

What Western Union doesn't do

• Personal account managers
• Regular transfers
• Unique local multi-currency accounts
• Digital wallets
• Currency hedging tools

Remitly does not offer services for businesses. Their service is specialised and tailored for personal use.

Western Union provides various forex services for business customers from a number of countries. 

What Western Union offers businesses

• Currency hedging tools
• Mass payments
• Incoming payments
• Multi-currency balances
• Accounting integration

What Western Union doesn’t offer businesses

• Solutions for online sellers
• Business travel cards
• Dedicated currency specialists

Remitly fees are hidden within the exchange rate plus an additional fee on top. The fees on the exchange rate can be up to 2% of the transfer amount.

Additional fees apply for the transfer of funds. These can be simple for some countries and complex tiered fees for other countries. 

Economy Transfer Fee - Up to US$3.99

Express Transfer Fee - Between US$4.99 and US$99.99 for larger transfer amounts when receiving in USD.

Western Union money transfer fees

Exchange rate margin fee - This can be more than 5% for exotic currencies. 

Additional fees - The transfer fee you need to pay depends on the currencies involved, the transfer amount, the payment method and the delivery method.

• Cash pickups tend to attract more fees than transfers to bank accounts.
• With payment methods, credit cards attract the highest fees.

Registration - Remitly has a smooth account creation process. The website and mobile app are easy to use.

ID Verification - ID verification is not required for Tier 1 membership but this lowers the account sending limits. Tier 2 and 3 require increased proof of identification and source of funds. This can be a slower process. 

Transfer speed - Generally between 2 - 3 days upon payment.

Low minimum transfer limits - Send under $5

Low maximum transfer limits - Transfer limits are tiered based on your ID verification. Even with tier 3 ID verification. 

Low maximum sending limits - After full ID verification, you may only send up to $60,000 within 180 days. That’s low!

Sign up - Registration is easy and follows an intuitive process.

Payment options -  Bank transfers, debit cards, credit cards and cash.

Mobile apps - Available for Android and iOS

Transfer limits - Based on where you and the recipient live, the transfer method and the payment method.

Multilingual website - Get website access in local languages, depending on which Western Union website you use.

Destination countries - Remitly specialises in sending to South American, Asian and African countries. Sending to more popular countries like the UK, USA and Canada is not supported.

Language support - Remilty supports 11 languages. They have local settlement accounts for sending funds to Remitly freely and easily in Singapore, Australia, Europe, UK and the USA.

Customer service - Customer support can be contacted by their website’s online chat service. Phone support is also available but only in English and Spanish between 3:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. PT.

Supported currencies - Western Union carries out transfers in around 130 currencies.

Supported countries - You can transfer funds to more to 200 countries and territories. You can register through the Western Union website from over 70 countries.

Phone support - Provides local phone support during business hours in several countries.

Transparency - Remitly’s transparency on fees is quite poor. They show the real exchange rate below their money transfer widget but the ‘received amount’ in the widget does not use that rate. Remitly uses the real exchange rate plus approximately 2%.

The additional fees for sending to a country can be found clearly within the help center. However, it is not shown to the customer going through the money transfer process until after a few steps.

Remitly & TrustPilot - Remilty’s lack of transparency on fees can be quite confusing which is reflected in many poor reviews on TrustPilot. Many poor Remitly reviews are about transparency on fees and sudden account closures or funds not arriving at their destination. 

Where Western Union does well

Regulated - Licensed by financial regulatory bodies of different countries.

Publicly listed - Regular audits to oversee safety and compliance procedures result in increased trust surrounding customers' funds.

Western Union challenges

Exchange rate and fee transparency - The Westren Union margin on existing exchange rates can be more than 5% for exotic currencies. Some Western Union reviews on Trustpilot and Play Store mention non-transparency in fees as well.

Customer support - A number of online customer reviews highlight concerns surrounding Western Union's unresponsive customer service.