Wise vs Bank of America

Wise provides a simple easy to use international money transfer service with digital wallet capabilities. Their digital wallet, or Borderless account also gives the individual local banking details in 6+ currencies including, EUR, SGD, NZD, USD, GBP and AUD. Their Wise Borderless debit card backs on to their Borderless digital wallet allowing you to spend directly out of your multi-currency account balances.

What Wise offers individuals

• International money transfers
• Borderless multi-currency receiving accounts
• Borderless Debit Card - FX optimised debit card
• Android and Apple apps
• Send money to email address
• Scheduled and recurring transfers - sufficiently funded Borderless account required for this to work.

What Wise does not offer individuals

• Personal account management
• Full support for regular transfers. Currently regular transfers or ‘scheduled transfers’ need to have a Borderless multi-currency account balance. Find out which countries support Wise Borderless account.
• Cash pick up or international bill payments

Bank of America provides international money transfer services for personal and business customers from the US.
 

Personal Services

Bank of America's international transfer services are available to all the bank's existing personal customers.

What Bank of America offers

• International wire transfers to bank accounts.
• Personal and cashier’s checks sent to recipients' physical addresses.
• Foreign currency.
• Travel rewards card.

What Bank of America doesn’t offer

• Cash pickup.
• Regular transfers.
• Account managers.
• Digital wallets.

In addition to the services Wise offers the individual, there are some features only available for a business. Unfortunately, as Wise is online only, a business customer does not have support with currency fluctuations and trends. Wise does however offer easy to use transactional foreign currency receipts and payments.

Scheduled transfers is a recently added feature. This can reduce admin for those standard monthly, weekly payments to suppliers and staff. A sufficient balance in the Business Borderless account is required. Wise will remind the account owner to make sure there is sufficient funds in the multi-current account. What is not supported is standing orders from a business bank account through Wise. This may mean that businesses need to alter their business structure to ensure continuous sufficent Borderless account funding.

What Wise offers businesses

• Batch payments
• Xero and Quickbook integration
• FX optimised business debit card
• Multi-user account access
• Regular and scheduled transfers

What Wise for business doesn’t offer

• Business account management
• Risk management tools

Businesses may benefit by using Bank of America’s international transfer services through some of its features.
 

What Bank of America offers businesses

• Make international payments.
• Receive international payments.
• Currency hedging tools.
• Business Advantage Travel Rewards credit card.

What Bank of America for business doesn’t offer

• Account managers.
• Regular transfers.
• Accounting integration.
• Multi-currency accounts.

Wise offers the real time exchange rate at the time of your transfer. Therefore fees are visible in addition to the transfer amount. The fee structure is complex as it differs depending on the currencies you are sending from and to. Fees also apply to the type of Borderless account transaction. Fees can also apply on the use of the Wise Borderless debit card. Fees are briefly summarised below. Read the detailed Wise review for more details on Wise fees.

Bank of America international transfer fees

Carrying out an outbound international wire transfer through Bank of America and paying in US dollars attracts $45 in fees. Outbound international wires sent in foreign currencies attract no fees. Since both are essentially SWIFT transfers, additional intermediary bank fees might also apply.
 

Bank of America exchange rates

Bank of America applies markups/margins on existing interbank/mid-market exchange rates. This can be up to 5%. You might get a better exchange rate when using the online banking system then through a Bank of America branch.

The Wise app design and user experience of their technology is great with simple, intuitive processes.

Registration - Fast and easy account creation

ID verification - Instant in some countries

Transfer speed - It can be instantaneous in some countries. Fast payments to Wise comes at an additional cost.

Minimum transfer amount - $1

Mobile app - Simple and easy to use. Probably the best designed app of the international money transfer companies.

Payment options - Wise has the broadest range of payment options. Local bank transfer, debit / credit card and country specific solutions such as POLi.

Signing up - Existing Bank of America customers do not have to create new accounts. However, you need to be a Bank of America customer to use its services.

Transfer method - You can set up your transfer by using the online banking system or by visiting a Bank of America financial center.

Speed - Transfers can take 1 - 2 business days. However, Bank of America has an extensive list of slow-to-pay countries, and sending money to these countries can take noticeably longer.

Payment methods - The money for your transfer needs to come from your existing Bank of America bank account.

Wise’s supported countries vary with different services having different supported customer countries and destination countries. These are detailed in the Wise Countries and Currencies article and is summarized below.

Send from - 23 countries plus the Europe SEPA countries

Send to - Over 60 currencies

Borderless account and debit card - Over 6 countries can sign up to their Borderless services.

Supported countries and currencies - You can carry out wire transfers to over 200 countries, in more than 140 currencies.

Customer support - Provides customer support via email and phone. You may also visit any Bank of America financial center across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East or Asia Pacific.

Wise is fully regulated by the FCA and their customer funds are segregated from their business banking activities.

Wise is rated on TrustPilot as Excellent. Unfortunately there have been some poor reviews on TrustPilot indicating sudden account closures with funds being returned with no explanation.

Wise continues to raise capital through private funding. This could be a concern for the future when the shareholders are looking for aggressive growth and / or a return on their investment.

Regulated - Bank of America is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). It is regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

SafePass - This feature offers an extra layer of protection for transfers that exceed $1,000.

Transparency in exchange rates - Customers have no way of telling how much margin Bank of America applies unless they carry out their own research.

Trustpilot reviews - Bank of America gets a dismal 2.8 out of 10 on Trustpilot, with around 350 reviews. It rates as Bad.