Wise vs Ria

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

Ria Money Transfer gives personal customers from various countries the ability to transfer money online and in person.
 

What Ria Money Transfer offers

• International money transfers
• Bank account deposits
• Cash pick-up
• Home cash delivery (in some countries)

What Ria Money Transfer doesn’t offer

• Regular transfers
• Currency hedging tools
• Travel cards
• Digital wallets
• Multi-currency accounts
• Account managers

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

Ria Money Transfer does not provide services for businesses.

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.

Ria Money Transfer fees

Transfer fees - Transfer fees are high. They increase the more you transfer. Additional fees for sending $2,500 can be over $50.

Fees for cash pick-up - Sending money to a Ria cash pick-up location tends to attract more fees when compared to a bank account transfer.

Credit / debit card payment fees - Paying via a debit or credit card attracts more fees than paying via a bank account transfer.
 

Ria Money Transfer exchange rates

Exchange rate margin/markup - Exchange rates offered by Ria come with markups that are added on top of existing mid-market exchange rates. In addition, the margin might vary depending on whether you transfer money online or in person. The markup can be more than 3% for some exotic currencies.

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.

Sign up process - If you live in a country that Ria supports for online transfers, you can create a new account by using the RIa Money Transfer app or website.

Payment methods - Ria accepts payments via bank account transfers, credit cards, debit cards and cash.

Multilingual website - You can use the Ria Money Transfer website in English, French, Spanish or Polish.

Transfer limits - You cansend a maximum of $2,999.99 per transfer, or per day. A maximum limit of $7,999 applies for each 30-day period.

Ria Money Transfer app - While Ria provides an app for Android and Apple, some customer reviews highlight problems with how both apps functions.

Transfer speed - Some Ria Money Transfer reviews on Trustpilot and Google Play Store complain about transfers taking significantly longer than expected. According to Ria, it processes transfers to bank accounts in 2 - 4 business days. Transfers to cash pick-up centers can go through within minutes or hours.

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 registration countries - Ria Money Transfer provides online money transfer services for residents of the U.S., Canada, the UK, Spain and Australia. Customers from a number of other countries can send money in person.

Supported destination countries - Use Ria Money Transfer to send money to around 160 countries.

Phone support - Get local phone support if you live in the US, Canada or Australia.

Ria Money Transfer customer service - A number of Ria Money Transfer customer reviews on Trustpilot and other platforms express concerns about receiving poor customer service.

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.

Owned by Euronet Worldwide - Euronet Worldwide, a leading global electronic transactions and payments company, owns Ria Money Transfer.

Compliant - Ria Money Transfer adheres to all guidelines under the US Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). It also complies with all sanctions imposed by the United Nations and the European Union.

Trustpilot - Ria gets a rating of Excellent on Trustpilot. However, it appears that Ria does not reply to its customers' problems on this platform. Most of the concerns are around verification, delayed transfers, bad customer service and poor user experience. 

Transparency in exchange rate - Ria Money Transfer does not inform its customers of the markup it adds on existing mid-market exchange rates. With some exotic currencies, it can be over 3%.