Personal Features

Xoom

33

33

Xoom lets personal customers transfer money to a significant number of countries, through different channels.

What Xoom does

  • International money transfers
  • Cash pick-ups
  • International bill payments
  • Home delivery of money

What Xoom doesn’t do

  • Personal account managers
  • Regular transfers
  • Unique local multi-currency accounts
  • Digital wallet
  • FX optimised travel card
  • Currency hedging tools

InstaReM

50

50

InstaReM provides reliable international money transfers services for personal customers from several countries.

What InstaReM does

  • International money transfers.
  • Cash pick-up in the Philippines.
  • Multi-currency travel cards.

What InstaReM doesn’t do

  • Regular transfers.
  • Digital wallets.
  • Personal account managers.
  • Hedging tools.
  • Cash pick-up, other than the Philippines.

InstaReM wins!

InstaReM scores better in the Personal Features category.

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Winner

Business Benefits

Xoom

0

0

Xoom does not provide services for businesses.


InstaReM

44

44

Small and mid-sized businesses may benefit by using InstaReM's services.

What InstaReM business account offers

  • Company-branded travel cards.
  • Multi-currency accounts.
  • Batch payments.
  • Higher send limits than personal accounts.

What InstaReM business account doesn’t offer

  • Hedging tools.
  • Digital wallets.
  • Accounting integration.
  • Online seller solutions.
  • Business specialists.

InstaReM wins!

InstaReM scores better in the Business Benefits category.

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Winner

Fees & Exchange Rates

Xoom

8

8

Xoom fees

Exchange rate margin fee - This is up to 2% for commonly traded currencies, and can be more than 5% for exotic currencies. 

Additional fees - The transfer fee varies based on the currencies being traded, the transfer amount, the payment method and the transfer method.

  • Debit and credit card payments tend to attract added fees.
  • Transfers to cash pick-up centers are typically more expensive than bank account transfers.
  • The Bill Pay service comes with a flat transfer fee of $/£/€ 2.99. This is not including the exchange rate margin.

InstaReM

34

34

InstaReM fees

The transfer fee you need to pay depends on the currencies being traded, the transfer amount and the mode of payment.

  • Transfer fees increase in direct proportion to increases in transfer amounts.
  • Debit card payments come with higher fees than bank account transfers.

InstaReM exchange rates

InstaReM uses Reuter market rates to process transfers and adds an FX margin that is typically below 1%. This essentially depends on the currencies being traded.


InstaReM wins!

InstaReM scores better in the Fees and Exchange Rates category.

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Winner

Ease of Use

Xoom

68

68

Sign up - Registration is simple, and becomes even easier for existing PayPal customers.

ID verification - Level 1 membership comes without the need for ID verification.

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

Mobile apps - Available for Android and iOS.

Minimum transfer amount - Low minimum transfer amount.

Transfer limit - Xoom has 24-hour, 30-day, and 180-day transfer limits.


InstaReM

72

72

What InstaReM does well

Signing up

Create a new account easily by using the InstaReM app or website.

Payment options

  • Bank account transfers from all countries.
  • ACH Pull payments from the USA.
  • Debit card payments from the European Union and the UK.
  • POLi payments from Australia.
  • FPX payments from Malaysia.

Mobile app

Available for iOS and Android.
 

Where InstaReM could improve

Speed - Some InstaReM reviews on Trustpilot suggest that transfers can take longer than the stipulated 1 - 2 business days.

Limits - Minimum transfer limits vary based on the sender's location. Maximum transfer limits vary depending on where the sender and recipient live. 

Phone transfers - You can not carry out transfers over the phone as a personal customer.


InstaReM wins!

InstaReM scores better in the Ease of Use category.

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Winner

Support & Countries

Xoom

75

75

Supported payment currencies - Xoom lets customers send money from more than 70 countries.It accepts payments in USD, CAD, EUR and GBP.

Supported destination currencies - Xoom lets you send money to around 130 countries, in around 80 currencies. 

Supported countries for bill payments - Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicargua and Vietnam.

Multilingual customer support - Customers get multilingual customer support. Languages include English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Filipino, Chinese and Arabic.

Foreign language website access - Xoom's website is available in a number of languages such as  French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic, Filipino, Chinese and  Vietnamese.


InstaReM

75

75

What InstaReM does well

Supported destination countries - InstaReM lets you send money to a number of countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania. However, the list of supported destination countries might vary based on the sender's location.
 

Where InstaReM could improve

Supported registration countries - InstaReM currently accepts customers from the US, Canada, the UK, Euro Zone countries, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore.


It's a draw!

Both equally compare in the Support and Countries category.

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Draw

Trust & Transparency

Xoom

38

38

Where Xoom does well

Regulated - Xoom is regulated by the US federal government and various state regulatory bodies. It is licensed to provide its services in all its countries in its transfer network.

Trustpilot - Xoom gets an Excellent rating on Trustpilot. However, a number of complaints highlight lengthy turnaround times and failed transfers. 
 

Xoom challenges

Fees transparency - Xoom applies a margin on existing exchange rates. This can be over 5% for some currencies. 

Customer support - The company does not seem to respond to any of its customers' reviews on Trustpilot and the Apple App store. Many customers also complain about receiving poor customer service over the phone.


InstaReM

50

50

What InstaReM does well

Regulated - InstaReM Pte. Ltd. (now known as NIUM Pte. Ltd.) is licensed by regulatory bodies of different countries.

Safety of funds - Uses segregated bank accounts to hold client money.

Trustpilot - Rating of Excellent.
 

Where InstaReM could improve

Transparency - Unless you carry out research on your own, you won't find out how much you pay as exchange rate margins.

Addressing customer concerns - A reasonable number of InstaRem reviews on Trustpilot and Google Play Store complain about delayed transfers and poor customer service.


InstaReM wins!

InstaReM scores better in the Trust and Transparency category.

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Winner

The Result

Winner ribbon iconWinner

 InstaReM

With Xoom not offering any business services it is clear to see why InstRem wins.  Both tie in the Support and Countries category but InstaRem wins the remaining sections.  The clear differentiator being their lower fees and exchange rates.