Western Union fees rising? Switched to Wise?

manilahistorybuff

Last week I sent my usual amount home using Western Union at the counter and the fees seemed to hit harder than before, almost like they added extra charges on top of the regular ones. After that I tried using Wise on my phone for the following transfer instead. The whole thing went through quickly and they deducted a lot less money overall. The exchange rate ended up being a bit different from what I had expected though. Is the rate on Wise usually off from the expected amount by a certain percentage?

cebucool

Wise shows the mid-market rate right in the app so you can see the exact difference before hitting send.

AdoboAdvocate

Wise keeps the exchange rate at the actual mid-market level without any built-in markup, so the difference you noticed is likely just how it compares to the inflated rate most banks quote. The fee shows up separately in the app before you confirm, which is why the total came out lower overall.

manilahistorybuff

Tried checking the app before confirming and it did show the mid-market rate clearly, though it still differed from my bank’s quote by a small bit I didn’t expect.