2020 Online International Money Transfer Company Review: CurrencyFair

The online money transfer market is booming as fintech companies are popping up everywhere as the world is interconnected now more than ever.

The need for secure money transfer options is a big opportunity for new fintech companies to fill the need of the people. CurrencyFair is one of the leading international money transfer services in the world.

It is an actual peer-to-peer marketplace that offers specialized overseas money transfer services for companies and individuals alike.

They offer competitive exchange rates, transfer fees, and turnaround times compared to other money transfer companies.

Also, they have a unique feature called “CurrencyFair Exchange” that sets them apart. The feature allows the users to choose their exchange rates, and they sometimes even beat the inter-bank price!

We get that you may not know much about CurrencyFair, and this is why we created this review to help you see if CurrencyFair is the right option for you. So let’s get into it.

14 Different Reasons To Use CurrencyFair 

CurrencyFair is a versatile money transfer company that offers impressive flexibility and options for its users. Here are some reasons why you should consider using CurrencyFair:

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• You can make payments on your Investment, divestment, and dividends.
• CurrencyFair allows you to make inheritance, redundancy, insurance payouts.
• You can make donations to charities as well.
• You can make regular and one-off payments for services, raw materials, and supplies.
• If you are a student, then you can use CurrencyFair to pay your educational and tuition fees.
• You can make purchases through CurrencyFair.
• If you want to make property purchases, then CurrencyFair can be used to pay the fees.
• You can send money to your family for support through CurrencyFair.
• CurrencyFair can be used to make investments in financial products.
• You can make repayments for loans and mortgages through CurrencyFair.
• You can also pay your bills and rents through CurrencyFair with the utmost ease.
• If you have employees, then you can pay salaries and pensions through CurrencyFair.
• You can receive and send remittance for the sale of shares.
• CurrencyFair can be used to pay your travel expenses and a host of other payments.

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A Peek Into CurrencyFair

CurrencyFair is one of the largest money transfer companies in the world.

The fintech company hit 1 billion dollars in transactions. That made the company the first-ever to hit the mark. All of this growth was possible because of their consistent investment in staff numbers and technology infrastructure.

CurrencyFair claims that the company’s bank-beating exchange rates are eight times cheaper. The company has so far saved 100,000+ customers over €280 million in transfer charges with their services.

If you look at their customer reviews in Trust Pilot, you will see that they have over 3500 “5-star” reviews. CurrencyFair was founded in 2009, and the headquarter is in Dublin, Ireland, and the Central Bank of Ireland, ASIC regulates the company.

The withdrawal options are banks and debit cards. The same goes for payment options, and it’s all online.

Information About CurrencyFair Charges, Fees, Etc

You need to know what CurrencyFair has to offer, and here are the things you should know about.

Supported Currencies

Here is the list of currencies that CurrencyFair can help you receive and send money. So let’s get into it.

These Are The Currencies You Can Use For Transfers In CurrencyFair:

Australian Dollar	Canadian Dollar	Czech Koruna
Danish Krone	Euro	Great Britain Pound
Hong Kong Dollar	Hungarian Forint	Norwegian Krone
New Zealand Dollar	Polish Zloty	South African Rand
Swedish Krona	Swiss Franc	Swiss Franc
United States Dollar

Destination currencies include:

Australian Dollar	Canadian Dollar	Czech Koruna
Danish Krone	Euro	Great Britain Pound
Hong Kong Dollar	Hungarian Forint	Israeli Shekel
Indian Rupee	Norwegian Krone	New Zealand Dollar
Polish Zloty	Singapore Dollar	South African Rand
Swedish Krona	Swiss Franc	Thai Baht
UAE Dirham	United States Dollar

Countries Of Registration For CurrencyFair

Here are the countries you can register with CurrencyFair with.

Anguilla	French Guiana	Luxembourg	Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Aruba	French Polynesia	Malta	San Marino
Australia	Germany	Martinique	Singapore
Austria	Gibraltar	Mayotte	Sint Maarten (NL)
Belgium	Greece	Netherlands	Slovakia
Bulgaria	Greenland	Netherlands Antilles	Slovenia
Canada	Guadeloupe	New Caledonia	South Africa
Croatia	Hong Kong	New Zealand	Spain
Curacao	Hungary	Norway	Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Cyprus	Iceland	Poland	Sweden
Czech Republic	Ireland	Portugal	Switzerland
Denmark	Isle of Man	Reunion	United Arab Emirates
Estonia	Italy	Romania	United Kingdom
Faroe Islands	Latvia	Saint Barthelemy	Wallis and Futuna
Finland	Liechtenstein	Saint Helena
France	Lithuania	Saint Martin (FR)

CurrencyFair Fees

The CurrencyFair fees come in two simple models. The first is a per transaction, and then a percentage charge of the amount exchanged – between 0.15% and 0.5%. CurrencyFair has a page dedicated to international exchange rates for its customers.

Per Transaction Fee

3 Euros is the upfront cost of transactions. It’s a fixed fee, and it doesn’t change, no matter how big the transfer is.

However, if you are using a different currency, then the amount charged will be equivalent to 3 Euros.

The fee is deducted from the amount you receive in your destination currency. Here is a list of prices for a bunch of different countries.

Currency	Transfer Fee
Euro	EUR 3.00
Pound Sterling	GBP 3.00
Australian Dollar	$4.00
US Dollar	$4.00
UAE Dirham	AED 15.00
Canadian Dollar	$4.00
Swiss Franc	fr. 4.00
Czech Koruna	Kc 75.00
Danish Krone	Kr. 25.00
Hong Kong Dollar	HK$ 25.00
Hungarian Forint	1,000.00 Ft
Norwegian Krone	Kr 25.00
New Zealand Dollar	$5.00
Polish Zloty	zl 10.00
Swedish Krona	30.00 kr
Singapore Dollar	$5.00
South African Rand	R 25.00

Percentage Fee

The percentage fee is a commission that you pay on the amount of money exchanged. Now there are two ways CurrencyFair offers its customers to transfer money.

The Auto Transaction method charges between 0.4% and 0.5%. If you choose the actual peer-to-peer exchange, you will be charged a fee of 0.15% if a peer matches the trade.

However, if there is no peer to match the offer, then CurrencyFair will step in, but at that moment, the Auto Transaction fee is applied.

The fee is built into the transaction, so you get what you see. Fees usually vary from exchange to exchange, that’s why CurrencyFair often says the average fee is approximately 0.35%.

Speed Of Transfer

CurrencyFair is a faster alternative to your usual banks when it comes to international money transfers.

There is a page dedicated to showing you their exchange process time, where they let you know the average speed of transfer for their foreign exchange.

The usual time frame of transfers for CurrencyFair is 1-3 days. You can have an even faster turnaround time on your transfers with the CurrencyFair Auto Transaction” feature.

If you are using currencies like EUR, GBP, NOK, DKK, PLN, SEK, and CHF, then CurrencyFair offers you Express Transfers. You can easily make the payments you need with your Visa or Mastercard debit cards.

However, remember that there is an added fee. What sets Currencyfair apart is that they are continually growing, and the company is in the process of adding more currencies to their ever-growing list.

CurrencyFair Products

CurrencyFair offers a variety of options for its customers, but they usually come in two distinct categories.

One is Personal Transfers, and the other is Business Transfers. So let’s take a look into them:

Personal Transfers

CurrencyFair allows anyone and everyone to send and receive money from all over the world.

The digital money transfer company enables you to make payments in foreign currencies.

With CurrencyFair, you can make payments to bank accounts worldwide and operate brokerage accounts in different currencies.

Business Transfers

If you are a business that deals with international clients and vendors, then you can use CurrencyFair as a cheaper solution to banks.

The global money transfer company allows you to make transactions in multiple currencies while managing their accounts under one umbrella.

You can check out their Business Page for information on how they can be better for you.

CurrencyFair Features

CurrencyFair has a host of different features for their customers. Here is a list of features that allow them to dominate the online money transfer sector.

Top-Up

The top-up feature is one of the most popular features of CurrencyFair.

It’s the feature that makes the platform a true peer-to-peer exchange platform.

You can quickly load up money in any currency you want and carry out new transactions later on.

Payment Methods

The payment methods offered by CurrencyFair are as varied as any other company.

You can easily make a transfer using a bank account transfer. Australians can use BPAY to make their CurrencyFair payments as well.

There are different countries as well, where CurrencyFair allows its clients to make Express Deposits.

Express Deposits

If you are using currencies like CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, NOK, PLN, or SEK, you can use the Express Deposit feature.

For this, you will need a Visa or Mastercard. These are the countries where CurrencyFair offers Express Deposits..

Austria	Germany	Malta	Spain
Belgium	Greece	Netherlands	Sweden
Cyprus	Ireland	Norway	Switzerland
Denmark	Italy	Poland	The United Kingdom
Estonia	Latvia	Portugal
Finland	Lithuania	Slovakia
France	Luxembourg	Slovenia

If you need further information on Express Deposits, then you should take a look at their page dedicated to the feature.

Auto Transactions

Auto Transactions is the feature that offers you spot rates on the amount you want to convert.

The rates that CurrencyFair offers highly competitive rates for transactions. You can check out their Auto Transaction page for further information.

CurrencyFair Exchange

So this is a feature that sets CurrencyFair apart from other money transfer companies. The CurrencyFair Exchange allows you to make peer-to-peer exchanges.

Here you will be able to bid on the rates you want, allowing you to get rates that are lower than the market exchange rates.

If the Exchange option doesn’t work, you will automatically get a spot rate from CurrencyFair.

Regular/Recurring Transfers

CurrencyFair has a fantastic feature that allows you to schedule future payments. It comes in handy if you have recurring payments that you need to make.

You can save a lot of time with this feature as you wouldn’t have to go through the ordeal every time you need to make payments. If you are running a business, then this feature comes in handy a lot.

To set up this feature, you would need first to create a standing order with your bank where it will send in money to CurrencyFair regularly.

Once the money comes in, CurrencyFair initiates the auto-exchange and sends the money through to the accounts.

What You Need To Know About Auto Exchange & Exchange

CurrencyFair remains highly competitive with the top money transfer companies worldwide because their foreign exchange rates are always near their competition.

The spot rates CurrencyFair offers are lucrative enough to make their clients come back over and over again. The rate you get depends on whether you choose

Auto Transaction or use the Exchange. Here are some things that you need to know about the features.

Auto Transaction

Whenever you choose the Auto Transaction feature, CurrencyFair automatically provides you with rates that are close to the prevailing mid-market rate.

They do this by matching the rate of another customer, or if there aren’t any customers, they offer the rates themselves.

So if you need fast transfer processes, low fees, and a simple way to send money overseas, then you should consider the Auto Transaction option.

It’s a simple way to get highly competitive rates at any time, without worrying about matching with multiple people on a single transfer.

The Exchange

So the Exchange option allows you to bid on lucrative exchange rates when you want to buy or sell some currency. If done right, it will help you save money on fees.

Now it can seem daunting at first, but once you get some first-hand experience, you will be much more comfortable with trading.

Choosing your rates and waiting for someone to match the offer will usually mean that you can get better exchange rates than prevailing interbank rates.

However, waiting for a longer time might result in the exchange rates moving against you.

So when you want to use the CurrencyFair Exchange option, make sure you read about the option on the website.

CurrencyFair Pros & Cons

CurrencyFair is one of the top money transfer companies globally and is a fast-growing company with a 150,000 user community.

With such a big and fast-growing user base, there are reasons people keep choosing their service, right? Well, here are some pros and cons of the company for your eyes only.

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Pros

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• Lower exchange rate margins than most of its competitors.
• Low transaction fees, with most being at around 2.5GBP.
• Interactive cross-platform mobile app.
• CurrencyFair has an extensive distribution network totaling 157 countries.

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Cons

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• You cannot open CurrencyFair accounts in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
• CurrencyFair supports only  20 currencies. Meaning you cannot trade in local currencies of all the countries.

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Is CurrencyFair Stable & Trustworthy?

Brett Meyers, Jonathan Potter, Sean Barrett, and David Christian founded CurrencyFair in April 2009. The company’s headquarters is in  Dublin, Ireland, with offices in Newcastle, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

CurrencyFair turned heads in the Finance industry when the Fintech company hit the 7 billion euro marking in July 2018.

Because the company is well run, they have been able to secure multiple rounds of funding for progress.

Here are two significant investments that the money transfer company got:

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• Frontline Ventures brought in $2.5 million in 2013.
• Octopus Investments and others funded €8 million in 2016.

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CurrencyFair has raised more than 20 million Euros until now and has aggressively invested in the Asian market, which is the industry’s sleeping giant.

The money transfer company employs more than 100 employees and has won several accolades from all over the world.

Amongst all of the awards  IIA Dot IE Net Visionary Awards, Best of Show award at the FinovateAsia conference in Singapore stands out the most.

The central bank regulates a Fintech company, so you know that they are trustworthy. The Central Bank of Ireland regulates CurrencyFair in Ireland. It’s an Authorised Payment Institution under Regulation 18 of the European Union on payment services.

In Australia, the online money transfer company operates as CurrencyFair Australia Pty Ltd. It is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) under AFS License number 402709.

In Singapore, it operates as CurrencyFair (Singapore) Pte Ltd; it is fully authorized and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Along with that, Hong Kong has allowed CurrencyFair to operate as a Money Service Operator.

For CurrencyFair to gain the authorization and license to work, they had to meet specific requirements set by the regulatory bodies. Here are some of the most important ones:

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• The guaranteed protection of client funds.
• Very high standards for systems and procedures within the company.
• Minimum capital requirements.
• A thorough vetting process for management.
• Detection system for financial crimes.

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Being an online money transfer company, CurrencyFair understands that it has to put in considerable effort to safeguard clients’ funds, information, and privacy.

Here are some of the steps they have taken for protecting their client’s against cyber attacks:

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• Segregation of client funds and business funds.
• Two-factor authentication for account security.
• 256-bit encryption via SSL from VeriSign for a secure connection.
• Secure data centers
• Tracking deposits & transfers.
• Identity verification, and automatic session logout after a period of inactivity.
• CurrencyFair ID for further identification before transacting.

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Do The Users Trust CurrencyFair?

The financial solution provider is one of the world’s largest money transfer companies because it has a vast user base.

With over 4100 reviews already and a rating of 4.7 out of 5 on TrustPilot, the company is one of the most trusted online money transfer companies in the world.

Here are some positives and negatives of CurrencyFair according to its reviews. So check them out!

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Positive

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• Highly Reliable.
• A user-friendly platform that requires only a few steps to send money.
• Affordable solutions regardless of transfer size.
• Transparent and straightforward fees and rates for users.
• Stable and safe because of government regulation and security investments.
• Provides fast money transfer solutions.

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Negative

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• Account Verification takes a long time.
• Live chat has no human support. Instead, it has a CF Bot with pre programmed responses.
• They offer transfers in only 20 currencies with other major money transfer companies offering 70+ currencies for trade and transfers.

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Is There A CurrencyFair Mobile App?

CurrencyFair has a vast user base and being a peer to peer money transfer company; it puts a lot of focus on user experience.

It’s one of the reasons why they have invested in a mobile app. The company made its app available in September 2015 for its users and is available on Android and IOS platforms. Here are some of the functionalities the app offers:

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• It allows you to upload photo identification for ID verification.
• Fast currency transfers.
• Showcases live exchange rates and real exchange rate margin.
• It allows you to track transfers.
• You can check transaction history.
• It allows you to manage, edit, and delete your linked bank accounts to your CurrencyFair account.

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Can You Cancel CurrencyFair Transfers?

Yes, you can cancel your transfers on CurrencyFair as long as there is no match on the exchange rates.

If you want to cancel a transfer, you will need to go to the Transaction Overview tab on your account and then go on ahead with the cancellation.

However, you should remember that if you have already chosen a transfer, you will not be able to cancel it. So make sure you go through the cancellation policy beforehand.

How To Set Up A Functioning CurrencyFair Account?

Setting up a CurrencyFair account is relatively easy. You can easily create an account by following a few simple steps, and then you can be on your merry way to saving a lot of money on your fund transfers.

Account Set-Up

Setting up the account is simple, and you can have it all done within 5 minutes. Your personal or business account will be set within no time at all.

Verification

Now comes the most lengthy part of the process, the verification of the account. You will need to upload a photo ID for verification.

You will need to upload or scan with your device webcam the 1st and 2nd proof of address. Now, these can be any of the following IDs:

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• Utility bill.
• Bank or Credit Card Statement.
• Revenue Notices.
• Local Council Notices.
• Car Registration Documents.
• Lease or Tenancy Agreement.
• Household Insurance or Renewal Notice.

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Transaction Set-Up

Once the account is verified, you can make your transactions. So the step is relatively simple here.

All you need to do is type in the money you want to send, and the currencies that will be involved in the transfer, and you are set.

The in-built calculator will show you the approximate amount of money the receiver will get along with the estimated delivery, exchange rates, and transfer fees.

Setting Up The Recipient

Before you can send the money to the other person, you need to set up the recipient form. Here is what you will need to fill it up:

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• Name of the recipient.
• The country of the account.
• Account number.
• Bank code.
• Reference For The Recipient.
• Reason for  the transfer

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Now you can set up the transfer in a way so that it notifies the recipient through email. For that, you would have to click on the email notification box.

Finalizing The Transfer. 

So when you finalize the money transfer, you will need to go through specific security measures for it to go through.

So when sending money, CurrencyFair will either send you a text with a code or get a call to verify it. Once you do that, the transfer will initiate, and the recipient will get the money.

Do CurrencyFair Offer Coupons & Discounts?

CurrencyFair offers its users occasional promotions of coupons and discounts. Now, if you are a new customer and have just signed up, then you can take advantage of their TenFreeTransferProgram.

In this program, you will get the first ten transfers free. Alongside that, you can take advantage of their referral program where you get 30 euros for every friend you refer and signs up.

If your friend signs up with your referral link, then they too will get 30 euros. So you see CurrencyFair is a money earner regardless of who you are.

A True Peer To Peer System

CurrencyFair is a true peer to peer system, and their business model is based around the comfort of their user base.

The online money transfer company is a stable business with fantastic fundamentals that serve a wide range of customers.

The only limitation is the number of currency it allows to transact in, and that is changing now with the company looking to expand.

It is also creating a better infrastructure for cybersecurity to ensure a safe environment for its client base.

With ever reaching goals to become the top online money transfer company globally, CurrencyFair is now one of the fastest-growing Fintech companies in the world.

So if you are looking for a cost-effective solution to money transfers, you can check out CurrencyFair!