In this WorldRemit review, we will talk about the pros and cons of using this money transfer company. We will focus on the important aspects like fees, exchange rates, regulation and the ease of their trading platform.
| Logo |  |
| 🏛️ Established | 2010 |
| 🌎 International Clients | ✓ UK, USA, Europe, and Asia (far east and middle east). |
| 💱 Currencies Offered | 110 |
| 💷 Minimum Transfer | £1 |
| 📲 Trading via | Online Platform only |
| 🏢 Offices In | UK, USA, Canada and Australia |
| ⚖️ Regulation | ✓ Financial Conduct Authority (UK)
✓ ASIC (Australia) |
| 🤯 Fees | As low as £1 |
| Promotional Code | First three transfers fee free (code 3FREE) |
| 👨👩👧👦 Client Reviews | Over 27,000, mainly on TrustPilot |
| ⭐ Client Rating | 9.2 /10 |
| Website | www.worldremit.com |
| 🏆 Awards | |
| 👍 Advantages | Transfer from £1 110 Countries Remittances-Oriented Cash Pickup Good Client Reviews (Most of them) Transparent Quote Supports Interac (Competitors don’t) |
| 👎 Disadvantages | Limitations on Transfer Amount Transfer Online – No Phone Transfers No Hedging Tools Some Complaints about Service Bad Reviews from Past Employees |
Company Information and Credibility
Company Information:
WorldRemit, started off by Dr Ismail Ahmed, has a somewhat similar concept to companies like Azimo, Transferwise, CurrencyFair and Lebara Money Transfer (which we call remittance companies). It’s an online platform with a strong focus on remittances, where the idea is to offer ultra competitive pricing and service to a wide reach of developing countries.
They have been successful in fulfilling their founder’s vision about a fairer, cheaper, more transparent, remittance company which has received tremendous feedback from both clients and media.
They are regularly covered in mainstream media. Over the course of the past 5 years they raised over $100m in total, with the aim of taking on Western Union and Moneygram (as mentioned by Techcrunch). Most recently WorldRemit received investment from Leapfrog Investments as part of their initiative to focus on Africa and Asia
It can be noted, they have been questioned by Australian regulator, ASIC, in suspect of conducting fraudulent transfers. It turned up to be a funny incident in which the regulator was unaware of common African surnames like Goodwill and Goodnews, which were deemed as fake by ASIC. The incident was quickly resolved to the satisfaction of both parties when they were proved to be genuine.
WorldRemit reported revenues of £41m and 5.4m transactions in the year of 2016. And has seen an acceleration of its growth in 2018 with revenues expected to be £95m, up from £60.5m in 2017. That means it is becoming increasingly stable year on year Although it has to be noted, even though they are expected to turn a profit in 2019, they did not generate a profit in these years. With such a focus on customer acquisition it’s a similar journey to what Transferwise had to work through.
Regulated By:
Financial Conduct Authority (UK), ASIC (Australia)
Awards:
Conclusion:
Though World Remit is rather new, in comparison with the industry giants like Currencies Direct, World First, or Moneycorp, it’s not really in the same sector as them.
As an online-only remittance company that allows cash withdrawals and mobile uptime payments, it’s actually one of the veteran companies. With very strong backing from VC’s like Accel Partners, continued investment, and over 27,000 client reviews online, and revenues of 95m, we call it highly trustworthy.
Client Feedback
Research:
We have located over, 27,000+ reviews on TrustPilot, the leading client review platform in the UK. Out of them, less than 4% are complaints, and the average score is 9.2. Although there’s an overwhelming amount of highly positive reviews, it’s important to bear in mind that it means t there are more than 1000 bad reviews too.
On the Australian ProductReview.com.au reviews are mixed. There are more than 160 positive reviews but it has to be said there are a lot of unhappy customers with over 200 complaints. The overall score there is 2.7 / 5.
Though we usually don’t take Glassdoor reviews into consideration, in this case we thought it’s worth mentioning. Back in 2017 there were 18 reviews, of which the majority were negative experiences, and the total score was 2.1 / 5. But more recently it’s good to see 123 reviews and score of 3.4 / 5.
We have also received complaints on our comment section at a higher than average rate for MoneyTransferComparison.com which we have factored into the score. So WorldRemit stands out in a bad way.
Conclusion:
Most people had terrific experiences with WorldRemit, but we should not take complaints into consideration. The complaints are quite repetitive across the board, and the Glassdoor reviews gives us insight to a startup-mentality company which is starting to get more organized, and explains delays in transfers, and incompetent service.
The bottom line is that it’s probably a very good service but it will take years of running until it gets to perfection.
Exchange Rate & Fees
Research:
Fees: 2.99 Pounds per transfer from the UK, 3.99 Australian Dollars from Australia, and 3.99 US Dollars from the USA.
Exchange Rates: Exchange rates offered by WorldRemit are not advertised on their site. When we crunched the numbers we got to about a 1% margin from Pound to Euro, and similar markups on other currencies. Some currencies are a lot more expensive.
These are definitely good markups, especially in comparison to other companies offering cash pickups. It’s just around the same mark as Azimo, while being a tad more expensive than Transferwise and Currencyfair which maintain lower, steady, margins (with exceptions like additional 1% incurred on transfers to India by Transferwise).
Limits: From €1. There are strong limitations when it comes to transferring large amounts using World Remit. In fact, you can only send up to 2,000 Australian Dollars, 8,000 American Dollars and 30,000 British Pounds per transfer. This makes this platform inapt for the majority of our audience (property purchasers and businesses), but should not bother those who are using it for remittance purposes.
Conclusion:
Not the highest fees, and good rates especially for developing countries where you can have mobile payments or cash pickup (where the alternative is Western Union which can easily charge 10% of the transfer to some countries).
Global Reach & Service
Research:
- Dedicated Dealer: No.
- Offices: UK, USA, Canada, Australia
- Ways to approach: Email, Telephone.
- Translations: French, Spanish
- Accepts clients: UK, Europe, Australia, USA, and most of Asia.
- Currencies Handled: 110 countries.
- Client reviews: 85% Positive, some service complaints
Conclusion:
WorldRemit has good global reach. It is accessible by most remittance-sending countries in the world, and the payout options are rather diverse. Between western countries there are only bank-to-bank transfers, but with developing countries you can withdraw funds in cash or as mobile payment.
There are no dedicated currency dealers assisting you, but it all makes perfect sense considering the focus of the company. They don’t deal with high value clients which need to hedge large transactions; Instead, they focus on work migrants who are sending money home.
Additional Functionalities
Hedging:
- None.
You can only make spot transfers.
App:
Excellent app with the full functionality as the website. As soon as you have registered to the online platform, you can also sign up to the app, and be able to make payments with one click. The whole process is very slick
It has been rated very well by clients who used it, with a 4.8 / rating on the App store and 4.5/5 on Google Play. Cumulatively over 75,000 reviews across both platforms. Their 26,000 App store reviews even completely blitzing Transferwise in this regard who already have an impressive 1400 ratings.
Conclusion:
Nothing business oriented, or large transfer oriented, but one of, if not the best apps in the business which has been also chosen as our one of our top money sending apps.
WorldRemit Money Transfer Review Summary
- Credibility Score – 85%
- Client Feedback – 75%
- Fees, Exchange Rates – 70%
- Global Reach, Availability, Service – 80%
- Added Values – 76%
Bottom Line
World Remit accepts clients from more than 50 countries, and sends to 120. Similar to Western Union’s business model, the target audience are immigrants and expats, sending small amounts of money home. World Remit definitely does it better than the industry giants by incurring less fees, and making the entire process hassle free. The issue? Limitations for higher amounts.