Should I Use CurrencyFair?
Pros:
Cons:
Services Offered by CurrencyFair
Official Website:
4701
625Current Rates?
Where is CurrencyFair Available?
Top Rated CurrencyFair Alternatives
This CurrencyFair money transfer review will explain all the elements to determine whether or not to select CurrencyFair for international money transfers. We look at how to use CurrencyFair, what services CurrencyFair offers and how unique their platform is in comparison to competitors. We also pose questions such as is CurrencyFair safe and how does the free transfer promo work? Below you can find leading CurrencyFair alternatives by larger-scale competitors with a similar service.
- Min Transfer: £/€/$ 250
- Currencies Supported: 120
- Offices : UK, EU, USA, HK, and UAE.
- Our Rating : 92.8% 🌟Best for Large Transfers🌟
- Business Oriented, Many High Profile Business Customers
Industry Veteran since 1979
Safest and Most Geared Towards Large Amounts
Up Close and Personal Service by Professionals
Fix Today's Rates for Up to 2 Years with a Forward Contract
- Min Transfer: £/€/$/A$/NZ$/$CAD 100
- Currencies Supported: 140
- Offices : UK, EU, USA, Australia, NZ and Canada.
- Editorial App Rating : 98.4%
- Min Transfer: £/€ 1,000
- Currencies Supported: 138
- Offices : UK, Europe.
- Our Rating : 90.6%
TrustPilot Rating : 4.3 / 5 - Very Quick to Respond in a Friendly Manner
Competitive Rates and No Wire Fees
Very High Customer Satisfaction
Operating from Cornwall, Less Operating Costs Rolled Over to Customers
Directors Have Dozens of Years of Industry Experience
Is Currencyfair Safe?
The Central Bank of Ireland (Ireland) 
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission(Australia);sin CurrencyFair, not to be confused with travel money giant FairX, went live in Dublin in 2009. Since then, it has securely exchanged over €13.5 billion in international payments, saving its customers some hundreds of millions in the process. During the 13 years since launch, CurrencyFair money transfer has expanded into the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and, most recently, the USA. The firm can transfer funds to a huge number of countries around the world – over 150 – but its currency offering is limited to just 22 currencies for now.. CurrencyFair holds offices in Dublin (Ireland), Surrey (UK), Newcastle (Australia), Singapore and Hong Kong.
CurrencyFair became profitable in 2018 and in this same year the firm expanded to new territories beyond its UK & European footprint.Asia and Oceania were the first prominent areas of focus for CurrencyFair’s international expansion. In 2018, CurrencyFair expanded into the Asian market through the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Convoy Payments, no doubt the driving force in CurrencyFair establishing its own office in the city. In June 2019, CurrencyFair then launched in Singapore, thus allowing residents of Singapore to access safe and secure, low cost international payments, whether that’s for things like international tuition fees or transferring a salary.
In 2021, CurrencyFair merged with Australia’s Assembly Payments to become Zai, boosting the firm’s overall headcount to in excess of 300 with the aim of growing this to 450. Interestingly, Assembly Payments had already partnered with SC Ventures (Standard Chartered Venture Capital arm) so the merger with CurrencyFair came backed by Standard Chartered. The CurrencyFair name continues to service its loyal and ever growing consumer and self-serve micro-business clients, while Zai has been designed to service mid-market and enterprise-level clients with a broad array of financial services, led by API solutions and business integration.
Expanding into the US in 2022 was a major step for CurrencyFair – very few money transfer firms have the capital and staff resources for such a move. And though the firm has not seeked its own regulatory approval in each state, it has formed a unique partnership with Community Federal Savings Bank to act as a payment administrator on their behalf. Consumers in the USA can now use CurrencyFair to exchange and transfer money internationally in all 50 US states.
Though the firm is now a little over a decade old, CurrencyFair is one of a few genuine remaining Peer to Peer currency exchange companies, where transparency plays a huge factor, and savings are demonstrated across the board. This is definitely unique as not even Wise, perhaps the most prominent early adopter of peer to peer exchange, is really using this model today. What’s particularly attractive is that CurrencyFair doesn’t force users to take this approach either, the user gets to choose whether they would like CurrencyFair to make the trade immediately, or if they would prefer to see if the trade would get matched by another peer on the CurrencyFair marketplace. For a faster P2P match, customers can also scan the marketplace exchange queue and choose a rate based on what is being currently requested by other customers. CurrencyFair is an online-only service which enables clients to perform actions on the platform from start to finish without human involvement.
By providing customers with a choice, and not being completely reliant on peer-to-peer transactions, CurrencyFair appears to have a viable business model for the long term. As things stand, CurrencyFair seems to have a lot of happy customers and is growing in influence.
Side Note: There’s also a strong connection between Betfair and Wise (Transferwise), as David Yu is an early investor in Transferwise.
Canstar 5-Star Rating for Outstanding Value International Money Transfers – 2019
Spiders Award – Best in Fintech – 2019
Finovate – Best of Show – 2014
IIA Dot IE Net Visionary Awards for Most Insightful and Intriguing Internet Innovation
CurrencyFair is bringing real innovation to the money transfer business, and its popularity is increasing by the day. No doubt why the firm is happy to be so bullish with its international expansion.
Now in existence for 13+ years and reaching profitability in 2018, we can start to say more surely that CurrencyFair is a reputable and safe money transfer provider. It has also recently merged with Assembly Payments to form Zai, backed up Standard Chartered ventures. However, with all this being said, its level of reputation and credibility can’t be matched with long standing incumbents like moneycorp (operating since the 70’s and exchanging tens of billions annually). It simply doesn’t have the track record to prove its financial stability over the course of many decades, although we wouldn’t be surprised for this one day to be the case.
Overall, we would say CurrencyFair’s credibility is high, and that it is safe to use CurrencyFair for transactions of all sizes.
Do Clients Like Currencyfair? Currencyfair Reviews from Across The Web
There are 6,000+ client reviews available on TrustPilot, netting the company a 4.5 / 5 rating.
Since we’ve been tracking the firm’s customer reviews since the beginning, we can see that they appear to have gone from strength-to-strength over the years, continually improving their level of service until 2021, with just a small drop off in 2022. Back when TrustPilot rated companies on a score out of 10, CurrencyFair scored 6.2 / 10 in early 2014. The firm then slowly worked its way up to a 9.2 /10 rating, equal to the 4.6 / 5 (Excellent) TrustScore the firm enjoyed in 2021. However, due to a minutely higher proportion of negative reviews in the last 12 months, the score fell slightly to 4.5 / 5 by the end of 2022 . 84% of reviews rate their experience with CurrencyFair as excellent, 9% rate it as great, whilst just 1% rate it as average, 1% as poor and 5% of customers rating it as bad.
Virtually all of the reviews in 2022 are highly positive, praising the ease of transfers and the efficiency of the online platform. The poor reviews in 2022 appear to have a common theme – the initial registration has proved difficult. It does look like some reviewers have simply jumped the gun and criticised CurrencyFair for not opening their account a bit too soon – in some instances CurrencyFair has responded to the reviews to say they are still in the process of waiting for all required ID&V documents from the applicant before they can make a decision as to whether to open the account. This is completely standard practice for financial services companies who must obtain this information, prior to handling their money. Though it does perhaps indicate CurrencyFair has been a bit slow in the account opening process or has failed to keep its customers updated at each stage of the registration journey. There are other occasions where CurrencyFair has responded and admitted that due to an unexpectedly high volume of new applications, there has been slower response times.
Positive Reviews Discussed the following topics:
- Excellent online platform, very user friendly
- Great exchange rates
- Nice and simple
- Quick transfers to most destinations
Negative Reviews Discussed the Following Aspects of the Company:
- Unhelpful customer service
- Issues with registration, leaving customers in the dark
- Locked out of account without notice
- Withdrawal fees in some locations
- Service discontinued in some countries without prior notice
Conclusion:
The positive testimonials prove that CurrencyFair meets the goals it has set up in order to become an industry leader:
- Ability to achieve the best rates through the marketplace
- An innovative product which combines an eWallet with currency transfers
- Excellent online platform and overall client satisfaction from the experience
On the negative side there are some fairly justified complaints, for instance there is more than one user reporting of 25+ emails back and forth with CurrencyFair in order to resolve issues relating to the Know Your Customer process when registering for an account. The importance of KYC is obvious but we have to say this much back and forth sounds painful! It has to be said though, that with just 5% of reviews being negative, the vast majority are overwhelmingly happy with the service provided by CurrencyFair.
CurrencyFair Exchange Rate & Fees + Free Transfers
Fees: Fees vary depending on the currency sent and being converted but all of this is clearly visible through the CurrencyFair conversion calculator. Fees as follows:
- There’s a €3 fixed fee per transaction when sending euros (there used to be an €8 fee for priority payments but this now seems to have been removed).
- Payments sent in GBP have a £2.50 fee (introduced in 2022 – prior to that they were free).
- You can pay as much as 40 ILS (just under £10, or so) if you’re transferring Israeli Shekels, which is comparable to a normal bank fee.
- $5 for payments sent in SGD
- 25 DKK for payments sent in Danish Krone
- Payments to Indian Rupee are charged at 120 INR (these used to be free until 2022)
- Payments sent in South African Rand charged at 25 ZAR (again these used to be free until 2022)
Use Our Get Free Quote buttons below to enjoy an exclusive promotion: CurrencyFair Free Transfers – Get Your First Five Transfers for FREE!
Exchange Rates:
The currency rates offered by CurrencyFair are dynamic.
Part of CurrencyFair’s solution is a marketplace, so users are able to set their own exchange rates.
There are two ways to go along:
- If you need to exchange the currency quickly, you can use the Quicktrade option and CurrencyFair will match your trade. This results in a charge of 0.4% to 0.6% of the amount exchanged, which varies depending on the currency pair.
- If you want to let money sit for a while, and are willing to wait for the best deals, then you can beat the rate charged by CurrencyFair when they match your trade. CurrencyFair charges 0.25% or 0.3% (depending on the currency pair being exchanged) of the total amount exchanged on each side when customers match with each other.
The average spread that CurrencyFair reports is 0.45% which is a great margin even for large transfers. How often cheaper spreads can be achieved through the peer-to-peer marketplace is difficult to know as it will depend on the live trades made by other CurrencyFair users at the time but if you go down this route you can achieve a spread between 0.25% – 0.3% depending on the currencies being converted.
Limits: £7 is the minimum amount that can be transferred, one of the lowest seen anywhere. There is no upper limit.
>Limits: €8 is the minimum amount that can be transferred, one of the lowest seen anywhere. There is no upper limit.
Global Reach & Service
UK Australia Ireland;HK Ways to approach: Email, Telephone.
Translations: English, French, German.
Accepts Clients: UK, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore
Currencies Handled: 22, including the newly launched INR.
Client Reviews: 4.5 / 5, complimenting the company for saving and service.
By launching in the US in 2022, CurrencyFair is beginning to build a rather impressive international footprint. As it stands, CurrencyFair can now serve customers in the major markets of the UK, Europe, East Asia, Australia and the US. However, its Singapore and Hong Kong websites are only available in English which is a little disappointing given it’s a totally online solution. The website – currencyfair.com – is also available in French and German, which is more than some companies, but less than the truly global money transfer providers. CurrencyFair also handles the least amount of currency pairs of all major money transfer companies we have tested. With just 22 covered this is especially low in comparison to companies like Global Reach Partners who offer over 100.
On the service side, there’s no doubt the company stands to the highest standards of client satisfaction, but there are no expert dealers to assist you with market guidance (or offer hedging instruments such as forward contracts). That leaves the majority of customers at a disadvantage, having to make their own estimations on market movements if they decide to focus on the marketplace option.
Additional Functionalities
None.
Spot contracts (instant currency exchange) only.
CurrencyFair now offers multi-currency bank accounts which are the most important component for online sellers and enable them to collect foreign exchange payments.
Currencyfair has a continually improving money transfer app. Once rated 3.5 / 5 on Google Play store the app now achieves a 4.1 / 5 rating. On iPhone the app enjoys an excellent 4.7 / 5 score from 718 reviews, a little less popular than android which has 816 reviews.
The app allows clients to log into their accounts and basically perform all the necessary actions, such as opening a position, exchanging money and transferring it from their CurrencyFair account. One thing to note – you aren’t able to contact customer support through the app and will be redirected to the website.
The app is featured on our best money transfer apps page with a good score.
We cannot ignore the revolutionary P2P marketplace set up by CurrencyFair, which represents a truly unique option of finding a mid-market rate (and then paying only 0.1-0.3%% in spreads to CurrencyFair itself). All other firms have scrapped the P2P model but CurrencyFair has found a way to make it work.
CurrencyFair has good features when it comes to two types of clients:
- Experts who want to bet on currency movements without advice on the subject. These individuals or businesses can fully utilise the marketplace and achieve tremendous rates, but they must understand the risks involved and potential for downside movement.
- Individuals or small businesses from UK or Europe who need to move money through popular corridors, and want to use the Quicktrade option to get pretty good rates. If they’re transferring massive amounts then they’re not likely to use an app for it, or let the money wait in the marketplace until a match is made (and could potentially get better rates with traditional FX transfer firms anyway).
Still, the whole concept is ground-breaking and the execution of features is good.
CurrencyFair Money Transfer Review
- Credibility Score - 89%89%
- Client Feedback Score - 90%90%
- Fees, Exchange Rates Score - 85%85%
- Global Reach, Availability, Service Score - 82%82%
- Added Values Score - 84%84%
Bottom Line
CurrencyFair is an innovative company in a very non-innovative space. What keeps it apart from its competitors is its Marketplace functionality that allows prospective clients to search for a peer to peer match for their transfer, resulting in very low fees and great rates if you find one (generally 0.25% – 0.3% but potentially as low as 0.1% in some instances which is lower than any other money transfer company today). Additionally, the firm has a top notch platform and a serious approach towards business. We also like the organic growth the firm has enjoyed for much of its 13 years in operation – a recent merger with Australian payment firm Assembly Payments to form Zai shows CurrencyFair will make movements if they come available – but by and large a tremendous amount of growth has happened on the back of a relatively small capital raise for a fintech in this sector.
Hence, we believe CurrencyFair Money Transfer is a safe and reliable service with EXTREMELY good rates, and is certainly worth trying out. Use the button below to receive a CurrencyFair FREE Transfer offer.