How We Review & Test Money Transfer Providers
Table of contents
Author: Artiom Pucinskij
We only list companies that are trustworthy and appropriately licensed. Our aim is to give you a comprehensive view of the regulated money transfer marketplace.
DisclosureMoneyTransfers aims to help users find the best money transfer provider for their needs. To support our free service, we may earn a commission from some of the providers listed in our search results. The commission may also impact the ordering of the providers shown. Our reviews are independent from this and are based on our editorial policy, research and testing of dozens of remittance providers on the market.
Table of contents
This is how we review and test every money transfer company we feature on MoneyTransfers.com.
Our Review Philosophy
At MoneyTransfers.com, we test every provider ourselves using real data, real transfers, and real-world scenarios.
Every review is hands-on, scored across 7 key categories, and backed by live data (not AI or automations).
We remain fully committed to our editorial standards and mission.
What We Look At
Each money transfer company, app, bank, challenger bank, currency broker, or anyone else gets reviewed using our developed scoring system.
Our scoring is based on 7 pillars:
Fees & Rates
Transfer Speed
Safety & Trust
Product Offering
Transfer Limits
Ease of Use
Customer Feedback
Each pillar is hand tested before assigning a score of 1-10.
Here’s a deeper look at what each of these means and includes.
Fees & Rates
Every money transfer provider company is different, especially when it comes to exchange rates and fee transparency.
Most modern money transfer companies, such as Wise, XE, and WorldRemit, share their exchange rates and fees with us using their API. This is the most reliable way and is always up-to-date.
For others, we collect the information manually or through close relationships (where this information is shared with us directly).
Finally, we go over each company's T&Cs and look for any hidden clauses that might change the rates. This is particularly important, as many companies will lower their rates for first-time transfers and increase them afterwards.
Transfer Speed
Similar to the fees and rates, most providers share this information via the API.
Where it’s not available, we:
Collect this information manually from online resources (such as their website, social media, or forums)
Make a transfer ourselves and time it.
We then combine all this information and look at:
How long does it take to sign up with the provider
How long does it take to verify the account
How long does it take to initiate the transfer
Once we have all the information ready, we give our final score.
Safety & Trust
When looking at the safety and trust of the company, we analyse the following:
Legitimacy: registration, ownership, investments, acquisitions, time in the market, and more.
Regulatory compliance: who regulates the company, restrictions in place, and the last audit dates.
Protection of user data: regulations in place, FSCS / FDIC protection, segregated accounts, recent password leaks, and more.
Key industry partnerships: who partners with the company and where, who they work with, or any partnered services.
Industry awards: what awards have they won recently?
Online security: do they follow the best practices online, e.g., SSL encryption, 2FA, passkeys, etc.
Online reviews: how many users had issues, who never received money, how difficult it was to get issues resolved, and the quality of the support service.
It’s a bit harder to put this information into numbers, so it’s more opinionated in relation to other providers. The more checks the company has, the higher score we assign to it in relation to other companies.
Product Offering
When looking at the product offering, we look at the coverage, currency availability, deposit and payout methods, and types of transfers.
In addition, we look at all the features they have outside of money transfers. For example, mobile apps, savings accounts, virtual cards, business accounts, instant support, etc.
This ensures that even if the coverage is low, we give them a fair score within their coverage area.
Transfer Limits
Transfer limits are provided to us via API from many companies.
For those that don’t, we manually collect this information. Mainly via:
Trialing a large transfer ourselves (per corridor)
Trialing the absolute minimum transfer ourselves (per corridor)
Checking their terms and conditions
Checking online if anyone had issues with exceptionally large transfers
Once we have this information, we can align it in relation to other companies and assign the score.
Ease of Use
This is by far the most opinionated metric we use. However, we do follow a list of checks to ensure the usability is at least decent before layering anything else on top.
When checking ease of use, we consider things like:
Platform availability (Web, iOS, Android)
How well is it optimised for the device (desktop, mobile, laptop)
How transparent are the fees before signing up
How many fields are required for sign up
What are the verification requirements
How long does it take to get verified
How many clicks does it take to send money
And many more
Once we have this information, we then look at the platform as a whole and look for any glaring issues such as: buttons not working, crashes, getting errors, and similar.
We then check online reviews to see what recent issues users had and try replicating them.
Once we have all the information, we put it together and assign a score in relation to other companies.
Customer Feedback
Throughout the review process, we look for issues raised by other users online.
Mainly, we take the information from:
Our own user reviews and feedback
Trustpilot
Reviews.io
Google reviews
App Store reviews
Google Play reviews
Reviews from our own users influence the scoring over time, and we rely on them more than third-party data.
We filter reviews based on each of the pillars above, analyse each, and assign the average rating for each month over the past 6 months.
We then combine all the ratings and assign a score to the customer feedback criteria.
How We Score Providers
Each company we review is scored from 1-10 points. The final score is a combination of 7 categories (explained above). So the maximum score a company can get is 70 while the minimum is 7.
Here’s how it looks:
Rating category | Score | Example score (ABCTransfers) |
|---|---|---|
Fees & Rates | 1-10 | 7.2 |
Transfer Speed | 1-10 | 8.9 |
Safety & Trust | 1-10 | 7 |
Product Offering | 1-10 | 5.5 |
Transfer Limits | 1-10 | 8 |
Ease of Use | 1-10 | 6 |
Customer Feedback | 1-10 | 8.2 |
Once we have all the scores, we apply the following formula:
(Total Score / Maximum Score * 100) / 10 = Final Score (rounded to 1 decimal place)
So, for the example above, it’s: (50.8 / 70 * 100) / 10 = 7.3/10
We regularly review the scores and change them based on any updates, changes, and additions to the website, so it’s always accurate and up to date.
How does our comparison engine work?
When you submit the form throughout the site, our comparison engine takes the following into consideration:
Where are you sending money from
Where are you sending money to
How much money are you sending
What currencies are you sending and receiving
Wherever you are sending or receiving money
The type of transfer (Personal or Business)
If business, what type of transfer are you making (one-off or payment platform)
As a result, you receive a tailored list of money transfer companies based on your needs.
Our results are always sorted by the most amount of money received by default.
This means that the top option is always going to show you the cheapest way to send money.
Our sorting and ordering are never influenced by commercial deals, and will always default to the highest amount received.
However, for certain corridors, we do show companies that pay us to appear at the top, and these are clearly labeled as sponsored.
Beyond default sorting, you can sort the providers by our editorial rating, based on the process outlined above.
You can also use the filters for more granular control, to make the transfer even more tailored to your needs.
How do we know who is the best, fastest, and cheapest?
On our corridor-specific comparison guides, we clearly outline the overall best, fastest, cheapest, and other use case companies for that particular country and currency pair.
Below is a breakdown of each of the options and how it’s calculated.
Overall best provider
This is the company that received the highest score in our internal testing (based on the 7 categories) and supports transfers between the countries you’ve selected.
This option might not always be the fastest or cheapest, but the combination of all the factors makes it the overall best choice for the majority of our users.
Cheapest provider
The cheapest money transfer company is the one that offers the most amount of money received.
This is the exact number your receiver will get. Meaning it includes the exchange rate markup, the transfer fee, and any other associated fees.
By default, we assume that you will be using a bank transfer to make your transfer.
Fastest provider
The fastest money transfer company is the one that will deliver your money the quickest.
This does not include the sign-up time or transfer process. It only includes the transfer time, so from the moment you click send.
Best company for large transfers
For large transfers, we can automatically find the company that will offer the best exchange rate.
This is because even minor fluctuations in the rate can have a much bigger impact on the receiving amount.
Best for business payments
Best for business is based on our editorial scoring system because of all the nuances involved.
This company may not necessarily be the cheapest or fastest, but it offers the best combination of fees, speed, and features most businesses will need.
For a more detailed breakdown of companies, we recommend running a .
All the information in our country and corridor-specific guides is based on 7-day periods, meaning it updates every week. If you need the most up-to-date information, .
Our In-House Testing Process
Every provider we review and compare goes through a hands-on testing process, based on the 7 categories outlined at the start.
We don’t just copy what others say, we try it ourselves, step by step:
1. Sign Up & Onboard
We download the app or sign up on the website, document the signup flow, and evaluate how smooth (or painful) the onboarding experience is.
2. Verify the Account
We complete identity verification and log any issues, delays, or unclear requirements. Along the way we check the requirements, number of fields, how many steps, and document it all.
3. Fund the Account
We deposit money and note the available funding methods, fees, and offered speed.
4. Make a Real Transfer
Yes, we actually move money when testing, so you get the facts, not assumptions.
We send money between our own accounts in different currencies to test how fast and accurate the process is.
5. Check the Details & Fine Print
We analyze fine print, terms of service, privacy policies, and any hidden fees or exchange rate markups not shown upfront. This plays a crucial part in our review process.
6. Collect the rates and other data
We either get the rates, fees, speed and other data via API, or collect it manually. This includes all combinations of currencies, payment methods, payout methods, and various amounts (usually $2,000 and $10,000).
7. Compare Real Rates to Mid-Market Rates
We clean up and structure the data to assess how competitive the provider is compared to the mid-market rate and other companies.
8. Spot Misleading Claims
We look for inconsistencies between the claimed offering vs our results.
9. Review External Feedback
We scan platforms like Trustpilot, Reddit, Facebook, and other sources to compare user experiences with our own.
10. Write & Fact-Check the Review
We compile everything into a comprehensive review, backed by firsthand notes, screenshots, and test results. Each review is peer-reviewed and fact-checked by another expert.
How Often Do We Update Reviews
We use dynamic data to power our reviews and comparisons, meaning all the key information, such as exchange rates, fees, exchange rate markup, and transfer speed, is updated automatically.
This ensures that the key parts of the reviews and comparisons are always up to date.
For everything else, we monitor all companies for changes and once enough accumulate, we update the pages. If there’s a significant change, we update the pages as soon as we can.
To make sure you are reading the latest version, look for the “last updated” date at the top of each review and comparison.
If you're still unsure or want to know more about our processes, check out the page linked below on why you can trust us.
Our Experts & Editorial Independence
At MoneyTransfers.com, every review, guide, and comparison is created by real people with real experience, not AI.
Each review is written, updated, and fact-checked by someone who’s actually used the platform, not just read about it.
We are fully committed to our editorial standards and transparency:
Affiliate partnerships do not influence our scores or rankings
Sponsored placements are always clearly labeled
We follow our editorial policy and the SPJ Code of Ethics
If you want to know more, you can learn more about our experts here.
Want to see our reviews and comparisons?
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Wise Review
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