Airwallex Review

About Author: Hi, I’m Quinn Askeland. In 2014, I started Transumo after experiencing expensive, slow, and frustrating international money transfers and payments through banks. Once I discovered how to manage my own international currencies much better, I became driven to help others improve their transfers and payments. Fortunately, today, there are many excellent options. See My Full Bio.

In the dark times of old school banking (just a few years ago), businesses either juggled accounts in different countries or paid exorbitant fees for a multi currency account.

The biggest expense though might be the time it took to administer everything especially when you consider expenses in different currencies, accounting, approvals, reporting and cards management!

Now there are a few really good online based non-bank multi currency account services that make it much easier to get paid, make payments and manage – regardless of the currency.

Yes, low fees are a huge advantage. But that may not be the best bit:

Making it easy to accept payments can also unlock new markets.

The Reality:

Airwallex could be the right solution for your business but they also have some solid competition. In the Airwallex Review I am also going to uncover situations where Airwallex is NOT going to work and point you in the right direction to who might be.

Disclosure: This post may contain offers and affiliate links to save you money and it also helps us to keep providing the best information. For more information, see our disclosures here.

Low Down

On Trustpilot, Airwallex is rated 4/5 with 400+ reviews, which is considered “Great.” According to the reviews, Airwallex is secure, easy to use, and great for growing a global business.

What Problems does Airwallex Solve? (And When to Avoid)

First things first, it is not available everywhere.

Airwallex can solve many challenges businesses face for sending and receiving payments in multiple currencies.

With Airwallex, you can receive 11 currencies (as if you had bank accounts in those countries) and make payments directly in those currencies or convert them inexpensively.

Speaking of making payments, managing card holders and creating new physical and virtual cards is made easy.

But the real advantage might be reporting like integration with Xero.

Airwallex can be an end-to-end solution.

Ultimately this can open up new markets and reduce the time and costs required to manage international business more easily.

When to Avoid

Airwallex is not yet available to individuals.

And for business, Airwallex is up against some more established services like the Wise Multi Currency Account (review) and Revolut (review). Apart from confidence of using more established services, in practical terms they have more apps and also have more services.

Airwallex is also not a real bank which in reality has many advantages but also some limitations.

For example, Airwallex has no overdraft protection and (while it is highly regulated) deposits are not guaranteed in the same way banks are.

For money transfers, businesses may do better using a specialist international money transfer company particularly for larger transfers. While Airwallex is very competitive on fees, a specialist service can potentially do better if you consider specific needs like forward contracts, limit orders and currency strategies offered by services like OFX (review).

We discuss the alternatives in more detail (below)

1. How Airwallex Works

• Get paid and pay others in multiple currencies all in one place

• Setup global accounts to send and receive international payments online

• Spend less on foreign currency exchange fees: The exchange fee is 0.3% -1.0% of the transaction amount above interbank foreign exchange (FX) rates.

• Track and control your business expenses: businesses can manage and regulate payments. For example, your employees can set up payments for others to approve.

• Have access to virtual cards for international payments: You can instantly create virtual Visa cards which are available for immediate use. You can grant each team member their cards irrespective of their location.

• Sync your multi currency to Xero automatically: to ensure your records are always updated.

2. When Airwallex Works (and when it won’t)

2.1 When Airwallex Works for You

Get paid and pay others in multiple currencies

Many businesses grow much faster into new markets when the friction caused between multiple currencies is removed.

Free international money transfer and cheap exchange rate.

Most international transactions on Airwallex are conducted through the use of local payment technology. No transfer fees are charged. However there is an exchange rate conversion fee although it is competitive even when compared with the cheapest international money transfers.

A resource to manage and track your business expenses.

Airwallex gives you a platform to track, schedule, and manage payments. You can have sub-accounts, and create virtual cards for your team.

2.2 When Airwallex Won’t Work for You

The biggest issue we found is you may not be able to get it.

When we dug into the reviews on Trustpilot (below) and a large number of the negative reviews relate to not being approved to use their service.

Therefore if you have found you have a registered business in a country they service, you might like to check out their terms of use by your country.

2.3 Best Airwallex Alternatives

#1 Wise: Multipurpose- Business and Personal Use

Wise is recommended for international people, freelancers and smaller businesses because of its focus on providing what people want and commitment to low and transparent fees.

Over the years we have even watched their fees continually get lower. Because they were a money transfer company before anything else they are particularly strong at making this easy and inexpensive.

See if you can get the Wise multi-currency account here (opens a new tab) has lots of bank account like features but in many ways it can be better than a bank.

Some other benefits for you to consider:

• Multi-currency account: Hold, spend, and convert multiple (55+) currencies in 1 place
• Account details in major currencies to get paid and spend like a local.
• Affordable money transfers (especially for amounts below $7000 USD/£4000 GBP/€4500 EU/$9500 CAD/AUD): Just a small percentage fee and at the mid-market rate — for both business and personal accounts.
• Available in many places: 66 countries (including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and Eurozone) and supports transfers in 40+ currencies.
• Prepaid debit card: For easy and secure spending in multiple currencies.
• Dedicated business accounts for small or growing businesses are available with additional features like easy bulk payments and more.

You also discover more about the Wise multi currency account in our review.

3. How to Open an Account (The Easy Way)

We recommend that you carefully review every piece of information before submitting it as this could help smooth sailing.

Certain businesses are restricted to use this product because of government regulations and the increased risk of money laundering. Some of them are investment firms, arms dealers, gambling companies, etc.

3.1 Does Airwallex Have an App?

Yes, Airwallex has Android and Apple apps. You can use this app to transfer and exchange funds, the company releases new features regularly that might make it better for you.

4. Fees

How Much Does It Cost to Use Airwallex?

To sum it up, Airwallex is extremely competitive.

You can make free transfers and pay very low exchange rates.

5. Airwallex Reviews (inc. Negative Ones)

Airwallex is rated 4.0/5 on Trustpilot with over 400 reviews. We sifted through real user reviews (both positive and negative) and found out 79% of these reviews are “Excellent” or “Great” while 19% had a “Bad” experience with the company.

Customers love the easy set up and onboarding. The intuitive user interface (UI) is appreciated by many as they unlock the potential Airwallex has to make payments and expenses easier to manage.

Although 18% had a one star rating, a large number of these relate to getting approved to use Airwallex. This could simply be that they have high standards when it comes to applying regulations within their own approval process.

Overall, if you consider that the a significant number of negative reviews came from not getting approved to use Airwallex this means that for most businesses who join, you are likely to have a positive experience.

6. Limits and Restrictions (You Should Know About)

If you are worried about this, it might be worth checking out their terms of use.

6.1 Are Airwallex Money Transfers Safe?

The different bodies regulating Airwallex in different countries include:

Australia: Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Transactions Report & Analysis Center (AUSTRAC).

Hong Kong: Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department as a Money Services Operator.

United Kingdom: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Canada: The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC) authorized Airwallex to operate as a Money Service Business (MSB).

6.2 How Long Does It Take to Transfer Money With Airwallex?

The transfer speed is also a sum of these three parts:

• Time to Reach Airwallex Account (1-2 business days)
• Processing Time and Matching (can vary)
• Time to Reach Beneficiary Account (1-2 business days)

7. Other Business Goodness

Bottomline

For many businesses Airwallex is a great choice because of its low cost and excellent multi currency account backed up by strong customer service and thoughtful user interface.

While many services claim to be the best, few are in the same league as Airwallex.

But as we discovered (above) the biggest concern we have is they currently appear to have pretty tight requirements on who they accept. But as we explained (above) there are a few things you can do to see if are likely to get approved.

Happy Money!