Azimo 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.
6 Things You Should Know – Before You Sign Up
In the next few minutes you will find out if Azimo is the right money transfer service for you.
Here is the deal:
We uncover the good, the bad, and the ugly so you know if Azimo is your best bet. We even break down what negative reviews really says about them.
That is not all:
As it turns out they could be great for you, but not always and when they are not – we will point you to a few services who might be better (and cheaper đ).
For example, Azimo is only available in the UK and Europe and its not great on fees in some situations.
Letâs dive in!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links where you might be able to save money. For more, see our disclosures here.
The 6 Things You Need to Know
Jump Links
- How Azimo Works (and when it doesnât)
- Rates, Fees and (Hidden) Costs?
- What the Reviews Really Say (including negative ones)
- Best Way to Sign Up
- Speed
- Safety and Security
On Trustpilot, Azimo holds a rating of 4.5/5 from more than 58,500 reviews in 2023. A significant 78% of users gave Azimo a 5-star “Excellent” rating, while an additional 13% found it “Great” with 4 stars.
Pros
- Instant transfer options to 80+ countries and regular transfers to 200+ countries
- Supports many payout methods
- Easy-to-use app and online interface
- 10 Languages Supported
Cons
- Only available in the UK and Europe
- Not always the cheapest option particularly larger amounts (ÂŁ 4500 GBP / âŹ6000 EUR and above)
Founded in 2012, Azimo is headquartered in the Netherlands, supporting transfers from 25 countries – Eurozone countries, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Poland, and the UK – to 200+ countries worldwide.
You can use Azimo for both personal payments (to support your family and friends) as well as to pay your overseas employees.
1. How Azimo Works (and When it Doesnât)
1.1 When it Works
- Azimo is a solid option for transfers below ÂŁ4500 GBP / âŹ6000 EUR where fee for the service are most competitive.
- Support transfers to 200+ countries and the most popular destination countries include the Philippines, Nigeria, Poland, Pakistan, Honduras and Bolivia.
- Support a variety of payout methods for your personal and business transfers. For example cash payments (over 200,000 payout agent offices worldwide), bank-to-bank transfers, card-to-bank transfers, home delivery, mobile wallet transfers, and prepaid mobile top ups.
- Azimo Business enables payments to CEOs, sole traders, trusts, charities, small businesses, and accountants can pay overseas employees on behalf of companies registered in the EEA (European Economic Area).
- Azimo Business supports 189 receiving countries including China, the US, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Poland.
- Tracking can also be surprisingly important and Azimo transfers can be tracked through the “status” on the website or app. There are also updates by email, including a successful delivery email.
1.2 When it Doesnât
- Azimo is only available in the Eurozone and the UK, so if youâre currently not located here, Azimo there are recommended alternatives below.
- The fee structure of Azimo is relatively expensive for larger transfers above $4500 GBP / 6000 EUR.
- While Azimo has over 200,000 receiving agent locations around the world, they donât support funding transfers with cash.
- See âHow to sign upâ below for available funding methods.
2. Rates, Fees and (Hidden) Costs?
As with most money transfer services total fees consist of four elements.
- Sending Fee (Sometimes charged by sending bank)
- A small fixed Transfer Fee
- A mark up on the Exchange Rate
- Receiving Fee (Sometimes charged by receiving bank)
These fees vary based on the transfer amount, currency corridor, funding method and payout method.
Azimoâs average fixed fee (2) ranges between ÂŁ/⏠2 – 7 GBP/EUR for sending ÂŁ/⏠300 – 1000 GBP/EUR, with a typical mark up on the exchange rate (3) ranging between 0.1% to 2.25%, depending on the currency.
At the time of writing they were offering the first two transfers (2. Fixed Fees) free.
See the Rate for Your Transfer on Azimo
Essentially, the exchange rate mark up is lower for more popular currency corridors and higher for more exotic currencies as well as larger amounts.
These fees compare pretty well with major competitors for smaller amounts.
But there is a problem for larger amounts:
The percentage mark up on the exchange rate does not change as the amounts increase. This makes them relatively expensive above $4500 GBP / âŹ6000 EUR.
Meanwhile other services (designed for larger amounts) reduce the mark up on the exchange rate as the amounts increase.
That is not all:
Above about âŹ10,000 / $7,000 USD / $9,500 CAD/AUD (depending where you send the money) anti-money laundering laws mean there are extra hoops for banks (often at either end of the transaction) and financial institutions to jump through.
This means that services like Azimo that tend to focus on the smaller amounts have online services and sign-up requirements that make things as easy as possible.
The challenge with using one of these services for larger amounts is that not only do you end up paying more but they often will ask for more ID (and can freeze your account with funds in it) while they meet the needs of regulators.
This can be stressful, but it is made worse because often services (to keep costs low) do all their customer service online and not by phone.
Chat bots are not the same as real human when your money gets stuck.
Hidden Fees
Many services fail to mention that bank fees from funding the transfer and receiving money can often make up a big part of the total fees!
Azimo uses local accounts to collect and disburse funds, which means youâll never be charged unexpected bank or intermediary fees.
However, funding your transfer with a credit card does lead to a ÂŁ2.99 GBP convenience fee, driving up the cost of the transfer.
Typically, transfers funded with a credit or debit card are faster (and more expensive), while those funded with a bank transfer are slower (but more affordable).
Currently, Azimo doesnât support funding transfers with cash.
3. What the Reviews Really Say
Overall, Azimo has an excellent reputation as a relatively new transfer service (2012) as theyâre rated 4.6/5 on Trustpilot with over 40,000 reviews.
76% of the reviewers had an âExcellentâ experience with Azimo and 14% had a âGreatâ experience.
Users love the app interface and the fast transfers.
However, 4% of reviewers reported a negative experience, and we were keen to find out why to better understand where Azimo falls down.
The top causes of customer dissatisfaction were:
3.1 Exchange rate higher than competitors
Some users were not satisfied by Azimoâs exchange rate and found it significantly higher for certain corridors (such as Nigeria).
Azimo claims that the rate they offer are beyond their control due to changes in a currencyâs market value or partner terms in a receiving country.
Overall this is true of all services and even banks, but the reality is that other service like Wise are likely to offer cheaper rates for bank-to-bank transfers, card-to-bank transfers.
Currencyfair can be even cheaper if you can do bank-to-bank transfers.
However because Azimo offers cash payments, home delivery, mobile wallet transfers, and prepaid mobile top ups – they still might be your best option.
Also let not forget they are going to be far cheaper than a bank.
3.2 Transfer delays
Some users were also annoyed when their payments failed to reach on time.
In reality this is a communication issue more than anything.
It is helpful to know that banks (or other third parties) at either end of the transaction can take a few days to transact.
Transfer speed also depends on the currency corridor and funding method.
For example, card payments are faster (but also more expensive) than payments funded by bank transfers.
Sometimes unexpected delays can also be caused by public holidays and other factors.
3.3 Customer service
While Azimo responds to all customer queries (eventually) on their Trustpilot page, the greater issue is when users hit technical or transfer-related roadblocks (for example, to reset passwords or process refunds).
In comparison to many banks and even other services, Azimo is relatively strong in their customer service especially when you consider that one star reviews only make up 4% of the total and customer service issue a small part of that.
4. Best Way to Sign Up
4.1 Signing up Made Easy
- You can sign up for Azimo from their website and this usually takes a few minutes. Azimo also supports social sign ups with your Google or Facebook accounts, but the names on these accounts should match the one on your bank account. At this stage, youâll only need to enter some personal information including your location, name, and address.
- If youâre signing up for a business account, youâll need your company registration information.
- Azimo may ask for additional documents to verify your identity. This step is usually applicable for larger transfers, but it may be helpful to keep your key personal documents. handy.
4.2 Setting up your transfer
- First, choose your delivery method on the online interface or your mobile app.
- Next, enter your recipient details (name, bank account number, location, etc.) and the amount
- Fund your transfer with
- Debit or credit card (maximum amount 12,000 GBP/13,500 EUR)
- Bank transfer by logging into your online banking
- SOFORT (if youâre in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands)
- iDEAL (from the Netherlands)
- Hit send and note your unique Transfer ID to track your transfer. Azimo also keeps you updated with email and text notifications
- For your business transfers, remember to check âsending to a businessâ before hitting send
5. Transfer Speed
Azimo usually processes transfers on the same day, but it may vary based on your currency corridor, funding method and pay out method.
For example, if you fund your transfer from a bank account in the UK, Azimo will receive the amount in 1 working day. In the Eurozone, this can take about 2 working days. They process the transfer as soon as they receive it, and the delay is usually caused at the bankâs end.
Transfers funded by credit or debit cards are usually available between 10 minutes or at the most a few hours. Your recipient will get a notification as soon the amount reaches their bank account or they can collect it from a nearby Azimo agent center.
However, Azimo doesnât support instant or same day transfers for all its receiving regions.
Learn more about Azimoâs delivery method here.
6. Safety and Security
Is your money safe with Azimo? Absolutely.
Azimo is regulated and supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) in the Netherlands as well as the FCA and the HMRC (to prevent money laundering) in the UK.
Apart from legal regulations, Azimo uses industry-leading technology such as 3D secure authentication, fraud detection protocols, and 256 bit SSL to protect your money and personal data online.
Theyâre also certified by German TĂV for data protection and IT security.
Bottom line
Azimoâs flexible funding and payout methods as well as dedicated business accounts makes them a strong contender in the money transfer world if youâre in the UK or Europe for amounts below ÂŁ4500 GBP / âŹ6000).
See the Rate and For Your Transfer on Azimo
However, if youâre based elsewhere in the world or simply looking for the lowest cost transfers especially for larger amounts you can do better than Azimo.
For your smaller transfers (ÂŁ4500 GBP / âŹ6000 and below) we recommend Wise transfer in our review for low-cost and fantastically transparent transfers from pretty much anywhere in the world. They do however focus only on card-to-bank or bank-to-bank transfers.
The nearest direct competitor with cash payouts offers the first 3 transfers free is WorldRemit (using the code â3FREEâ) (fast transfers with flexible payout methods; also widely available).
For your larger transfers(above ÂŁ4500 GBP / âŹ6000), for lower costs and XE (from Europe) and OFX (from the UK) are our top picks for their decreasing fee structure as amounts increase. They also have services designed around larger amount to ensure the process is smooth. Additionally OFX and XE have an offices in London with XE offering services in Deutsch, Español, Français, PortuguĂȘs, Italiano and Svenska.
Happy Transfers!