2018 Has Been A Big Year for Our Pacific Customers

We started Wise in the Pacific region 3 years ago to give you a smart, new way to send money overseas. But we quickly learnt that there was much more we could do to help our Kiwi and Aussie customers. Here’s what we’ve been up to this year:

Kiwis can now save money with a borderless account

On 3rd December, we launched the Wise borderless account in New Zealand. It's a new kind of global multi-currency account that lets you pay and get paid around the world at the real exchange rate – the one you see on Google.

Independent market research shows it’s up to 9x cheaper than using PayPal to send money from New Zealand, and up to 7x cheaper to receive it.

Anyone in New Zealand, including freelancers and businesses, can set up a Wise borderless account to manage their money internationally.

It lets you hold over 40 currencies and switch between them in seconds — on the move, in the moment, or when the rate is right. You also get your own local bank details in Australia, the US, UK, Eurozone and New Zealand, so you can receive money around the world for free.

Pacific customers have a better way to do business

This year, we launched Wise Business in Australia and New Zealand. It’s got a host of game-changing features, specially designed to help your business thrive across borders. Here’s what you can do:

1. Sync your accounting with Xero: track, manage, and sync your finances seamlessly. Learn more about Xero here.
2. Run your international payroll with one click: upload a single file to make up to 1,000 transfers with just one payment - all at the same price and speed as our individual transfers.
3. Automate your finances with our open API: connect your favourite business tools, and create beautiful ways to manage your finances. Read more about our open API here.
4. Send USD to accounts outside the US: if you have suppliers in countries like China and Hong Kong, and you need to pay them in USD, you can.

We made it even more convenient for you to pay

With the launch of the New Payments Platform in Australia, we’ve made transfers even faster and easier for our Aussies customers. You can pay directly to our email address with PayID.

We also raised the limits for our Australian customers who pay by card. Before, you could only pay by card for transfers up to $3,500. But now, it's up to $10,000.

We saw a breakthrough in the fight for transparent fees

Banks all over the world have been making millions of dollars from hidden fees, with Australian banks being among the worst in the world.

We’re happy to see the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission launch an inquiry into foreign exchange pricing. This is a huge breakthrough which we hope will put an end to misleading exchange rate markups.

As part of our commitment to transparency, you can now use our real-time comparison calculator in Australia and New Zealand to see how we stack up against banks and other providers when sending money overseas.

Instant transfers and Wise debit cards are coming in 2019

We’re going to continue the momentum next year by working on making transfers from Australia and New Zealand instant (under 20 seconds), as well as updating our user experience to make Wise even better for Pacific customers.

But most exciting of all, we're bringing the Wise debit MasterCard to Australia and New Zealand. It's launching soon for both personal and business users. Stay tuned for the waitlist.

As always, your feedback, suggestions and feature requests are always welcome.

Happy holidays from the Wise Pacific team!