Which Is Better for international payments?
For UK businesses making regular international payments, the winner depends on whether you want per-transfer transparency or an allowance-based plan with FSCS cover behind it.
Wise wins on simplicity. The fee is shown before you confirm. The rate is the mid-market mid-point — the midpoint between buy and sell rates, no markup. You pay a published percentage plus a small fixed component.
For a one-off £5,000 supplier payment to a US factory, you see the cost in pounds and pence before pressing send. No allowance to track, no tier to upgrade, no surprise on the statement.
Revolut wins on breadth and protection. Inside the plan allowance, FX is at the interbank rate; above it, the rate carries a 0.6% mark-up. The free Basic plan includes a monthly allowance; paid tiers raise it.
Critically, new Revolut accounts opened since 11 March 2026 are FSCS-protected up to £120,000. For working capital parked in the account, that protection is real.
For most readers landing here, the answer is Wise if you want cheap, transparent transfers and already have a UK account. The answer is Revolut if you want one account that doubles as UK current and multi-currency wallet, FSCS-banked.
Wise vs Revolut Fees and Charges
Wise has no monthly fee. You pay per transfer: a fixed component (from £0.30) plus a variable percentage (from 0.33%).
The variable piece depends on the currency route — GBP to EUR or USD lives at the lower end; less liquid corridors carry higher percentages. The total is displayed before you confirm.
Revolut Basic is free. Grow is around £19/month, Scale around £79/month, billed flat. Paid tiers mostly buy bigger FX and transfer allowances plus more team cards.
Stay inside the free plan limits and the only cost you see is FX once your monthly allowance runs out. Inside the allowance, Revolut applies the interbank rate with no markup.
Above the allowance, FX carries a 0.6% mark-up. Out-of-allowance international transfers also carry a fee. Both providers charge nothing for incoming international payments in the relevant currency. We verified each fee against the live pricing pages in May 2026.
If you send three international payments a month on common routes, Wise’s per-transfer fee is easy to model and usually cheaper than Revolut once you cross the allowance.
If you send fifty a month or routinely exceed the free FX allowance, Revolut’s paid tiers can be flatter. We’d run your typical month through both calculators before deciding.
| Cost | Wise | Revolut Basic | Revolut Grow (~£19/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £0 | £0 | ~£19 |
| FX rate | Mid-market | Interbank in allowance; 0.6% above | Interbank in higher allowance; 0.6% above |
| Transfer fee | From 0.33% + £0.30 (shown upfront) | Free in allowance; fee above | Higher allowance |
| UK domestic transfers | From 0.33% + £0.30 | Free in allowance | Higher allowance |
| Card spending (own currency) | Free (Wise card) | Free | Free |
| Currencies supported | 50+ | 25+ | 25+ |
| Local account details | 10+ countries | GBP, EUR, USD | GBP, EUR, USD |
| FSCS protection | No (safeguarded e-money) | Yes on new accounts from 11 Mar 2026 (PRA bank) | Yes on new accounts from 11 Mar 2026 |
Wise vs Revolut Features and Tools
Beyond pricing, the two accounts diverge on what they actually are. Wise is an FX tool with a UK account number bolted on. Revolut is a full business account with FX baked in.
Revolut connects to Xero, QuickBooks, and FreeAgent — the three packages most UK SMEs actually use. Wise also connects to Xero and QuickBooks. Neither connects to Sage.
If your accountant runs Sage, you’ll need a different primary account — Tide is the standard choice. We’ve seen too many finance teams discover the gap after they’ve already opened.
For team cards, Revolut wins outright. You can issue virtual and physical cards to staff, set per-card spend limits, restrict merchant categories, and pull receipts into the app.
Wise offers a business card for the account holder only. In our use, it doesn’t replicate Revolut’s team-spend layer.
Both support GBP account numbers and sort codes. Both have polished apps. Revolut adds direct debit origination, batch payments, an API on paid tiers, and team management.
Wise keeps its surface area narrow: send money, hold balances, receive in local currencies. If you want one tool to run the business through, Revolut covers more ground.
Wise vs Revolut International Payments
For most readers, this section decides the page. Both accounts handle international payments well; they just do it differently, and the difference is large enough to land you on one side.
Wise gives you local account details in 10+ countries — GBP, EUR, USD, AUD, NZD, SGD, CAD and more. Your Singapore client pays into a local SGD account as if you were domestic.
The payment lands in Singapore dollars; you hold it until you choose to convert at the mid-market rate. Across 50+ supported currencies, the fee is shown before you confirm.
Revolut covers 25+ currency wallets with local account details in GBP, EUR, and USD. Inside your monthly free FX allowance, conversions run at the interbank rate — cheaper than Wise per unit.
Above the allowance, the 0.6% mark-up narrows or eliminates that gap. If your volume spikes unpredictably, model both before committing.
On batch payments, Wise lets you upload a CSV of supplier payments and see the total fee before confirming. Revolut supports batch payments on paid tiers.
For a finance team paying twenty contractors in five currencies on the last day of the month, both providers work. The choice usually comes down to where your account already lives.
On the protection side, the regulator behind the account matters more than the app. Revolut got its PRA banking licence on 11 March 2026. New accounts from that date are FSCS-protected up to £120,000.
Wise stays an FCA e-money institution and a UK-authorised payment institution. Funds are safeguarded in segregated accounts at partner banks, not FSCS-protected.
If an e-money firm fails, you join a creditor pool against the safeguarded balance — not a statutory scheme that pays out in eight days. For working capital above a few thousand pounds, that difference matters.
For pure transfer activity where money flows through the account rather than sitting in it, the protection gap matters less than the rate. We’d weigh both before deciding which side of the trade-off your business fits.
Wise vs Revolut Customer Reviews and Reputation
When we checked Trustpilot in May 2026, Wise sat at around 4.3 stars across 250,000+ reviews. Revolut Business sat at around 4.2 stars across 200,000+ reviews. Both numbers are strong by fintech standards.
Wise customers praise the rate transparency, the speed of common-route transfers (frequently same-day), and the receive-in-local-currency feature.
Complaints cluster around verification delays on first-use larger transfers, and slow support response on edge-case currency routes. We’ve seen both first-hand.
Revolut Business customers praise the app, the breadth of features for the price, and the team-card layer.
Complaints cluster around account freezes during compliance reviews — a known fintech onboarding issue where a flagged transaction can lock the account for 24-72 hours. For a small business with weekly payroll, that risk is real.
For support, Wise offers email and in-app chat with business-hours priority routing. Revolut runs 24/7 in-app chat that responds in minutes for most queries.
If something goes wrong at 9pm on a Sunday, Revolut will pick up first. If you need someone who genuinely understands a complex multi-currency edge case, in our experience Wise’s team escalates faster.
Wise vs Revolut for Per-Transfer Transparency vs FSCS-Banked Allowances
For UK businesses, the factor that decides this matchup is whether you value per-transfer transparency at Wise’s published rates or the FSCS-banked allowance model at Revolut.
Wise’s pricing is unambiguous. Every transfer shows the exact fee and the exact mid-market rate before you confirm. No allowance to track, no tier to upgrade, no surprise mark-up at a threshold.
For a finance team modelling cost on a forecast, that predictability is operationally cheaper than the actual fee difference. We’ve seen teams switch to Wise purely for the modelling clarity.
Revolut’s pricing is allowance-based. Inside your monthly free FX limit, you get the interbank rate — cheaper than Wise per unit. Above the allowance, it’s 0.6%.
If your monthly volume sits comfortably under the allowance, Revolut is cheaper. If it spikes unpredictably above, Wise becomes cheaper and easier to model.
FSCS protection is the other half of the differentiator. Revolut new accounts since 11 March 2026 carry £120,000 of statutory deposit protection per depositor.
Wise carries safeguarding at partner banks — meaningful, but not the same as a statutory payout in eight days. For working capital sitting in the account between paydays, the gap is material.
When you pay a contractor in dollars on the first of the month, see the fee before you confirm at Wise, or send it within Revolut’s allowance and check your tier ceiling before payday.
Most businesses we’ve worked with land on one side or the other within a quarter of trying both.
Downsides of Wise and Revolut
Wise’s biggest weakness, in our view, is that it isn’t a full business bank account. No overdraft, no FSCS, no built-in invoicing, no direct debit origination, no team-spend layer beyond a card for the account holder.
If you need any of those, you’ll still need a separate domestic account alongside. Wise also can’t replace a UK current account for a business that wants relationship-banking features.
No branch network, no relationship manager, limited cash handling. If your business takes cash deposits or values branch access, Wise alone won’t do the job.
Revolut’s biggest weakness is the account-freeze risk. The compliance engine flags transactions and the account can lock for 24-72 hours while support reviews.
For a freelancer waiting on an invoice, that’s survivable. For a business with weekly payroll, it’s a real operational risk worth planning around.
Revolut also has no overdraft on the Business product. If your cash flow dips below zero at month-end, you’ll need a credit line or a high-street account alongside.
The FSCS protection is real but only on new accounts. Existing customers are still being phased onto the banking entity.
Neither provider is a perfect substitute for a high-street business bank. No physical branches, no traditional relationship managers, no cheque deposits, limited cash handling.
If your business needs any of those, pair either account with a Lloyds, Barclays, or NatWest current account.
Alternatives to Wise and Revolut
Both Wise and Revolut are worth considering, but they’re not the only options. We’d weigh four alternatives first depending on your priorities — see the list below.
- Airwallex Business — built for high-volume international payouts. Free above £10,000 monthly deposits; £19/month below. Pick this if you push fifty supplier payments through a CSV at month-end.
- Starling Business — UK-only, FSCS-protected, free monthly account with a strong app and high-street feel. Pick this if you don’t need multi-currency wallets and want a conservative banking relationship.
- Tide — free UK business account with invoicing, expense cards, and accounting integrations built in. Pick this for a UK-focused SME that values invoicing tools over international features.
- ANNA Money — sole trader and small business account with AI receipt scanning and automatic tax tools. Pick this if tax automation matters more than FX.
Final Verdict: Wise or Revolut?
For UK businesses making regular international payments, the answer is usually Wise if you want transparent per-transfer cost alongside an existing UK account.
The answer is Revolut if you want one account that doubles as your UK current account and multi-currency wallet, with FSCS cover on new deposits.
Choose Wise if your priority is transparent FX on a per-transfer basis and you already have a domestic UK account for the rest of your banking.
Pay a US supplier on Tuesday, an EU contractor on Thursday, and an Australian licensee on Friday — each at the mid-market rate, each with the fee shown before you confirm.
Wise also wins if you receive payments in less common currencies. The 50+ currency coverage and 10+ local account details cover routes that Revolut doesn’t.
Your Singapore client pays you in SGD as if you were domestic. You hold the SGD and convert when the rate suits you, not at the moment of receipt.
Choose Revolut if you want one account for UK banking and international payments, with FSCS cover on new deposits.
Receive GBP, pay UK suppliers, run team expense cards, and handle FX from the same account — without managing two bank feeds and two reconciliation streams.
Revolut also wins if your team is more than two or three people making regular business purchases. Issue virtual and physical cards, set spending limits, restrict merchant categories, and pull receipts into the app.
Wise doesn’t replicate that team-spend layer. For most SMEs running employees, Revolut is the closer fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wise or Revolut cheaper for international transfers?
It depends on the currency route, transfer size, and how frequently you send. Wise charges a transparent fee from 0.33% plus a small fixed component and applies the mid-market rate. Revolut charges the interbank rate inside the monthly FX allowance and 0.6% above it. For occasional transfers on common routes (GBP-EUR, GBP-USD), Wise’s per-transfer fee is usually the lower total cost. For volume that sits comfortably inside Revolut’s allowance, Revolut is cheaper per unit. The most accurate comparison is to run a specific transfer amount and currency through each provider’s calculator. Do this for your typical transfer profile before deciding.
Can you use Wise and Revolut at the same time?
Yes. There is no restriction on holding accounts with multiple providers. A common dual-setup is Revolut as the primary account for day-to-day GBP banking, team cards, and the more common FX routes, with Wise as a specialist tool for less common currency transfers or high-value payments where mid-market rate transparency matters. Both accounts are free to open on their base tiers. Running both in parallel is low-risk to try while you work out which provider is cheaper for your typical transfer profile.
Are Wise and Revolut FSCS protected?
Revolut new accounts opened from 11 March 2026 are FSCS-protected up to £120,000 per depositor — it became a PRA-authorised UK bank on that date. Existing Revolut customers are being phased onto the banking entity; until migration, those accounts remain on the e-money safeguarded model.
Wise remains an FCA-authorised e-money institution and a UK-authorised payment institution. Funds are safeguarded in segregated accounts at regulated banking partners — meaningful protection, but not the same as a statutory FSCS payout within eight days.
If FSCS deposit protection is a hard requirement, Revolut now qualifies for new accounts. Wise is best positioned as a specialist FX platform alongside an FSCS-covered primary bank such as Starling or Monzo.
Does Wise work as a full UK business bank account?
Not entirely. Wise provides a UK sort code and account number, so you can receive GBP payments and make GBP transfers. But Wise is designed around international transfers rather than domestic business banking. It doesn’t include built-in invoicing, overdraft facilities, direct debit origination, or the team management tools that a dedicated business bank account typically provides. Many businesses use Wise for international payments alongside a separate domestic account — such as Tide, Starling, or Monzo — for UK-facing operations. Revolut covers both functions in a single account if that consolidation matters to you.
Which is better for a sole trader who sends occasional international payments?
For a sole trader making occasional international transfers — a few a month — Wise is the simpler and often cheaper option. You pay per transfer with the fee shown upfront, there is no plan to manage, and the mid-market rate means no hidden margin on the exchange. If you also need domestic UK banking, invoicing, or accounting integrations in one place, Revolut is the more complete solution. At low transfer volumes, the difference in total cost between the two providers is usually small; the practical question is whether you want a specialist tool or an all-in-one account.
What happened with Revolut’s UK bank licence?
Revolut was granted a UK banking licence by the PRA on 11 March 2026 after a multi-year mobilisation period. New business accounts opened from that date are FSCS-protected up to £120,000 per depositor. Existing customers are being migrated onto the banking entity in phases — check Revolut’s in-app messaging for your migration status. Until your account migrates, it remains on the e-money safeguarded model rather than under FSCS cover.
Methodology
How we reviewed Wise vs Revolut
Ranking criteria. We compared Wise and Revolut on pricing, fees, feature set, eligibility, and contract terms. We also verified regulatory status and deposit protection where applicable.
Data sources. Every provider’s pricing page, terms, and product docs were checked directly in May 2026. No comparison sites, no press releases, no affiliate material. FCA register cross-checked for regulatory status.
Update cadence. We re-verify every provider on this page at least monthly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.
Related Pages
Need to compare more international or multi-currency accounts? We have more comparisons and roundups below.
- Best international business accounts — accounts built for cross-border trading
- Revolut vs Airwallex — Revolut vs a high-volume payout specialist
- Tide vs Revolut — domestic SME banking vs international payments
- Revolut vs Monzo — two app-first business accounts compared
- Best business bank accounts — full comparison of 15 UK providers