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Wise Switzerland Experience, Review & Alternative 2024

Wise offers the probably most attractive conditions for transfers abroad on. While providers such as Revolut only offer their good conditions within a limited framework, with Wise you can change as many and as large sums as you like. 

If you are a Account abroad frequently buy in euros or, for example, sometimes buy a Paying for a hotel abroad at low cost then Wise is exciting for you! 

The clear app, transparent and low costs and much more speak in favour of Wise Switzerland. 

You can find out what our Wise Switzerland experience report looks like in detail in this article.

What is Wise and what does it offer?

Wise (formerly Transferwise) is a payment provider for transfers to other countries and currencies. As an international and growing provider, you can offer conditions that local banks couldn't survive with. No matter if you want to transfer, say, a euro Account cover, pay for your holiday hotel or order furniture abroad, this is where Wise comes in.

A comparison with your bank will quickly show you how much money you can save if you use Wise. In this article, we explain whether we can really recommend the service, what the costs are and what possible alternatives are.

Wise Switzerland Advantages

  • Inexpensive transfers in foreign currencies and countries
  • TÜV-tested safety
  • About 6 million satisfied customers
  • Free account management
  • Lightning fast realization of payment
  • Transparent costs are directly compared and presented with other providers and local banks
  • Intuitive app and clearly arranged payment process
  • Paperless environmentally friendly Processing
  • Global support
  • Fast online account opening 
  • Free credit card with TOP conditions for payments in foreign currencies
  • High safety standards

Join the Wise Refer a Friend program now and earn money!

Wise Switzerland Costs

Transferwise Switzerland Costs Overview

Wise stands for low costs. If one day they could no longer maintain this, their successful business model would collapse. And because their costs are so low and transparent, they already have over 6 million customers.

In the picture on the left you can see the Wise Switzerland cost overview. Basically everything is free of charge, except for a flat fee of 0,63€ per transfer. This fee is charged in Euro, as the company is based in England. In addition to this flat fee, there is a minimum exchange fee, which is located in the rear decimal point area. 

As an example of a transfer of CHF 1,000 to my euro account, I have therefore made a screenshot from the app for you - see the picture below on the left. The executed exchange rate was even better than the rate displayed on Google! 

One feature that I always enjoy is the cost comparison. On the website, alternative providers (such as ZKB, Postfinance, UBS, ...) are listed for your transfer. The next cheapest provider on this day would have been ZKB, where I would have had to pay CHF 8.60 more, i.e. over 100% more.

Our financial tips 2024

"Intelligent people learn from the mistakes of others".

We have compiled our top selection for you from all our tests and experience reports:

Transferwise Switzerland Costs
The exchange rate was 1CHF to 0.9155EUR. (compare Google Kurs Finanzen.ch 0.91)
Wise Switzerland Experience 2024 1
Comparison of 16.12.19 Even 9,12€ difference to ZKB. The basic fee may be cheaper, but the effective exchange rate includes even more fees with the competition.

Disadvantages of Wise

  • The Charge of the Wise account works very conveniently in the app, but not yet per twint. At present, this is still covered by a classic bank transfer. 
  • No partner card/account yet available. So if you would like to have a card to your account for a second person, this is currently not possible. This is the same with the competition.

Wise Credit Card Switzerland

Since recently, there is now also a Wise credit card, a product which we have long desired. Because it is now possible for us Swiss to pay several currencies at extremely favorable exchange rates on one card. You can get the card itself via the link here on the website. Create a free Wise account there and then order your credit card.

Wise Credit Card Fees Switzerland

  • The Wise Credit Card Switzerland is a debit mastercardwhich free of charge is. The card is available free of charge, but you have to load CHF 20 onto your account beforehand, which you can use again later on a 1:1 basis. 
  • You can withdraw money in the equivalent of 250USD per month free of charge at ATMs and get extremely cheap exchange rates in foreign currencies. Above 250USD, there are then low and very transparent fees. For withdrawals in Swiss francs, there is of course no exchange fee if you have the account covered in CHF. The advantage here, however, is that within the Wise app you can open multiple virtual accounts in different currencies and thus be able to hold money on the credit card in multiple currencies.
  • Payments in the currencies you hold (see point above) are free unlimited charge.

Wise Switzerland Experience and Review

You've probably already read it in the text above: We can absolutely recommend Wise Swiss! Transparency, faster transfers than with conventional banks, an app with many useful features and, above all, very favorable exchange rates and fees. 

Yes, a Twint top-up would be convenient, but since the Wise credit card, a few other cards have fallen out of our wallets. Comparing Revolut vs. Wise, as of Q1 2020, everything is in favor of Wise. 

Conclusion

We have already saved many francs with Wise and have not found any real flaw so far. Speed, transparency and good communication stand out in our Wise and Transferwise Switzerland experiences. Thanks to the status update, you always know where your money is at Wise.

How about you, let us know in the comments! 

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Wise Alternative Switzerland

If you want to bet on a well-known card, travel a lot and have references in other currencies, we can Neon to the heart. Why Neon? 

NEON Switzerland has been copying since July 2020 with Wise!

This means that Wise has been integrated into Neon. This means you can use your Swiss Neon account and make extremely cheap international transfers! If you are looking for a Wise partner card, you will also find it at Neon, as a second card is available here.

Zak Bank Cler: This is a fully-fledged smartphone bank and offers attractive conditions within Switzerland. Transfers in foreign currencies are more expensive than with Wise, but it's still worth taking a look at Zak. According to our Wise test, Zak can be a useful addition for the Swiss.

Our financial tips 2024

"Intelligent people learn from the mistakes of others".

We have compiled our top selection for you from all our tests and experience reports:

FAQ

For years we have been using Transferwise Switzerland (now Wise) to send money abroad. The fees are transparent and extremely low, the service works so far always and quickly. Conclusion: Our experience with Wise is very positive!
You transfer your money at Wise to a Swiss account with a reference number. From there, the money is exchanged into the desired currency and sent. The other way round, i.e. from Wise to a Swiss account, is also possible without any problems.

29 Responses

  1. I recently opened a wise business account by mistake and had to pay €50, which was then booked for "bank details".
    But I haven't booked anything yet, my personal account hasn't been loaded and I've made a mistake. Does anyone know anything about the Wise app and can help?
    merci very much

  2. Recently, Postfinance no longer accepts the reference P1...... or something similar. What if this is omitted (only optional with Postfinance)?

  3. Sorry, I have another question about NEON!

    Can I top up Neon with my credit card? Can I use the Miles and More credit card to top up the Neon account with money and then make payments at Neon?

    Thank you already for the answer 😀

    Kind regards
    Jacqueline

    1. Hi Jacqueline

      as I no longer use my Miles More, I'm afraid I can't say. Would you like to test it for the community and then share it here?
      It would be mega if it could be done!
      Best regards 🙂
      Eric

  4. Such a great report! Thank you!!

    I have one question! When I top up Wise with my Miles and More card, do I get the miles credited?

    We don't get any more miles credited to Revolut! Unfortunately!

    Thanks for the answer! 😀

    Have a nice day!

    Kind regards
    Jacqueline

  5. The whole thing is quite risky after all. I didn't see a company address on the entire Wise website. If something should go wrong, the customer is probably left out in the cold. But the low fees are tempting.

    1. Wise (formerly Transferwise) is a big company - Google will show you more. By the way, I found the address directly on the website:
      Wise SA at Avenue Louise 54, Room s52, 1050 Brussels, Belgium

      Best regards 🙂

  6. I was charged more than 27.00 chf (supposedly to Dubai) and I don't know how this happened. For 2 weeks I have been sending various mails and chats with Wise. But I don't get an answer. I find that very worrying!

    1. Hello Dan
      In that case, do you deposit money steadily with Wise? To be on the safe side, I would deduct it again until you know exactly where the debit came from.
      Maybe it was a company based in Dubai where you shopped but you didn't know they were based there....

  7. Hi, I am facing some difficulties in receiving money from abroad. May I have your email address, so that I can contact you directly? Your email address is missing in your website, although Wise informs that we should write an email for the chat is out of order, thank you!

  8. I can no longer log in.it always says e-mail or password wrong.but not.can you delete everything so that I can register again?
    Waiting for answer
    Thanks Greetings Beat

    1. Hello Beat,
      Please report this directly to Wise. The support will take care of you or you can use the forgotten password function.
      Schwiizerfranke is "only" a finance blog 🙂 and is independent of Wise.

  9. Thanks for the good post. If I transfer CHF, will it be changed to € or will my CHF arrive 1:1 on my Wise app?

    1. Hello Theo
      you can always specify which currency should arrive. If CHF should arrive, the recipient will receive CHF (provided he has a CHF account).

      1. When you try it, it says: "CHF to CHF transfers are not supported at this time." I don't know if it works from a Wise account.

  10. Hello, Eric,

    great post, thanks for the good tips.
    What about taxes? Do the Wise accounts (different currencies) have to be declared as assets?

    1. Hello Yannick, thank you for your positive feedback 🙂
      yes, you have to declare all assets in the tax return. if you now hold different currencies at Wise X and the individual amounts are very small, you can also just declare the total if necessary. (Since I am not a tax advisor, I do not know if this is 100%ig okay)

      1. great, thanks for the quick feedback.
        Yes, Wise serves as a pass-through account for me, except for the vacations. Then there is more on the account during the vacation period.
        Greetings Yannick

  11. Hello
    Is it possible for strangers to transfer money to my Wise account? Also, I have heard that AHV is not paid to Wise. Is this true?
    Thanks for info

    1. Hello Pius
      Wise recently added the ability to assign deposits via email. So if someone has your email, they can send you money. If you just give them your IBAN from Wise, they can also deposit money normally. I am not sure about AHV. If that would be the case, you can just do the transfer yourself. e.g. via a Neon or Zak account.

  12. Hi Eric, just wanted to make a SEPA transfer from my Wise account to Bitpanda ... but unfortunately does not work!
    do you know what's behind this ban? Thank you.

    1. Hi Rudolf, unfortunately some banking institutions or payment processors behind them are still very conservative in their dealings with cryptocurrencies. (Partly understandable, of course, since their business model is threatened. On the other hand, it shows how much banks partly restrict us by wanting to ban us from transferring money). However, there are also more and more banks/payment processors that see opportunities here and are open. Have you already heard it from your Neon Account off tried?

      1. Hi Eric, thanks for the tip, it actually works!!! For me, however, this means the end of the Wise account, because what does Wise offer that Neon could not already?
        They seem to be incredibly quick at learning, as almost all of the points of a fairly negative review in 2019 have now been cleared up.

        1. Absolutely, neon has developed great 🙂 Wise is available in neon - but with a minimal convenience fee. So those who transfer very often and very high amounts with abroad can still save something with Wise directly. For most is probably easier to work directly in Neon

  13. Thanks for the contribution, because the timing was mega 🙂 was about to order me a Revolut card, but the Transferwise credit card offers me much better conditions!

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