Wise Free tier

What Wise actually does

Wise is a UK-headquartered multi-currency account and international transfer app built around one clear promise: use the real, mid-market exchange rate — the one you'd see on Google — rather than a marked-up bank rate, and pay a transparent per-transaction fee instead of a subscription.

The core product

Wise's UK entity, Wise Payments Limited, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an electronic money institution rather than as a bank. That distinction matters for how customer money is protected: funds are held under the FCA's electronic-money safeguarding rules — kept ring-fenced from Wise's own operating funds — rather than being insured through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which only covers deposits held with authorised banks and building societies. Opening an account and holding a balance in any supported currency is completely free, with no monthly account fee and no subscription plan at all; Wise is explicit that "you only pay for what you use." International transfers and currency conversions are priced per transaction, currently starting from around 0.23%–0.24% of the amount depending on the currency pair, plus a small fixed fee, with the exact cost quoted upfront before a transfer is confirmed.

What's new or notable

Sending or receiving the same currency between two Wise account holders is free, which is a genuinely useful detail for splitting bills or paying someone else on Wise without a conversion fee applying at all. The Wise multi-currency debit card carries a one-off issuance fee of £7 on Wise's UK pricing (no monthly or annual fee) rather than a recurring subscription cost, and spending in the card's native currency is free — though topping up an external e-wallet with the card carries a 2% fee. ATM withdrawals include a monthly fee-free allowance of £250 on the UK account, beyond which withdrawals carry a 2.69% fee on the amount over that allowance — figures shown to customers outside the UK are quoted in their own local currency, so it's worth checking the number shown in your own account rather than assuming a single global figure applies everywhere.

Who should use Wise

Great fit if…

• You send or receive money internationally fairly often — the mid-market rate plus a transparent per-transaction fee usually beats a traditional bank's marked-up exchange rate.
• You want to hold several currencies in one place — the account supports dozens of currencies without needing separate local bank accounts.
• You mostly spend abroad rather than withdraw cash — card spending in the card's native currency carries no extra fee.

Skip it if…

• You want FSCS-style deposit protection — Wise is an e-money institution, not a bank, so balances are safeguarded differently and aren't covered by the FSCS or an equivalent EU deposit guarantee scheme.
• You withdraw cash from ATMs often — withdrawals beyond the free monthly allowance carry a percentage fee on top of a fixed charge.
• You frequently top up e-wallets with the card — that specific use case carries its own 2% fee.

Pricing in detail

There's no subscription; Wise charges per transaction, with the account and card issuance priced separately from the fees for moving money.

Where it falls short

• Different protection regime from a bank — because Wise is an e-money institution, not a bank, its FCA safeguarding is a different form of protection from FSCS deposit insurance, which matters for anyone comparing it directly to a UK or EU bank account.
• Card and withdrawal fees add up — the physical card carries a one-off issuance fee, and cash withdrawals beyond the free monthly allowance are charged a percentage-based fee.
• Every conversion carries its own fee — frequent or very large transfers accumulate cost even though the exchange rate itself isn't marked up.

Privacy & data

As an FCA-authorised e-money institution, Wise is bound by GDPR/UK GDPR and standard identity-verification (KYC) requirements for account opening, including submitting ID documents before transfers or a card are unlocked. Wise's public pricing pages don't detail specifics like its exact encryption implementation or biometric login setup, so beyond standard UK/EU financial data-protection law we can't independently confirm more than that — its own privacy policy is the place to check for specifics.

How we checked this

This review is based on Wise's official pricing page (wise.com/pricing), checked on 2026-09-04, for account, transfer, card and ATM fee structures. Figures shown on the page defaulted to US dollars at the time of this check; UK and EU customers should confirm the exact percentages and allowances shown in their own currency inside the app, since Wise varies specific numbers by region. We did not open an account or send a real transfer.

What you get, what you give up