XE Review 2024: Pros & Cons (2024)

Who Should Use XE?

Someone who wants the flexibility to send money in 100 currencies to more than 200 countries should consider using XE for international money transfers. So, too, should someone who appreciates the ability to let a recipient pick up money at a brick-and-mortar location like a store or bank.

However, XE probably isn’t the best option if you want to avoid transfer fees or markups on exchange rates.

XE’s Features

XE enables a user to send money by:

• Bank debit (ACH)
• Bank or wire transfer (£2,440 and above)
• Debit card or credit card

XE suggests using ACH direct debit if you want to avoid extra fees, a wire transfer or card payment if you want a transfer to be processed quickly or a wire transfer if you want to send a large amount of money.

Money can be transferred in 100 currencies to more than 200 countries. You can register to send money if you live in one of 22 countries XE supports.

An international transfer through XE generally takes one to five business days. However, XE says most of its transfers are completed within 24 hours, with some taking a few minutes or being done in real time. XE processes a transfer soon as it receives the funds. Once the transfer is complete, you’re notified via email or text message.

Here are a couple of XE’s key features.

Cash Pickup

Someone can pick up transferred money at more than 500,000 locations around the world. Transfers involving a cash pickup must be sent through the XE app.

Facial Recognition

XE may verify your identity through facial recognition. In some cases, a transaction can’t happen until a customer provides a picture as proof of identity (such as a driver’s license or passport photo) and snaps a selfie through XE’s facial recognition service.

XE’s Pricing

The XE app is available from the App Store and Google Play. A QR code on the XE website makes it simple to download the app for free.

It also is free to set up an XE account.

In some cases, XE charges no fee for transferring money. In other cases, it charges a fee.

Also, you may be charged a fee by a bank, credit card issuer or debit card issuer. For instance, a credit card issuer might charge a cash advance fee up to 5%.

For a debit card transfer from the UK or Europe, XE charges no fee. But it does charge a debit card transfer fee for money sent from the U.S., Canada, Australia or New Zealand. The fee is a percentage of the amount of money.

XE notes that transfers sent through its cash pickup service may be subject to a different fee schedule.

Debit card payments also come with limits imposed by XE, with a maximum of five transactions per day as well as a daily limit on the total amount of cash sent. A customer’s bank also might set its own limits.

Transfer Limits

As for bank transfers, XE sets no minimum limits, although your bank may restrict how much money you can send on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

If you send a wire transfer through the XE app, you must transfer more than £2,440.

Exchange Rate

On its currency converter, XE publishes what’s known as the mid-market currency exchange rate, which is basically a wholesale rate available only to large financial institutions or major buyers of currency. However, that’s not the rate you’ll get from XE. Instead, XE charges an exchange rate including a percentage margin that it keeps.

XE’s Ease of Use

The XE app, introduced in 2009, comes in 11 languages: English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian Bokmål, Spanish and Swedish. It’s compatible with:

• iPhone with iOS 11.0 or later
• iPad with iPadOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices

The app’s ease of use wasn’t great. We tried twice to create an account on the iOS app but couldn’t get past the “Create an account” screen. So, we ended up registering for an account on the XE website. There, the process worked. We were emailed a verification code, and then asked to supply information such as name, date of birth, address and phone number. We also were asked to say how much money we expected to transfer in the next 12 months.

XE’s Support

XE offers customer support with these methods:

• Phone
• Live chat, usually via chatbot
• Online messaging

XE’s customer support for money transfers can be reached by phone at 01753 441844. Customer support calls are answered 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday.

XE says it responds to customer support emails within 24 hours. Responses are written in more than 100 languages.

How Xe Stacks Up Against the Competition

XE vs. Wise

Wise enables someone to send money from more countries than XE does. Plus, Wise doesn’t charge markups on exchange rates. But XE lets you send money to more countries than Wise does, and lets someone pick up money from thousands of businesses (which Wise doesn’t allow).

XE vs. OFX

Unlike XE, OFX doesn’t charge any transfer fees. Also, OFX enables transfers to more countries than XE does. Yet XE beats OFX when it comes to payment methods. OFX allows only bank-to-bank transfers, while XE provides a broader selection of payment methods, including credit cards. Furthermore, XE enables cash pickups, whereas OFX does not.

XE vs. Xoom

Xoom enables money to be sent from more countries than XE does. In addition, a Xoom user can add cash to a prepaid mobile phone account, which isn’t an option with XE. However, XE lets you send money to more countries than Xoom does. On top of that, XE has fewer transaction limits.