What is XE?
Any XE review should acknowledge that the story of XE is nearly as long as that of the internet itself. Initially registering the address xe.com in 1994, and putting a currency converter tool on their site a year later, XE was and is for many people the go-to place on the internet to get a quick idea of the latest foreign exchange rate. The xe.com currency conversion tool is still now, over 25 years later, the biggest currency converting site on the web.
Since 2002, XE have offered a currency transfer service – first as XE Trade and since 2016 as XE Money Transfer. Purchased in 2015 by the Euronet group, and merging with rival HiFX in 2018, XE Money Transfer are one of the largest money transfer companies in the world.
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Who is XE money transfer for?
XE provide a relatively simple service – focusing on the conversion from currency to currency, with the transfers going from a bank account into XE, and then out to another bank account.
In the current currency conversion marketplace, there are other providers such as Remitly or Worldremit, who add a host of other elements that are specifically targeted at immigrants abroad sending money home, such as the receiving party getting the funds in cash or mobile money.
XE could still be a good option for people who want to transfer money back home, but be aware that they do not offer all of these extra options. XE is generally more targeted at individuals who wish to quickly and easily transfer funds between currencies.
For businesses, XE have a dedicated account management team and tools specific to corporate requirements.
XE rates and costs
XE make their money by offering a slightly worse exchange rate than the current interbank/mid-market rate. This will be your main cost when transferring money. They do also charge transfer fees when the amount transferred is low.
XE.com is by far the most widely used currency converting tool on the internet, with tens of millions of visitors each month. As such it is extremely easy to use xe.com to check how much it will cost to make a transfer with XE Currency Transfer. On the xe.com website, simply visit the homepage, and you can see the classic XE currency converter. Simply choose the currency that you wish to send from and send to, then add the amount you want to send. Click Convert, and the current interbank/mid-market rate is shown.
If you then make a note of that rate, and go to their Send page
Then if you follow the same process (enter currencies and amount), then you will be shown the rate that you can send money via XE at. For example, here is the result of a transfer made on the 11th August 2021, for $1000 USD transferred into EUR:
Currency Converter:
| Amount USD | Interbank Rate | Amount EUR |
| $1,000.00 | 0.8525 | €852.50 |
Send With XE:
| Amount USD | Interbank Rate | Amount EUR |
| $1,000.00 | 0.8402 | €840.20 |
As you can see, the currency converter, which shows the interbank/mid-market rate, gives €852.50 EUR for $1000. However, for an actual transfer via XE, for $1000, you would receive €842.20.
This is a difference of €12.30, or around 1.4% of the transferred amount, which is the XE cost, and therefore what you will pay for the transfer.
Below we have done an analysis of the XE transfer costs, from USD, into various popular destination currencies, based on various different amounts. This should give a good idea of the costs of sending via XE. This analysis was done on 12th August 2021.
| USD Amount | Destination | Interbank Rate | XE Transfer Rate | % Cost | USD Cost | Transfer Fee | USD Total Cost |
| $100.00 | INR | 74.325 | 73.121 | 1.6% | $1.62 | $3.00 | $4.62 |
| $1,000.00 | INR | 74.325 | 73.232 | 1.5% | $14.71 | $0 | $14.71 |
| $10,000.00 | INR | 74.325 | 73.566 | 1.0% | $102.12 | $0 | $102.12 |
| $100.00 | MXN | 19.912 | 19.701 | 1.1% | $1.06 | $3.00 | $4.06 |
| $1,000.00 | MXN | 19.912 | 19.731 | 0.9% | $9.09 | $0 | $9.09 |
| $10,000.00 | MXN | 19.912 | 19.652 | 1.3% | $130.57 | $0 | $130.57 |
| $100.00 | PHP | 50.479 | 49.614 | 1.7% | $1.71 | $3.00 | $4.71 |
| $1,000.00 | PHP | 50.479 | 49.689 | 1.6% | $15.65 | $0 | $15.65 |
| $10,000.00 | PHP | 50.479 | 49.657 | 1.6% | $162.84 | $0 | $162.84 |
Please note: the transfer rate is better, and therefore the percentage cost lower, the higher the amount that you transfer.
Also, when transferring a smaller amount, a transfer fee is applied. This fee will depend on which country you are resident in. For example:
| Residence | Minimum No Fee Amount | Fee if Below Minimum Amount |
| USA | $500.00 | $3.00 |
| European Union | €250.00 | €2.00 |
| UK | £250.00 | £2.00 |
Which currencies can you send with XE?
XE have one of the largest selections of currencies available in the transfer market, with nearly 100 currencies supported. Their current currencies are:
| Albanian lek (ALL) | Canadian dollar (CAD) | Guatemalan quetzal (GTQ) |
| Algerian dinar (DZD) | Cape Verdean escudo (CVE) | Guinean franc (GNF) |
| Argentine peso (ARS) | CFP franc (XPF) | Honduran lempira (HNL) |
| Armenian dram (AMD) | Chilean peso (CLP) | Hong Kong dollar (HKD) |
| Australian dollar (AUD) | Colombian peso (COP) | Hungarian forint (HUF) |
| Azerbaijani manat (AZN) | Costa Rican colón (CRC) | Indian rupee (INR) |
| Bahamian dollar (BSD) | Croatian kuna (HRK) | Indonesian rupiah (IDR) |
| Bahraini dinar (BHD) | Czech koruna (CZK) | Israeli new shekel (ILS) |
| Bangladeshi taka (BDT) | Danish krone (DKK) | Jamaican dollar (JMD) |
| Barbadian dollar (BBD | Djiboutian franc (DJF) | Japanese yen (JPY) |
| Bhutanese ngultrum (BTN) | Dominican peso (DOP) | Jordanian dollar (JOD) |
| Bolivian boliviano (BOB) | Eastern Caribbean dollar (XCD) | Singapore dollar (SGD) |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark (BAM) | Euro (EUR) | Solomon Islands dollar (SBD) |
| Botswana pula (BWP) | New Zealand dollar (NZD) | South African rand (ZAR) |
| British pound (GBP) | Norwegian krone (NOK) | South, South Korean won (KRW) |
| Kazakhstani tenge (KZT) | Omani rial (OMR) | Sri Lankan rupee (LKR) |
| Kenyan shilling (KES) | Pakistani rupee (PKR) | Surinamese dollar (SRD) |
| Kuwaiti dinar (KWD) | Papua New Guinean kina (PGK) | Swedish krona (SEK) |
| Lesotho loti (LSL) | Paraguayan guaraní (PYG) | Swiss franc (CHF) |
| Macedonian denar (MKD) | Peruvian sol (PEN) | Tajikistani somoni (TJS) |
| Malagasy ariary (MGA) | Philippine peso (PHP) | Tanzanian shilling (TZS) |
| Malawian kwacha (MWK) | Polish złoty (PLN) | Thai baht (THB) |
| Malaysian ringgit (MYR) | Qatari riyal (QAR) | Tongan paʻanga (TOP) |
| Mauritian rupee (MUR) | Romanian leu (RON) | Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD) |
| Mexican peso (MXN) | Russian ruble (RUB) | Tunisian dinar (TND) |
| Moroccan dirham (MAD) | Rwandan franc (RWF) | Turkish lira (TRY) |
| Mozambican metical (MZN) | Samoan tālā (WST) | Ugandan shilling (UGX) |
| Namibian dollar (NAD) | Serbian dinar (RSD) | United Arab Emirates dirham (AED) |
| Nepalese rupee (NPR) | Fijan dollar (FJD) | United States dollar, USD |
| New Taiwan dollar (TWD) | Gambian dalasi (GMD) | Uruguayan peso, UYU |
| Brunei dollar (BND) | Georgian lari (GEL) | Vanuatu vatu (VUV) |
| Bulgarian lev (BGN) | Ghanaian cedi (GHS) | Vietnamese đồng (VND) |
How does XE work?
1. How to create a XE account?
You can sign up with XE via their website, app, or by calling them. To create an account is very simple. As part of the account creation process, you will need to confirm your identity, with either a passport or a national ID card. In certain cases you may need to provide proof of address by uploading a utility bill or similar. These documents can be uploaded via their website.
2. How much can I send with XE?
XE don’t have limits on the amount you can transfer via their service. However, they do limit the amount that can be sent in a single transfer. These are:
| Where you Registered | Online transfer limit |
| UK & Europe | GBP 350,000 or sending currency equivalent |
| United States | USD 535,000 or sending currency equivalent |
| Canada | CAD 535,000 or sending currency equivalent |
| Australia & New Zealand | NZD 750,000 or sending currency equivalent |
3. What payment methods can I use with XE?
With XE, the main way to fund your transfer is via bank transfer. All XE customers can use this method, for whichever currencies they wish to transfer. Customers in the UK and US can also fund their transfer with a credit/debit card, but it is only available for certain currencies. You can see more details of that here and here.
4. How can the funds be received?
XE only offers the option for the receiving party of a transfer to be to a bank account.
Is XE safe?
XE is one of the most established currency transfer providers in the world, and is owned by the Euronet Worldwide group, who had revenue of close to $2.5 billion USD in 2020. Therefore it is a very secure and reliable provider to entrust your money transfers with.
They also have multi-level security features within their service to prevent fraud, such as adherence to worldwide Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations, requiring them to get full IDs from all of their customers, and extensive security features within their systems.
XE reviews – what are people saying?
XE Money Transfer has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 – Excellent – on Trustpilot. Positive reviews overwhelmingly praise their competitive routes and easy to use platform. Only 2% of the reviews on are rated 1 out of 5 – Bad – which is very low compared to many other providers.
XE – Conclusion
XE Money Transfer do not have some of the extras that more recent entrants into the market like Wise, Remitly and Worldremit have, such as payment cards, multi-currency accounts or multiple different ways to accept transfers. Their service is more classic – offering competitively rated bank to bank currency transfers with a huge amount of supported currencies. They are also a stable and long standing organization. Therefore, XE Money Transfer deserve to be on the list of options for anyone looking to transfer funds between currencies.
