Wise Business Review

Wise Business is the business version of the Wise multi-currency account, run by Wise, the London company that launched as TransferWise in 2011. A US business pays a one-time $31 fee to open local account details in 22 currencies, and there is no monthly fee. As of October 2026, US pricing makes domestic (non-wire) receipts in USD and eight other currencies free and charges $6.11 for each incoming USD wire or Swift payment. Conversion fees start at 0.23% and depend on the currency, always at the mid-market rate, and same-currency payments between Wise accounts are free. Clients can pay you through payment links, invoices and QR codes. Wise also has a card acceptance feature, priced for US businesses at 2.9% + $0.30 for domestic consumer cards and 4.2% + $0.30 for international and business cards, but Wise says it is currently unavailable to new Wise Business customers. Wise is not a bank: in the US the account is provided by Wise US Inc., a licensed money transmitter, and balances are not FDIC-insured unless you opt in to its interest feature. Its US regulatory record is the main weakness. Wise US settled with the CFPB in 2025 and paid $4.2 million to six state regulators over anti-money-laundering failings, the OCC refused its trust bank charter in July 2026, and a securities class action against Wise Group is pending.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Wise Business’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Wise Business is

Wise Business is the business account from Wise, the international money transfer company launched in 2011 as TransferWise by Estonian founders Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus. The UK operating company was incorporated in London in March 2010 as Exchange Solutions Ltd, became TransferWise Ltd in 2012 and Wise Payments Limited in 2021, and the brand changed to Wise in February 2021. Wise listed on the London Stock Exchange in July 2021. In May 2026 a new parent company, Wise Group plc, incorporated in Jersey and intended to be UK tax resident, was put on top of the group by a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement. On 11 May 2026 its shares began trading on Nasdaq as WSE, the primary listing, with a secondary listing kept in London. Its principal executive offices remain in London. US accounts are provided by Wise US Inc. in New York, a money services business registered with FinCEN. Wise says it is authorized to operate as one in most states, and in the remaining states the program is sponsored by Community Federal Savings Bank.

Wise is large. In the year to 31 March 2026 it reported 18.9 million active customers, $243.5 billion of cross-border volume, $39.0 billion of customer holdings and $2.5 billion of net revenue. In the quarter to 30 June 2026 it had 608,000 active business customers, up 28% on a year earlier, who moved $21.3 billion across borders in that quarter.

Why we list it as a bank-payments provider

Wise Business is an account for receiving, holding, converting and sending money, reached through bank rails: ACH, wires, Swift and local transfer schemes in other countries. Wise does not sell it as a merchant account, and the one card-acceptance product it has is closed to new customers. For existing users of that product, Wise US Inc. acts as a payment facilitator with a third-party acquirer, under a separate acquiring agreement. That is a side feature for a minority of users, not the relationship most businesses have with Wise, so we list Wise Business under bank payments rather than as a payment facilitator.

What it costs a US business

• Registration: free. Account details in 22 currencies: one-time $31 setup fee. No monthly fee.
• Receiving domestic (non-wire, non-Swift) payments in AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HUF, NZD, PHP, SGD and USD: free.
• Receiving a USD wire or Swift payment: $6.11 each. GBP Swift: £2.16. EUR Swift: €2.39. Swift receipts in 19 other currencies have their own fixed fees.
• Converting currency: from 0.23%, depending on the currency, at the mid-market rate. Monthly sends over $25,000 or equivalent earn an automatic discount for the rest of that month.
• Same-currency payments to another Wise account: free.
• Card spending in a currency you hold: free. ATM withdrawals: free up to $250 a month, then $1.95 + 1.95% each.
• Card acceptance (existing users only): 2.9% + $0.30 domestic consumer cards; 4.2% + $0.30 international consumer cards and all business cards.

As an example, on 1 October 2026 Wise's own price calculator, set to a US business profile, quoted $3.42 to convert $1,000 from a USD balance and send it as euros to a European bank account, and $3.87 to send it as pounds to a UK account. Paying $1,000 out of the USD balance to a US bank account was quoted at $1.13. Exact fees move with currency and amount, so check the calculator before a large payment. These are Wise's own quotes, and we have not set them against other providers here.

How getting paid works

The core of Wise Business for a seller is its account details. Once you pay the setup fee, you get a US routing and account number, a EUR IBAN, GBP details, a Canadian transit number and others, so a client in Germany pays you by an ordinary euro transfer and a client in Canada by a domestic Canadian transfer. The money lands in a balance in that currency, and you choose when to convert it. On top of that you can send a payment link, either single-use (valid for 30 days) or reusable, raise an invoice in Wise, or show a QR code. A customer with a Wise account pays free and fastest, and bank transfers are free to receive in most cases. Wise lists Pix in Brazil, Interac in Canada and PayNow in Singapore among the local payment methods it supports.

Card acceptance is where Wise falls short for a merchant. Wise does have a card-payments feature, priced for US businesses at 2.9% + $0.30 domestically, with Apple Pay and Google Pay. But as of October 2026, both the product page and the help centre say it is currently unavailable to new Wise Business customers. Even for existing users, Wise says payouts can take up to 14 days depending on the type of business. Excessive chargebacks or fraud, which the acquiring terms set at more than $75,000 or 0.9% of transactions, are grounds for immediate termination. Wise can also take rolling reserves or additional collateral, and the US acquiring terms let it hold that collateral for at least six months after the agreement ends, or longer while chargeback risk remains. A business that needs to take cards should treat Wise as the account it gets paid into, not the processor.

Terms, account closures and safety of funds

There is no contract, minimum term or cancellation fee. The trade-off is that Wise can also walk away. Under the US Business Customer Agreement (version 1.2, updated 4 June 2026), Wise can terminate the agreement and close an account at any time by giving notice. If it has concerns about security, suspected fraud or a breach of its terms or Acceptable Use Policy, it can suspend or restrict the account, close it without notice, and hold the balance where it reasonably needs to. Wise is not a bank. The agreement describes a balance as an unsecured claim against Wise that is not covered by the FDIC, unless you opt in to the interest feature that sweeps USD into FDIC-insured accounts at partner banks. Disputes go to individual JAMS arbitration under New York law, with a class-action waiver, unless you opt out within 21 days of opening the account.

Regulatory record

Wise's US business has drawn several regulatory actions. In January 2025 the CFPB ordered Wise US Inc. to pay about $450,000 in redress and a $2.025 million civil penalty for advertising inaccurate ATM fees to US customers and for failings in remittance disclosures and refunds. In May 2025 an amended order cut the penalty to $44,955 and left the redress unchanged. In July 2025, Wise US Inc. agreed a consent order with money-transmission regulators in California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York and Texas. It paid a $4.2 million penalty over weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering program found in an examination covering July 2022 to September 2023, including late suspicious-activity reports and transaction-monitoring data problems. In July 2026 the OCC refused Wise's application for a US national trust bank charter, citing supervisory and compliance concerns, including those state actions. Wise has said it will apply again.

In Europe, the Brussels public prosecutor's office said in June 2026 that it was investigating whether criminals had used Wise accounts to launder money. Banking Dive, citing reporting by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, put the suspicious transactions at about €500 million. Wise said no specific findings had been shared with it. Banking Dive also reported that Wise was put on a remediation plan in 2024 after finding it lacked proof of address for hundreds of thousands of customers. No charges or penalties had been reported as of October 2026. A securities class action, Daugherty v. Wise Group plc in the Southern District of New York, alleges that the company understated these AML risks around its Nasdaq listing. It was pending as of October 2026. Separately, in October 2024 the UK FCA fined chief executive Kristo Käärmann personally £350,000 for failing to tell it about a personal tax matter. That action concerned him, not the company.

Reputation

As of 1 October 2026, Wise has a TrustScore of 4.3 from about 302,000 reviews on Trustpilot, with 80% five-star and 9% one-star reviews. Most of those reviews come from personal transfer customers rather than business accounts. Wise invites customers to review and replies to most negative reviews. The BBB rates Wise US Inc. A+ but it is not accredited. Its file shows 313 complaints in the last three years and 121 closed in the last 12 months, and its 37 customer reviews average 1.57 out of 5. Recent complaints and one-star reviews describe transfers held for compliance review for weeks, repeated document requests and accounts closed without a clear reason. These are the risks that matter most if Wise is the only account you get paid into.

Who should use Wise Business

Wise Business suits a US business whose customers or suppliers are abroad: a consultancy billing European clients in euros, an exporter paid in Canadian dollars, or a startup paying contractors in several countries. For them, free local receipts, mid-market conversion and no monthly fee are hard to argue with. It does not replace a merchant account, because new customers cannot turn on card acceptance, and it is not an FDIC-insured bank account by default. Because Wise can freeze or close accounts during reviews, keep a second business bank account and do not let Wise hold the only copy of your operating cash.