What is it like to try other cross-border providers? Check out what makes Bitnob stand out in this article.
Remittance services play a vital role in facilitating cross-border transactions. Whether it's supporting family back home, paying for international services, or running a business on a global scale, reliable and cost-effective remittance solutions are important.
Earlier this year, Bitnob announced the Transfer feature– a means of sending money directly into bank accounts and mobile money wallets to people in 8 African countries. The essence of this feature is to eliminate the high costs and time-consuming factors when making cross-border payments.
You might be wondering, “If the charges are affordable on Bitnob, what is it like to try other cross-border payment providers?” Could they be any cheaper? What are the rates? In this article, we will be answering your questions by comparing Bitnob’s fees with other providers such as Payday, Afriex, Eversend, and Accrue.
Defining Payday, Accrue, Eversend, and Afriex
Payday is a neo-banking platform where Africans can send and receive money from anyone and anywhere in the world. Mostly targeted freelancers who want to receive payments from clients abroad. Virtual cards are also provided for users to make online payments globally.
Accrue offers a cross-border payments solution to Africans who are looking to send money to their loved ones within Africa. Users that are situated in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Kenya, and Cameroon receive the money in USD and Crypto.
Eversend is a multicurrency app that allows users to exchange and send money across Africa and the US using their preferred currency such as USD, NGN, KES, GHS, etc. Other products include virtual cards, Bill payments, and airtime top-ups.
Afriex is a global payment company that allows users to send and receive money internationally, serving Africa, North America, and Europe
The Comparisons
The common goal for Bitnob and the other above-mentioned cross-border payment providers is to make remittance easy for Africans both at home and abroad. While this is commendable, the fees are one of the major determining factors for users who are willing to try any of the providers
So, we will be focusing on the exchange rates and the transfer fees as comparison factors.
Bitnob Vs Payday–Exchange rates and Transfer charges
It is worth of mention that all providers strive to provide the “fairest” exchange rate. Yet, they all have different exchange rates and market prices.
Bitnob: The exchange rates depend on the market price, as this can be monitored on Bitnob’s homepage timeline. At the time of writing this article [26th July 2023. 4:17 pm], if you want to deposit money into your Bitnob account, it is N867.89 to $1. If you want to transfer money, the selling rate is N848.62 to one dollar. The consistency lies in the progression of the rate.
The transfer charges for sending money to Momo wallets or local banks cost $0.10 for $2-$20, $0.20 for $21-$50, $0.50 for $51- $100, and 0.5% for above $100 capped at $2. This means regardless of the amount you want to send from $100 and above, the maximum amount you will be charged is $2. Withdrawing money into your local bank accounts or Momo Wallet attracts the same charges.
Payday: On payday, you can send money from your local bank and swap it for USD on the app. The exchange rate for swapping/buying is currently N904.5 to a dollar. To transfer money from your USD account to a Nigerian local bank account, the exchange rate is $770 to $1.
As regards transfer charges, the platform allows you to send money from all the currencies provided. To send money using payday, 0.5% is charged on all transactions, which is capped at $5, meaning, no matter how much you want to send you can’t pay more than $5 as charges. Also, there is a fixed fee of N35 Naira to withdraw money from your Payday account into a Nigerian bank account.
Bitnob Vs Accrue–Exchange rates and Transfer charges
Accrue: Like Bitnob and Payday, users can fund their wallets with their local currencies and receive their balance in USD. The current rate for this is N874.58 to $1,[July 26th, 2023. 2:06 PM] which is the buying rate.
Moreover, if you want to make a transfer on Accrue, you will not be charged any fees if you use the Cashramp payment method. A Debit/Credit card, on the other hand, charges a 1.4% cost for domestic cards and a 3.8% fee for international cards.
Bitnob Vs Afriex–Exchange Rates
Afriex: Currently the exchange rate on Afriex is N927.41 to $1 [July 27th, 2023. 10:29 PM], which is in contrast to Bitnob’s rate which is N867.89. However, Afriex does not charge extra for transfers.
Bitnob Vs Eversend–Exchange rates and Transfer charges
Eversend: Sending money to local bank accounts on Eversend costs N54 naira while withdrawing money to own accounts is free.
To make currency conversations on Eversend, users are charged a minimal amount which is always displayed on the app during the exchange process. In contrast, Bitnob does not charge users extra for conversions. The current exchange rate on Eversend is N880.07 to $1 [July 27th, 2023. 10:31 PM]
Additionally, all providers use a fee-free payment method for international transactions. This means if a Bitnob user sends money to another Bitnob user, it attracts no charges, likewise Payday, Afriex, Eversend, and Accrue.
Conclusion
Bitnob, Payday, Eversend, Afriex, and Accrue, are all facilitating cross-border payments for Africans within Africa, making payment easy and accessible globally. However, when it comes to the fairest exchange rate, Bitob wins–we are not trying to be biased, the numbers are here. Our buying rate is not to eat deep into the pocket of users funding with local currencies. Also, transferring at the selling rate is advantageous to the recipients.
Moreover, the cost of transfers differs across all but viewing from the point of price fairness, Bitnob also tops the chart.
So, if you want to send money across Africa without using almost half of the money as remittance charges, you should try Bitnob. Download Bitnob now to start sending money across Africa at cheaper rates.