Businesses in Australia and across the globe use Airwallex to pay and collect from suppliers and customers in over 130 countries and more than 50 currencies.
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Our Airwallex Money Transfer review focuses on the platform’s innovative services, pricing plans, and the reasons to choose it instead of a traditional bank.
Let’s get to it!
Highlights:
What Is Airwallex?
Airwallex was founded in Australia in 2015 to serve as a transparent payments platform that allows businesses to transact effortlessly with international providers and buyers.
PROS:
- Costs limited to minor interbank FX fees only
- Create global accounts and virtual cards in minutes
- Quick 24-hour international transfers
- Personal onboarding service
CONS:
- Stringent approval requirements
- Limited app usage
In essence, its services bypass the conventional banking system, which features high operational fees, slow processing times, and currency and market limitations.
Nowadays, this global digital bank offers a slew of simple yet effective money-management tools that help entrepreneurs of any size grow without any kinds of borders.
How Does Airwallex Work?
Airwallex is especially useful to SMBs who seek to avoid expensive international payment fees and administrative obstacles with the help of several services.
For example, in addition to consolidating all your cross-border transactions (receiving, sending, exchanging money) on a single platform, you can also open and integrate global accounts in minutes or set up virtual debit cards for staff expenses.
Note: Certain businesses, such as investment firms and gambling companies, cannot use Airwallex due to government regulations on money laundering and terrorism financing.
Registering a Borderless Airwallex Account?
Creating an Airwallex account is as simple as transferring money via the platform, and it only takes a few straightforward steps:
- Navigate to the sign-up page via the main Airwallex page;
- Enter your full name and business email before clicking on ‘Get Started’;
- Fill out the details of your company and its registered location;
- Provide your phone number and wait to be contacted by the Airwallex staff;
- Furnish additional details that may help accelerate the setup process.
Depending on the complexity of the services they offer and their needs, businesses wait between 1 to 3 days to have their accounts set up. In some rare cases, the process may take up to a week if they are situated in foreign markets with strict licensing requirements.
Airwallex Features
Before using Airwallex, review its services to see how they can help your business grow and reach a wider international audience.
Global Transfers
Airwallex’s main selling point is its business account that allows you to easily complete your cross-border business transactions free of charge with features such as:
- Opening global accounts—you can unlock your worldwide revenue streams with global accounts in over 11 local currencies;
- Making faster international transfers—bypass the SWIFT network and send and receive full payments within 24 hours;
- Saving up to 90% on FX fees—Airwallex charges between 0.3% and 0.6% above the interbank exchange rates without any additional fees;
- Accepting online payments—seamlessly accept payments from anywhere at any time in the customers’ local currency and without conversion fees.
Airwallex Mobile App
To help business owners manage their affairs on the go, Airwallex also publishes an iOS and Android app that includes most of the functionality found in their web interface dashboard.
After installing it, you can quickly monitor your global finances and transactions, convert currencies, open new accounts, create new virtual debit cards, and much more.
Borderless Cards
Your employees can take advantage of the Airwallex multi-currency virtual cards, which are created instantly and can be paired with both Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Moreover, you can have as many cards as you need (one per spending category) and change their spending limits or cancel them outright at any time.
Xero Integration
You can connect your account balance to Xero—the well-known online accounting software—to streamline your bookkeeping efforts and ensure your transaction data is always up to date.
By doing so, you will avoid tedious data entry and other hands-on accounting processes, thus saving precious time and money that can be invested elsewhere.
Expense Management
To accompany Xero, Airwallex also created an end-to-end expanse manager that lets you store your receipts and invoices in one place and review and approve expenses in real-time.
Ultimately, Airwallex Expenses helps you simplify your method of reimbursement and end-of-month reporting processes.
Partner Rewards
With your Airwallex login, you can access thousands of exclusive rewards and customer perks thanks to the company’s collaboration with other industry leaders.
For instance, you can save even more on business expenses by getting a 25% discount for Slack Membership, US$6000 in AWS credits, or a 20% subscription discount for Canva.
Airwallex Financial Infrastructure
Businesses can also choose to subscribe to and embed the company’s suite of proprietary APIs to build their own financial ecosystem and manage every transaction on their own.
These APIs allow businesses to issue multi- or one-use virtual cards, accept online payments, create foreign accounts, manage funds globally, make payouts, and more.
Accepted Payment Methods
The company supports its Online Payments feature with various global payment options, from widely-used debit cards to digital wallets and vouchers, including but not limited to:
Customers in certain regions also have access to popular local payment methods, such as Alipay in China, BigC in Thailand, ACH Direct Debit in the U.S., giropay in Germany, and many more. For a complete list of accepted payment methods, visit Airwallex’s official site.
Airwallex Pricing Plans
So how much does it cost to use Airwallex in Australia or anywhere else? The company prides itself on its transparent and low-cost pricing scheme for its business account:
Customers with a standard Airwallex account will only have to pay small FX margins of 0.3% to 0.6% and an optional $9 fee per employee card if they order the company’s physical cards.
However, when it comes to using the company’s proprietary APIs to build an economic inftrastructure, businesses will have to consider some specific costs for each separate API, including online payments, treasury, payouts, issuing, and scale.
Note: For the full platform fee schedule, visit the corresponding Airwallex pricing page.
Is Airwallex Safe to Use?
Absolutely, Airwallex is fully licensed in all jurisdictions it operates and takes the safety and security of its platform very seriously to protect its customers’ data and capital at all times.
Some of its security measures include robust encryption based on RSA keys and SSL technology and a two-factor authentication request for every Airwallex login attempt.
Airwallex Customer Support
The company also publishes thorough ‘How to Guides’ on anything from creating a global account to connecting your Airwallex account to Xero.
If everything else fails, you can always contact the company’s dedicated support team by filling out an online support form or calling +61 13 32 99 for Aussie businesses.
Is Airwallex a Good Company?
Airwallex is an excellent option for SMBs looking to reduce their overseas transaction expenses thanks to features such as global accounts that use local currency, extremely fast and fee-free transactions, low FX margins, and online payment services.
Moreover, even with a standard business account, users get access to borderless virtual cards, expense management software, quick payment links, and more—tools that help them simplify their financial procedures and grow faster and wider.
1.Who is behind Airwallex?
Airwallex was founded in 2015 by Jack Zhang and Max Li (business owners of a Melbourne café) with the help of their university friends Lucy Liu and Xijing Dai with the goal of creating a cross-border money transfer solution that is both fast and cheap.
2.Is Airwallex an Australian company?
Yes, the company was founded in Melbourne but has since expanded across the world, with a significant presence in China, and became Australia’s fastest-growing fintech company.
3.Is Airwallex regulated?
Yes, Airwallex is regulated in every region where it operates. For instance, for its Australian market, Airwallex holds the relevant ASIC, AFSL, and AUSTRAC.
