3 ms·

Sorry, a bit cranky today. It very much looks like you are just hiding the markup on your fx rate, and not even letting people figure it out by showing your bi

Sorry, a bit cranky today. It very much looks like you are just hiding the markup on your fx rate, and not even letting people figure it out by showing your bid/ask.

wdaareg 5y ago
We sure aren't! We're tired of seeing traditional players hiding fees in the rate - and we're not about it. Our rate is the interbank rate directly from the world's biggest exchanges. Customers really are paying just £3 to move any amount all the way up to £1 million.
- mcjiggerlog 5y ago
  Right this second it reports that transferring 10,000 GBP would give you 12,000.71 EUR vs the 11,949.73 EUR you would get by using Wise, which is probably the best known competitor. Seems pretty good to me!
  - pkavanagh 5y ago
    Hi - other founder Patrick here, thank you for your interest and analysis. It's worth noting that the rates you see on the pages often have a bit of delay - I believe both Wise and Atlantic would end up having very similar underlying FX rates, since there's no markup on either. However, with Wise, the more you send, the more you pay in fees - so there's a break-even where it starts to become more economical to use Atlantic.
    - randogeuebdb 5y ago
      Thank you for explaining this. It’s rare to see someone acknowledge the quality of a direct competitor. Seems to me that the biggest risk to Wise and Atlantic is growing so large that the incumbents will change their pricing.
      - vidarh 5y ago
        This was a lesson I learned the hard way with my first startup: Be cautious about how much you undercut your largest competitors unless/until you have deep pockets and/or unless you're very sure that their economics makes it impossible for them to undercut you on price, because the more you undercut them the more you're inviting a price war you can't win without deep pockets the moment they perceive you as a threat. When trying to enter an established market to compete on price as your primary differentiator it's often better to keep your margins higher to start with than offer the steepest cut you think you can afford, and then drop your prices slowly as you build up volume and a war chest.
  - easytiger 5y ago
    Right now on revolut GBP:EUR £10000 buys $11912.07. This service is promisng €12,000.71
- beefield 5y ago
  My hat is off if you can pull it off, but I have to say it sounds economically dangerous. To you, that is. (And still, as long as you do not show your bid/ask, it looks like you are hiding something in your price.)
  - Gareth321 5y ago
    There isn't much systemic risk if they're locking in their conversion rates with providers at the time of customer transaction. The risk is in the fee structure: will they attract enough customers to actually keep the lights on with that fee? I certainly hope so, because this is so great if it ends up working as advertised.

Sorry, a bit cranky today. It very much looks like you are just hiding the markup on your fx rate, and not even letting people figure it out by showing your bid/ask.

wdaareg 5y ago

We sure aren't! We're tired of seeing traditional players hiding fees in the rate - and we're not about it. Our rate is the interbank rate directly from the world's biggest exchanges. Customers really are paying just £3 to move any amount all the way up to £1 million.

mcjiggerlog 5y ago
Right this second it reports that transferring 10,000 GBP would give you 12,000.71 EUR vs the 11,949.73 EUR you would get by using Wise, which is probably the best known competitor. Seems pretty good to me!
- pkavanagh 5y ago
  Hi - other founder Patrick here, thank you for your interest and analysis. It's worth noting that the rates you see on the pages often have a bit of delay - I believe both Wise and Atlantic would end up having very similar underlying FX rates, since there's no markup on either. However, with Wise, the more you send, the more you pay in fees - so there's a break-even where it starts to become more economical to use Atlantic.
  - randogeuebdb 5y ago
    Thank you for explaining this. It’s rare to see someone acknowledge the quality of a direct competitor. Seems to me that the biggest risk to Wise and Atlantic is growing so large that the incumbents will change their pricing.
    - vidarh 5y ago
      This was a lesson I learned the hard way with my first startup: Be cautious about how much you undercut your largest competitors unless/until you have deep pockets and/or unless you're very sure that their economics makes it impossible for them to undercut you on price, because the more you undercut them the more you're inviting a price war you can't win without deep pockets the moment they perceive you as a threat. When trying to enter an established market to compete on price as your primary differentiator it's often better to keep your margins higher to start with than offer the steepest cut you think you can afford, and then drop your prices slowly as you build up volume and a war chest.
- easytiger 5y ago
  Right now on revolut GBP:EUR £10000 buys $11912.07. This service is promisng €12,000.71
beefield 5y ago
My hat is off if you can pull it off, but I have to say it sounds economically dangerous. To you, that is. (And still, as long as you do not show your bid/ask, it looks like you are hiding something in your price.)
- Gareth321 5y ago
  There isn't much systemic risk if they're locking in their conversion rates with providers at the time of customer transaction. The risk is in the fee structure: will they attract enough customers to actually keep the lights on with that fee? I certainly hope so, because this is so great if it ends up working as advertised.