I have used TransferWise, and yes, <1%; however https://revolut.com/ have recently added virtual bank accounts, and currently add no fee for market rate transfers.

i recently used transferwise to convert a bunch of money and it seemed like all in the fees were closer to 0.1% than 1%. I think if you do larger sums of money the fees get cheaper though because the cost to transfer into transferwise is around $20 or something for ACH pull, but the fees for the currency exchange is a slightly worse exchange rate (though still much better than you would get at a bank)

Transferwise is good but its network goal is to make money out of the transfers. Cryptos network doesnt share this goal

Great that all those exchanges aren't charging any fees and there's no transaction cost for Bitcoin...

I recently did a lot of EUR-USD transfers and have evaluated several options. I came to the same conclusion as other posters here: Services like Transferwise and Currencyfair are all very cheap, and do the job well and without risk.

Going through Bitcoin was not even close to competitive.

Did you at least google Transferwise to see all horror stories of people getting their wires frozen? Really curious of your definition of “without risk”

By that I mean that they are registered and regulated within the EU and other countries they operate in. The people operating the service are known and comply with applicable regulation, so that I can be reasonably confident nothing shady is going on and that I can get legal recourse in case something is wrong.

And no, despite doing some research on Transferwise before using them I didn't run into horror stories of them freezing wires. Transferwise has always been very professional and helpful in interactions with me (more so than my own bank).

Have you ever transferred 120,000 EUR with them, or - you know - any serious amount?

My transfers were in the 1k-10k range, I guess that's not "serious" for you.

But no, if I were putting such a big amount of money in their hands at once I would certainly do more research and look for better safeguarding.

Its not a matter if its serious to me. If i see quarter on the street I pick it up because money is money.

Unfortunately all those money-wire services are registered in UK and UK has the most strict KYC rules I think ever existed in free commerce. If you start sending bigger amounts they will shut you down, no matter how much due diligence you provide they just scared of repercussions, just in case.

> Cryptos network doesnt share this goal

Of course they do. There is an inherent transaction fee built into networks like Bitcoin, plus the fees exchanges charge.

Miners don't get paid anymore?