Wise, Remitly, Worldremit… which is the best site for sending money abroad? We’ve tested the various solutions for you, and we’ve come up with a comparison of the best platforms for sending money to Colombia.
Making a bank transfer to Colombia can be super convenient for a variety of reasons: paying a deposit to an agency or accommodation, sending money to a loved one, helping to fund humanitarian projects, etc.
In short, to avoid paying huge fees with your traditional bank, these new platforms are really useful. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each platform that offers international money transfers..
Our choice
For those who want a quick answer without having to read our comparison:
The best platform for sending money to Colombia is Remitly.
It’s the cheapest, simplest and fastest platform for making a bank transfer to Colombia (or anywhere else). And to make matters worse, the first transfer is $0 fee.
Disclaimer: we apologize in advance for any grammatical or syntactic errors, as our native language is not English (we're a Colombian-French couple), so we hope you'll forgive us and still enjoy the information we share with you! Please note that all the information on our blog is based on our own experience, and is checked and updated regularly.
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How much does your bank charge for international transfers?
Sending money to Colombia
The aim of this post is to show you that you can pay less for your international transfers. To convince you of this, we’ll start by showing you how much traditional banks charge for transfers to Colombia.
On average, banks charge between $20 and $30 USD for an international transfer to Colombia, and sometimes the charges increase with an additional percentage on the transfer amount… Suffice to say, it’s expensive!
Stop excessive fees
Remitly, offers the first fee free transfer and after that it’s a maximum of $4 USD per transfer, whatever the amount… when we say good deal, we mean really good deal!
Comparison table
Bank transfer to Colombia
To begin with, here’s a summary of the services offered by each of the three platforms we compared for sending money to Colombia. We’ll give you all the details in the rest of the post.
| Remitly | Wise | Worldremit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exchange rates | Best rate | Average | Poor |
| Fees | Fixed for any amount | Variable according to amount | Fixed for any amount |
| Banking network | Very good | Poor | Poor |
| 1st transfer free of charge | Yes | Yes | No |
| Fast transfer | All banks | Bancolombia only | No |
| Transfer by bank transfer | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transfer by credit card | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cash withdrawal | Yes | No | Yes |
| Total cost | Lowest cost | Most expensive | More expensive |
| Result | Best platform | Bad fees Bad experience Good rate | Good experience Bad rate |
| See the offer | See the offer | See the offer |
Remitly
Send money to Colombia free of charge
Let’s get straight to the point: after testing a number of different solutions, Remitly has become our preferred choice. Remilty has all the advantages without the disadvantages : quick and easy to use, the most competitive exchange rate and a great network of Colombian banks.
Advantages and disadvantages of Remitly
Let’s take a look at the advantages of using the Remitly platform to send money to Colombia. We couldn’t find any major drawbacks.
| Advantages Remitly | Disadvantages of Remitly |
|---|---|
| Best exchange rate Lowest cost First fee free transfer Fixed fees for all amounts Good network of Colombian banks Delivery within the hour (by credit card) Cash withdrawal possible Good user experience | No |
Transfer delivery times with Remitly
This table shows the average transfer delivery times, i.e. how long Remitly takes to send money to your recipient, depending on the bank.
| Banks | Delivery times (CB transfer) |
|---|---|
| Bancolombia | Delivery within the hour |
| Davidienda | Delivery within the hour |
| BBVA | Delivery within the hour |
| Other banks | Delivery within 5 hours |
How to send money to Colombia with Remitly
This is probably the easiest way to transfer money to Colombia. Just follow the steps to register on Remitly, enter your details and those of the beneficiary, and you’re done! It’s done in 2 minutes! Using a credit card, the transfer is received almost instantaneously by your beneficiary in Colombia.
Result: Remitly is the cheapest, fastest and easiest way to transfer money
Wise
Fee Free bank transfer to Colombia
Until recently, we recommended Wise to our readers for its reputation and reliability. We managed to negotiate a first fee free transfer for you (which is still valid) to get around one of the drawbacks of this platform. Compared to Remitly, the exchange rate isn’t that great, but the real drawback of Wise is the number of steps involved in setting up an account and making a first transfer… a real pain in the ass.
Advantages and disadvantages of Wise
You’ll see that the result isn’t perfect when it comes to summarizing the pros and cons of using Wise to send money to Colombia.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| 1st transfer fee free (with our link) Delivery within the hour (by credit card) | Poor user experience Bancolombia only Fees vary according to amount No cash withdrawals possible Average exchange rate |
Transfer delivery times with Wise
Wise also offers fast delivery times, the only problem being that they only offer Bancolombia for bank transfers to Colombia.
| Banks | Delivery times (CB transfer) |
|---|---|
| Bancolombia | Delivery within the hour |
How to send money to Colombia with Wise
This is perhaps the most cumbersome platform to use. Especially when it comes to making your first transfer. The registration process is long and tedious, and that’s the main criticism of Wise.
Result: Wise the heaviest to use
WorldRemit
Bank transfer to Colombia
WorldRemit is a good platform for sending money to Colombia, but the exchange rate isn’t great compared to Remitly. And even if the fees are low, Worldremit does not offer a free first transfer by default, even if it does offer promo codes from time to time. The final problem is that, as with Wise, the network of Colombian banks is very limited.
Advantages and disadvantages of Worldremit
Worldremit offers a good user experience compared to Wise, but offers both an average exchange rate and a too-limited network of banks.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Fast transfer (by credit card) Cash withdrawal possible Good user experience Fixed fees for all amounts | Poor network of Colombian banks Average exchange rate No fee free first transfer (except for special offers) No delivery within the hour |
Transfer delivery times with Worlremit
Worldremit doesn’t really offer fast transfer delivery. While Remitly offers transfers within the hour, Worldremit only offers transfers within 24 hours, and only for Bancolombia.
| Banks | Delivery times (CB transfers) |
|---|---|
| Bancolombia | Delivery within 24h |
| Davidienda | Delivery within 48 hours |
How to send money to Colombia with Worldremit
The WorldRemit registration process is quite similar to Remilty’s. It’s quick and easy. Once again, our criticism of WorldRemit is the cost of the transfer compared with the competition.
Result: Worldremit the most expensive
Final ranking
How to send money to Colombia
To conclude, here are the final rankings of the best platforms for making a bank transfer to Colombia. As you’ll have gathered, the result is pretty clear: a single platform combines all the services you’d expect from a platform of this type, especially when you’re looking to make maximum savings.
Winner: Remitly
It’s simple, fast and economical.
Remitly combines all the services you’d expect from an online transfer platform. From our point of view, there’s no contest.
2nd place: Wise
Wise really has a user experience problem: it’s long and tedious to create an account and make a transfer. Add to this the fact that the platform only offers Bancolombia, and you’ve got another limitation.
3rd place: Worldremit
We like the Worldremit platform for its simplicity, but when you compare it to Remitly, there’s no comparison: more expensive, slower delivery, few Colombian banks available…
Other options
Transfergo is another platform offering a slightly different model, since it only allows you to send money directly to a bank card (VISA or Mastercard only). In this case, it’s not very practical for Colombia, as most people don’t have this type of card.
Western Union is a market pioneer that has long had a kind of monopoly, but an aging image. Today, Western Union is trying to keep up with the times, but its main problem is a very poor exchange rate.
