Atlantic Money launches its cheap currency exchange service across Europe • TechCrunch

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Atlantic Money launches its cheap currency exchange service across Europe • TechCrunch

Fintech startup Atlantic Money is rolling out its international money transfer service to more markets and platforms. The company initially started in the UK with the British pound as its base currency and nine different currencies on the recipient side.

Since then, the company has grown and is now present in 29 European countries. Users can convert euros through Atlantic Money and send money to a foreign bank account.

What sets Atlantic Money apart from the competition is that it focuses on fixed fees. The company usually adds no markup on the exchange rate and charges £3 or €3 per transfer, whether you’re sending €100, €5,000 or €500,000.

In addition to the new corridors, Atlantic Money is also launching its mobile application on Android. Users can now also initiate transfers from a web browser. The startup has previously raised funds from Ribbit Capital, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, 20VC, Amplo and Elefund and is regulated as a payment institution in Belgium and the UK.

Of course, there are some limitations when you compare the product of well-known players like Wise. For example, you have to manually transfer money to Atlantic Money’s payment account. You can’t use a debit card, not even Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Adding a new recipient to your bank account isn’t as simple, but it also reduces the number of middlemen. But that’s why in many cases Atlantic Money will be cheaper than Revolut, Wise, MoneyGram, Western Union and your existing bank account.

But you can already pay for a premium Revolut subscription to unlock financial products and waive some fees. Then you might want to stick with Revolut for your international transfers. Similarly, you can rely on Wise to receive payments in a foreign country with Wise’s local account details. So it will depend on your particular situation.

It should also be noted that Atlantic Money charges an additional fee for express transfers (0.1% of the transfer amount). On weekends, customers can use the Friday night exchange rate with a 0.1% markup fee or let Atlantic Money determine the exchange rate the next business day.

For smaller transfers, variable fee services like Wise and Revolut will be cheaper than Atlantic Money. But as soon as you want to send more than €1,000, Atlantic Money becomes an interesting choice. Now let’s see if the startup can stick to such low transaction fees in the long run.

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