Santander’s ‘TransferWise rival’ PagoFX expands coverage to Belgium

With a €1,000 fee-free teaser rate for Belgium residents to sign up.

After launching in the UK in April, Santander is bringing its low-cost international money transfer service PagoFX to Belgium.

The move is PagoFX’s first international expansion, and comes with a bonus of letting new users transfer a cumulative limit of €1,000 for free until 15 January, after which time a fee from 0.7 per cent applies.

“It’s no coincidence we’ve chosen Belgium as the first country for our international expansion,” said Cedric Menager, CEO of PagoFX.

“Belgium is the crossroads of many nationalities, many different cultures and many people with clear needs to make international payments with transparency and low-costs."

PagoFX is just the latest example of incumbent banks mirroring the pricing and functionality of low-cost fintechs, in this case TransferWise.

In November HSBC announced that it was launching its own fee-free international transfer service, albeit only for US customers of the bank so far.

Just as in the UK, PagoFX for Belgium offers 42 different countries from Australia to the US, with more coming soon, and can be used by any resident with a Belgian bank account.

The whole experience is managed via the PagoFX app, which includes an (Onfido-powered) verification process and payment tracking.