Atlantic Money launches its low-cost currency exchange service across Europe

Fintech entrepreneurship Atlantic Money is rolling out its international money transfer service to more markets and more platforms. The company originally started in the UK with GBP as the base currency and nine different currencies on the receiving end.

Since then, the company has grown and is present in 29 European countries. Users can exchange EUR via Atlantic Money and transfer money to a foreign bank account.

What sets Atlantic Money apart from the competition is that it focuses on a fixed amount. The company usually doesn’t add a markup to 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 brokers, Atlantic Money is also launching its Android mobile app. Users can now also initiate transfers from a web browser. The startup has 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 caveats when comparing the product to popular players like Smart. For example, you need to manually transfer money to the Atlantic Money checking account. You can’t use a debit card, including Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Adding a new recipient to your bank account is not that easy, but it also reduces the number of intermediaries. But that’s why Atlantic Money is in many cases cheaper than Revolut, Wise, MoneyGram, Western Union and your existing bank account.

However, you may already be paying for a Revolut premium membership to unlock financial products and waive certain fees. In that case, you may want to stick with Revolut for your international transfers. You can also trust Wise to receive payments abroad using your local Wise account details. So it depends on your specific situation.

It is also important to note that Atlantic Money charges an additional fee for quick transfers (0.1% of the transfer amount). On weekends, customers can use the Friday night rate at a premium of 0.1% or let Atlantic Money set the rate for the next business day.

For smaller transfers, variable-cost services like Wise and Revolut are cheaper than Atlantic Money. But as soon as you want to transfer more than €1,000, Atlantic Money becomes an interesting option. Let’s see if the startup can maintain such a low transaction fee in the long run.