Atlantic Money Review: Rates, Fees & Safety

Facts & Figures

What is Atlantic Money?

Atlantic Money is a new mobile-only money transfer app.

They launched in March 2022, with the aim to disrupt the money transfer industry.

With other providers like Wise and Revolut offering very cheap transfers, Atlantic Money is looking to one-up them even more.

They’re doing this by offering their customers the mid-market rate, with a fixed £3 fee.

This, undeniably, makes them the cheapest on the market.

With Atlantic Money, you can transfer up to £1m to a select number of currencies.

As ridiculous as it sounds, you will only be charged £3 on a million pound transfer.

Founders Neeraj Baid and Patrick Kavanagh were early employees of US-based trading platform Robinhood.

They’ve received a lot of investment so far, with Amplo & Ribbit Capital leading their $4.5m seed funding round.

Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, the founders of Robinhood, & Anquan Wang, founder of Webull, have also invested.

How do I get started with Atlantic Money?

There’s 4 simple steps to making your first transfer with Atlantic Money:

1. Download the app on your iPhone or Android
2. Sign up (takes 30 seconds)
3. Add a beneficiary
4. Start the transfer

To test Atlantic Money’s service, I converted 10 euros into pounds to be sent to my Wise account.

I followed the steps, however once I entered all the transfer details and clicked submit, I hit a wall.

Atlantic Money needed to verify my identity.

To do this, I took a picture (in the app) of my driver's licence and a selfie.

They then reviewed the pictures (10 seconds later) and asked me to take them again as they couldn’t verify me.

I took them again and was successfully verified.

All in all, the process took about 2 minutes for me.

I thought “OK great, I’m verified, let’s get this transfer processed”.

However, they then needed to “verify the transfer”, which apparently takes a couple of days.

I’m only testing the service by sending 10 EUR to GBP to my own Wise account, what’s there to verify?

5-6 hours later (not a couple of days), my transfer was verified and I was given an IBAN to send my euros to.

The Euro account they gave me was located in Estonia.

I popped the details into my Wise app and sent the euros, which arrived instantly (I received a notification from Atlantic Money).

(this would have been a SEPA Instant Credit Transfer)

Then, I received my GBP into my account instantly after that.

So, provided that the verification delay only applies to your first transfer, this is a very quick turnaround.

I would like to test the service with a larger amount in the future.

What services does Atlantic Money offer?

As a new company, Atlantic Money only offers money transfers.

They’ll convert your funds and send them to your destination account, at the current rate.

They don’t provide forward contracts, limit orders or stop losses.

Atlantic Money also cannot hold your funds.

They have to be sent to the destination account at the point of conversion.

Not only that, but you can only convert from Pounds or Euros and only convert to 9 other currencies.

These currencies are:

• GBP
• EUR
• USD
• AUD
• CAD
• SEK
• DKK
• NOK
• PLN

It’s safe to say that your options are pretty limited, but that’s to be expected from a startup.

As they grow, they’ll offer more transfer options and currencies.

Is Atlantic Money safe?

Atlantic Money is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a payment institution.

Any company regulated by the FCA is safe to use.

Atlantic Money has been audited, examined and scrutinised to see exactly how their systems work and how they keep their customers safe.

They’ve then been given the green-tick to say that they’re a safe company.

For the customer, it’s the highest level of protection you can receive.

It affects you in 2 ways:

• If Atlantic Money was ever guilty of gross-negligence regarding your money, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman and potentially receive compensation
• If Atlantic Money were to go into administration after you have sent them money, you will receive all of it back

With UK banks, if they go bust, you will only receive up to £85k back (as part of FSCS).

Because of this, arguably, using a regulated money transfer firm is safer than using your bank.

This is because regulated firms must “safeguard” all client money, meaning it is separate from company money and cannot be touched.

In a nutshell, Atlantic Money is safe to use.

Atlantic Money reviews

As a startup, Atlantic Money has little to no customer reviews online.

They have claimed a Trustpilot page, which is currently sat at 21 reviews and a 4 star rating.

They also have some ratings and comments on the App Store.

19 customers have left ratings, with 9 leaving comments.

All are 5 stars except for one, who claims that the whole process was a bit slow compared to Wise.

The 5 star comments mention a smooth user interface and great rates of exchange.

With Wise and XE having 150k and 50k reviews respectively, having only 20 can put some people off.

Nonetheless, Atlantic Money is still very fresh and I’m sure they’ll start promoting their Trustpilot soon.

As, in my opinion, having great customer reviews is the most crucial part of trust-building. 

Especially with financial services.

All in all, I usually wouldn’t recommend a company that doesn't have many online reviews.

But having tested the service myself, I would say that their process works and is safe.

However, I would suggest that you test their service first, like I did.

Atlantic Money exchange rates

Atlantic Money provides their customers with the mid-market rate, with no markup.

You’ll be receiving the best rate of exchange at the time when making a transfer.

As you can see above, Atlantic Money’s rate is just about the same as XE’s, who display the mid-market rate (give or take half a pip).

With that said, Atlantic money provides the best possible rate of exchange at any given time.

It’s one of their main selling points, alongside their small transfer fees.

Atlantic Money transfer fees

Atlantic Money charges £3 for every transfer, for any amount and all currencies.

No matter if you transfer £10 or £1m, you’ll be charged £3.

Pair that with their mid-market rates, and you have the cheapest service on the market.

If you transfer £500 or under, they get less competitive.

How does Atlantic Money make money?

I have no idea how Atlantic Money is sustainable.

The majority of startups aren’t designed to make money straight away, but this takes it to a new level.

Their only source of revenue is the £3 fee.

If they were to match Wise’s £600m p/y turnover, they would have to process 200 million transfers.

Which is unfathomable…

So while I have tested the service and like it, you have to think about just how long Atlantic Money can last.

I’d like to see their 5 and 10 year plans to get an idea of what they’re going to do to monetise the company.

Atlantic Money transfer options

Atlantic Money only provides bank transfers.

You bank transfer your money to them, they bank transfer your converted money back.

This is unlike WorldRemit and Remitly who provide debit card and cash options.

I’m sure they’ll release new methods in the future.

How long do international transfers take with Atlantic Money?

A standard transfer with Atlantic Money should take 1-2 working days, with express transfers arriving instantly.

For example, with my test transfer, I received my GBP seconds after transferring my euros.

This was because I paid extra for the express delivery.

So, if you’re in need of a quick conversion, Atlantic Money can help.

How good is Atlantic Money’s mobile app?

Atlantic Money’s mobile app currently has 19 reviews on the App store, averaging a 4.4 rating.

Out of those 19 reviews, they are all 5 stars except for one, which is 2 stars.

On the 30th January 2023, Atlantic Money finally released their Android app.

Looking at the app reviews, there’s a few recurring comments:

• Easy to use
• Good amount of notifications to keep you informed
• Helpful customer service
• Smooth user interface

I’ve posted some more screenshots from my test transfer below, to give you an idea on how the app works.

How do you contact Atlantic Money’s customer support?

Atlantic Money provides their customer service through iMessage or WhatsApp.

It’s very easy to get chatting:

1. Open the app, tap the bottom right and then tap ‘Help’
2. You can read through their documentation or tap ‘Chat with us’ at the bottom
3. Select either iMessage or WhatsApp
4. Type your message

Atlantic Money’s customer support is operational Monday to Friday, 9am - 6pm (London time).

When iMessage or WhatsApp opens, the message above is already typed for you.

Here are comments left by users about their customer support:

• “Super responsive”
• “Helpful customer service team”
• “Quick and polite, but responses were quite cagey and generic”

I think using iMessage and WhatsApp for their customer support is a great idea.

They’re familiar platforms, and can make getting help a smoother process.

Final say: Is Atlantic Money for you?

I would recommend Atlantic Money for smaller, basic transfers.

A ‘smaller’ transfer is anything under £5k.

You’ll receive the best available rate, with minimal fees.

Pair that with a smooth, intuitive mobile app and quick transfers, you can’t go wrong.

Here’s a recap on Atlantic Money:

• New company, very little reviews online
• Mobile only
• They provide the mid-market rate (best possible)
• £3 fee on all transfers, of any amount
• Only a select few currencies available (more coming soon)

If you need to transfer more than £5000, consider a currency broker instead.

Your account manager can watch the markets to help you time your transfer and maximise your exchange.

So while you might not get as good of a rate, you might still end up with more.

To get you started, our #1 rated broker is Key Currency.

If you'd like to try Atlantic Money, click "Visit Atlantic Money" below.