Hacker News: briodf

New comment by briodf in "AI eats the world (Spring 26) [pdf]"

briodf — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:45:04 +0000

28*13=364

Swiss Roaming Plans Can Cost 10x More Than Travel ESIM Alternatives

briodf — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:14:45 +0000

Article URL: https://www.simsurf.com/en/wiki/swisscom-simsurf-press-release-june-2025

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44189177

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by briodf in "Using eSIMs with devices that only have a physical SIM slot via a 9eSIM SIM car"

briodf — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 17:13:05 +0000

3GB of Data + Unlimited SMS and Calls for free sounds very nice? Can you share the name of the provider so that we can add it to our eSIM comparison for Germany https://www.monito.com/en/esim-plans-compared

Show HN: Travel ESIM Comparison

briodf — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 08:08:44 +0000

Hey HN! Travelling abroad this holiday season? If you’ve got an eSIM-compatible phone, you can skip the pricey roaming charges. Monito’s tool compares 17,000+ eSIM plans across 200+ destinations to help you find the perfect fit for your trip.

After installing my first eSIM, I knew there was no going back to buying plastic SIMs at airports or overpaying with my domestic provider. The simplicity of setting up an eSIM in just a few taps has revolutionized how I stay connected while travelling—and it’s driving competition and lowering costs for everyone.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42469177

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by briodf in "Show HN: World’s first £3 flat fee (0% FX markup) money transfer service"

briodf — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 12:41:37 +0000

Great to see more and more competition in the money transfer space, congrats on the launch.

Here's a little comparison by amount received (incl. all fees) with the cheapest provider found on Monito.com (comparison site I co-founded) vs Atlantic Money:

Sending £1000 to:

- EUR: €1,199 vs €1,196.83

- CAD: CA$1,693 vs CA$1,686

- PLN: zł5,737 vs zł5,826.58

- USD: $1,311 vs $1,310

As we can see, the competition on pricing for popular routes will be quite intense! Do you plan on mainly focusing on customers who need to send larger amounts? Or are you planning on developing other differentiators (New routes, customers service, user experience etc...))

New comment by briodf in "How international money transfers work (2016) [video]"

briodf — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 18:06:25 +0000

Two excellent questions, which I am unfortunately not able to answer with confidence, as it goes into the weeds of payment rails& infrastructure. Someone actually making the transfers (instead of a comparison site like us looking at the available services and recommending you the best one for your needs) would probably have the answers.

New comment by briodf in "How international money transfers work (2016) [video]"

briodf — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 18:03:36 +0000

Thanks!

This is likely a combination a question of Money Transfer/Transmitter License & compliance, but this is not my area of expertise. A provider like Wise is licensed in the countries where it accepts customers. In this case, Wise is licensed in the US but not in Chile: https://wise.com/help/articles/2932693/how-is-wise-regulated...

As it's a costly and complicated endeavour, they must prioritise the markets they operate in and must have made the business decision not to be licensed in Chile as of now.

Luckily, Monito always try to find local companies filling the gap of big players, and Global66 is an interesting alternative from Chile: https://www.monito.com/send-money/chile/united-states/clp/us...

Moneygram is likely limited in accepting US residents with their US site for similar reasons.

New comment by briodf in "How international money transfers work (2016) [video]"

briodf — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 16:19:34 +0000

I'm the co-founder of a international money transfer comparison engine, AMA if you have questions about international money transfers from a consumer perspective.

Nerdwallet S-1

briodf — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 16:09:11 +0000

Article URL: https://sec.report/Document/0001628280-21-019876/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28811017

Points: 3

# Comments: 0

New comment by briodf in "Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer"

briodf — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 15:17:35 +0000

Yes we do. For example, they're the only service we know offering digital money transfers from Mexico to the US: https://www.monito.com/send-money/mexico/united-states/mxn/u...

New comment by briodf in "Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer"

briodf — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 14:32:53 +0000

Thanks for your feedback. Monito.com strives to list as many options as possible and be the most exhaustive source of information about international money transfer fees worldwide. However, we're not always able to access all data as no worldwide regulations require banks or money transfer services to be transparent about their fees and exchange rates (yet).

That being said, in the case of money transfers from India to the USA: InstaReM temporarily suspended money transfers from India last month. As soon as this is re-activated, they will once again appear in our comparison table on all supported corridors from India.

New comment by briodf in "Saving money on international payments as a remote freelancer"

briodf — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 09:52:03 +0000

Great post Jurn, thanks for participating in the effort against hidden exchange rate markups.

If you want to check for yourself how much you could save with TransferWise (or one of their competitors) vs banks or PayPal, we've built a comparison site for international money transfer: www.monito.com which compares live exchange rates and fees for any amount you'd like to transfer between two countries/currencies (e.g. US-Euro https://www.monito.com/send-money/united-states/netherlands/...)

Our initial goal was to help migrants save money when they support family back home, but the tool can be used by businesses/freelancers/travellers as well.

Let me know if I can be of any help in the comments, we've become payment geeks over the years!

New comment by briodf in "Facebook plans cryptocurrency debut"

briodf — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:09:02 +0000

Have you transferred money across borders with good recommendations lately?

Sending money across borders is historically super complex and expensive, you're right. The WorldBank estimates that it costs an average of 8% in total fees (transfer fees + exchange rate mark-up) to transfer money internationally.

For international transfers with banks and cash-based money transfers, this is still true.

But, in the last 10 years, we've seen hundreds of new online money transfer operators innovating in the field (way before crypto) starting with Xoom in the first wave and then TransferWise, Remitly, WorldRemit, InstaRem, Azimo and hundreds of others...

Sending $300 to Mexico to any agent location to pickup cash will cost you $2 with the cheapest option: https://www.monito.com/send-money/united-states/mexico/usd/m...

$1000 from Canada to a bank account in the Philippines in minutes? $6 https://www.monito.com/send-money/canada/philippines/cad/php...

etc...

These new innovative services are up to 10x cheapers than banks or traditional cash-based money transfers, often faster and much more convenient.

Benchmark Study: The User Experience of sending $ abroad based on 50 user tests

briodf — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 10:17:59 +0000

Article URL: https://www.monito.com/en/wiki/the-user-experience-of-sending-money-online

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17857702

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by briodf in "Show HN: Make a business model canvas in your browser"

briodf — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 16:00:04 +0000

That's a nice technical implementation of the Business Model Canvas. However, you should check the licensing under which it has been published as the result of accademic research: https://strategyzer.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/506...

>The Business Model Canvas, released under Creative Commons license, is open for building other approaches and variations on the concept. There have been a number of variations discussed and demonstrated here in the Hub and externally. Where variations have been made, recognition of the original source material must be included in the variation. The text and link Strategyzer.com should be clearly visible and legible under every canvas.

If you're interested in the topic, you should definitely check out https://strategyzer.com/ which is the company co-founded by the former PHD that developped the concept of the Business Model Canvas.