How to Create a Custom Money Transfer App

How to Create a Custom Money Transfer App

Significant changes in the financial services industry have taken place with the development of custom money transfer applications. Since then, an internet connection is all you need to perform any time-consuming financial transaction via a mobile app. Due to simple solutions being the norm for most of us, today's online money transfer systems offer customers maximum speed and convenience. So, customers are free to access whatever information they like, receive and perform basic operations.

The next challenge is obvious. To achieve the main goals of any payment system, it is necessary to create a robust, efficient, and legally compliant platform.

But, what if you are not sure how to create a money transfer system correctly? Or wondering about starting a new business venture? 

As you read this article, you will find many useful insights. 

So we invite you to check out this simple guide to help you do better with your money transfer app.         

Types of Money Transfer Apps

Before moving on to discuss the basic features of building a money transfer app, you should be aware of the types of such applications in general.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) or person-to-person payment systems refer to transactions made online or between two applications. This means that one person is allowed to transfer money from a bank account or credit card through the app. Among the different P2P payment systems, the most popular are mobile OS systems, independent and online banking services. Let's briefly discuss each of these types to help you understand which business model best suits your goals.

• Mobile OS Systems;

You should be already familiar with such widely used P2P services as Apple Pay and Android Pay. Due to them being an integrated device feature, they cannot be defined as a single app. Anyway, the growing popularity is because of the possibility of contactless payments for purchases wherever NFC technology is supported or PoS terminals are equipped with NFC technology. Users of Android or Apple devices can only make money transfers to users of the same system.    

• Independent services;

The next group is presented by leading independent services providers like PayPal and Venmo. Using bank cards, users of these discrete services are provided with electronic wallets in which they make P2P payments. These services also allow users to keep their money even without withdrawing it from a bank account. As a rule, all independent services as a minimum support Visa and MasterCard card types. However, it depends on the specific features of the P2P service. 

• Online banking services.

In the face of growing competition between digital payment solutions existing on the market today, the banking industry had to keep up with global trends. As such, many banks are starting to offer their clients P2P online services. Commonly, merchants should have  specific hardware to accept payments. The most well-known representatives of bank-centric apps are Zelle and Dwolla.      

Money Transfer App Critical Features

When it comes to analyzing functionality while building a money transfer app, it is necessary to define all the essential components of your future system. The most important features are primarily caused by the necessity to meet not only the user experience needs but also to comply with data privacy laws and payment regulations.    

So, we suggest you pay attention to the list below showing the core functionality of a platform for money transfer:

• E-wallet;

A digital wallet or E-wallet is a space where users can make electronic transactions and keep their funds and bank card data. Regardless of the country in which the user is located, a feature of this online service is the possibility of contactless payment without the need to create a new bank account every time.  

• Payment Statistics;

The special feature of the payment statistics system is that users can manage their finances easily and effectively. It allows visualizing all user transactions by such criteria as volume, status, country, and receiver. As a result, users get a seamless experience and can conveniently interact with their financial statistics.  

• Bill payments;

One more special feature of a customizable money transfer application is the ability to make payments online at any time and from any place. With invoice scanning, this additional feature will make your application more attractive to customers and more competitive than other market participants.  

• Notifications;

Let your users be aware of different money transactions, new funds, regular money transfers, or important monthly payments. This means that every time any activity occurs in the application, the user is notified in a timely manner.    

• International Transfers;

By providing your users with the ability to simplify the money transfer process, you automatically invest in your clients' loyalty. This way, users can conduct or receive international money transfers in a few seconds without the usual delays and high fees.   

• Currency Exchange.

Integration of currency exchange features will add more value to your potential users. Users will be able to receive dollars, euros, or other currencies without physically visiting currency exchange offices in just a few swipes whenever they want.

As you can see, the mentioned list of core features is a must-have for your platform for money transfer. Even if you have your own preferences and reasons to add more features, it is not a problem for our experienced team. Just note that on the backend side, another important thing that needs to be implemented is the highest level of data protection, overall privacy, and compliance with all legal requirements. 

Steps to Create a Money Transfer App

After we have covered the types and important features when creating money transfer systems, we are ready to highlight the important steps needed to take to get started with a software development team. Typically, every software company starts with the discovery phase. This phase includes both market research and overall project estimation. Once the baseline for the project has been established, the team proceeds to complete the tasks. We divide the next steps as follows:

Creating a user-friendly UX concept

At this stage, designers start work to create a multilingual user interface that is compatible with a variety of devices such as smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Your application's dashboard should be simple and user-friendly, and meet all user requirements for smooth and clear access to the system’s functions, even in low connectivity areas.     

Money Transfer Portal Development

In the process of integrating all the core features, your team will work on the implementation of a so-called money transfer portal. This means that at this stage the implementation of the aforementioned functions takes place. So, money transfer software developers will develop e-wallets to make it possible to send and receive funds through multiple channels in many countries, make contactless bill payments, international money transfers, currency exchange, etc. During this process, developers must also implement the ability to set limits on sending / withdrawing funds, the number of transactions per day, and more, so that their future customers can do everything related to controlling their funds and financial transactions.  

User Management Modules

Next, it is highly recommended to integrate user management modules to manage customer accounts. Your future app system should have different interfaces to perform different roles for a cashier, admin, or auditor, along with creating balance histories and monitoring account activities. Additional possibilities include running marketing activities, setting up promo codes, as well as sending emails and messages to engage with customers.    

Real-time Reporting and Accounting

By working with real-time reporting and accounting features, your user will be able to monitor multiple transactions and use analytics to create reports, balance sheets, estimate profits and losses. Typically, the availability of reporting and accounting also helps customers to set limits and control their assets. 

Security

Security issues often become a challenge for most cases. As we mentioned, it is very important to take into account all the specific legal and local regulations, as well as compliance with the requirements for financing terrorism, money laundering, etc. Another part is to provide users with the highest level of system safety so that malicious activities can be easily prevented. In more detail, this step involves setting up identity verification such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) protection, data encryption, recovery, backups, embedding session time limits, and the like. 

As you may have noticed, the task of creating an app for money transfer is not trivial. However, by using a clear delineation of responsibilities within a professional software team, this process will be less complicated. By the way, if you are wondering how the overall app development process is organized, click here to find out more. 

Cost of Building a Custom Money Transfer App

Before moving on to discuss the more accurate cost of app development, it is better to evaluate the average rates across popular app development destinations. 

Asia: Among the countries with the highest demand for these services in Asia are the Philippines, China, and India. Here, software developers in the Philippines charge up to $ 50 an hour, while developer services from China and India cost about $ 25 an hour.   

Eastern Europe: According to Clutch, the rates in Eastern Europe countries like Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus vary from $ 25 to $ 50.  

Latin America: According to the same Clutch ratings, rates in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina range from $ 25 to $ 100 per hour.

As can be seen from the published statistics, one of the factors affecting the final cost is the location of the software company. In any case, other factors have additional weight when calculating the cost to build a custom money transfer app. To this, we add the size and complexity of the required features, legal costs, the need for additional third-party services, application maintenance, marketing costs, etc. 

Thus, after all the specifications are outlined as core features for the application, we can more accurately evaluate your project. Contact us for any information you may need.  

Still, we have extensive experience in all related aspects of money transfer app development. Our Vizium project is a great example you can trust.

Our product is an international, advanced Android app used to transfer and exchange money between different payment platforms. Using our platform, users can exchange 180 currencies and 6 cryptocurrencies without paying a commission for each transaction. This application operates at the highest data security level and has a rating system that prevents any type of scam. Users are free to post their own and search for the most appropriate money exchange offers and set currency price tracking to monitor in their region. At the moment, we continue to work on further product improvements, as well as acquiring complete analytics about user behavior.

Feel free to browse through more details on the Vizium case study that we have posted on our website.       

Conclusion

In short, the new values ​​of digital financial services are creating a solid foundation for future mass adoption. Overall demand for consumer-centric digitalization is replacing traditional methods of providing financial services. Besides, the most popular technologies create new meaning for future money transfer app development innovations. 

While there are often potential challenges in building complex systems, banks and remittance companies continue to place particular emphasis on simple, cost-effective, and fast maintenance of such applications. Especially when software companies offer to share their best practices to build robust and efficient solutions.

So, set your business up for online success. Our team is always ready to bring your best money transfer app ideas to life in no time!

FAQ

What does money transfer software mean?

Money transfer software is a system that allows users to perform electronic contactless and non-cash money transactions from one person to another with any bank and any currency.

What functionality of money transfer apps is essential to consider?

The list of essential functionalities we recommend includes e-wallet, payment statistics, bill payment, notifications, international transfers, and currency exchange options.

How much does it cost to build a custom money transfer app?

The overall cost estimate for an application can depend on many influencing factors. Based on a general specification of the project, we are ready to calculate the final cost. Get our consultation to find out the cost more precisely.

 

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