What do you mean by debit transaction? An international bank transfer? There are many layers of fees that often get charged by banks:
- You don't get the market rate
- There's a percentage fee on the exchange
- There's a fee to send abroad for the sender
- There's a fee to receive from abroad for the receiver
Not all charges necessarily apply but they often enough do. Try it out and you'll see.
Many consumers prefer durbin-exempt cards since they have more favorable terms. Average fee on durbin-exempt cards is 1.41%, and they are 38% of transactions.
Average fee on covered cards is 0.45%, and they are 62% of transactions.
Seems reasonable to me that Wise wants to make a profit on every single transaction. Probably would have issues with abuse from 1% debit cashback cards otherwise.