Inspiration
The idea behind the project came to me from an experience observed at home. The situation is that my father always transfers some money to my grandparents living in India, who use this sum to cover household and medical expenses. Each time he transferred money, he opened various tabs like Wise, Remitly, and Western Union to find out which one actually charges the least. To be honest, what shocked me was the fact that finding the most optimal solution wasn't always evident. There was an exchange service that claimed zero fees but charged less currency in return. Or, on the contrary, a company would have some high initial fees but provide customers with more money overall. This way, it turned out that actual charges are concealed within the FX spread and not the declared ones. At one point, my dad transferred $500 but learned that another company would send about ₹1,200 more. This experience made me understand the problem of price opaqueness in remittance.
What it does
RemitRoute is an AI-powered remittance comparison engine that analyzes multiple providers and shows:
- Real recipient payout
- Hidden FX spread cost
- Transfer fee breakdown
- Speed vs cost tradeoff
- Best route recommendation
- Projected yearly loss
Instead of just comparing fees, the app calculates the actual money received. The total loss is computed as: $$Total Loss=Transfer Fee+(FX Spread×Amount)$$ This makes hidden exchange rate markups visible.
How we built it
The technology stack used in building this project includes:
- UI – HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Fee model engine – provider simulation
- Decision scoring algorithm – route ranking
- AI-based recommendation – natural language insights
- Dynamic corridors & currency management
- Dark mode fintech dashboard UI
The decision score takes into account the following factors: $$Score=wp⋅Payout+ws⋅Speed−wf⋅Fees−wfx⋅FX Spread$$ This allows the app to recommend the best provider depending on user priorities
Challenges we ran into
The difficulty in modeling actual remittance pricing could not be overlooked. Remittance providers do not only charge transaction fees but also conceal costs through exchange rates. This meant I had to differentiate between:
- mid market rate
- provider rate
- FX spread
- total concealed costs
In addition, creating a user interface that can simplify financial information has always been difficult. After several design iterations, I settled for a dashboard that emphasizes:
- best provider
- savings opportunity
- recurring loss
- cost breakdown
Moreover, the problem of ranking providers based on various criteria such as speed vs cost made me opt for a scoring algorithm.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One of our great achievements is the development of a process previously considered unclear and opaque into one which is now open and straightforward. While most remittance platforms disclose transfer fees alone, we developed a feature which allows us to see the actual FX spread, which helps calculate how much of the transfer will be left with the receiver after the provider takes their cut. This gives the ability to make an unbiased comparison of various platforms without being mislead by their 'no fees' advertisements.
We have managed to develop a decision engine rather than just a comparison table. The application calculates all three key features – payout rate, speed and overall transfer price – and suggests the best solution according to user priorities.
What we learned
Through this project I learned:
- How remittance pricing actually works
- How FX spreads impact international transfers
- Decision system design
- Building financial dashboards
- Creating AI-assisted recommendations
- Designing for real-world usability
Most importantly, I learned that small hidden costs matter. A few dollars per transfer can turn into hundreds per year for families sending money regularly.
What's next for RemitRoute
The following improvement RemitRoute will need is incorporation of live foreign exchange rates and pricing from the providers to make the comparison truly up-to-date instead of being only an estimate. In addition, we are planning to enlarge our coverage of countries and high traffic corridors, while enhancing the decision engine by including more intelligent recommendation options depending on speed and costs considerations.
Of course, further steps involve incorporation of personal preferences of the user as well as additional functionality such as tracking changes in currency exchange rate and suggesting more optimal transfer periods and cheaper corridors. All in all, RemitRoute will become not just a tool but rather a helper in transferring money internationally.
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