Who is behind FairAscent
FairAscent is an independent, English-language comparison site run by Karol Weiher from Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, on the border with Poland. Karol is the person responsible for what is published here; the full legal details are in the Impressum.
Karol Weiher
I hold a Master's degree in Law specializing in financial law, with further training in insolvency and restructuring law, and I also work in real estate transactions. I've served on the management boards of limited liability companies and as director of a foundation — the same due-diligence mindset I bring to every comparison on this site.
Why the site exists
Financial products are usually compared by the number in the headline: "no transfer fees", "zero commission", "free card". The real cost tends to sit somewhere else, inside an exchange-rate markup, a trading spread or a withdrawal fee. FairAscent explains where those costs hide, puts them into numbers, and helps you compare products on what they cost in total instead of on how they are advertised.
What you will find here
- Money transfers: how exchange-rate margins and fees work when you send money abroad, and what to check before you choose a provider.
- Investing: platform fees, how they compound over the years, and how to think about timing.
- Crypto: how exchanges price their services, and the risks that come with them.
- Multi-currency banking: accounts and cards for holding and spending money in more than one currency.
- eToro vs Coinbase: a side-by-side comparison of a multi-asset investing platform and a dedicated crypto exchange.
- The FairAscent blog with shorter articles on current topics.
Free calculators
Numbers make fees easier to understand than descriptions do. These tools run in your browser, need no sign-up, and can be embedded on other websites:
- Investment fee calculator: what platform fees cost you over time.
- DCA vs lump sum calculator: investing gradually compared with investing all at once.
- Transfer provider savings calculator: what a lower exchange-rate margin saves you per year.
- FX card cost calculator: what foreign-currency card fees add up to.
- Loss recovery calculator: what gain you need to get back to where you started after a loss.
How we use artificial intelligence
Like many publishers today, the author uses artificial intelligence tools to support his work, for example when researching topics, structuring and drafting text, and producing posts for the blog. AI is a tool in the workflow, not the publisher: the site is run by a real person who is responsible for what appears on it.
AI tools can make mistakes, and fees and terms change often. That is why our guides show when they were last updated, and why we ask you to check a provider's own current terms before you sign up. If you find something outdated or wrong, please let us know and we will correct it.
Independence and how we earn money
Some links on this site are affiliate or referral links. If you sign up through one, the provider may pay us a commission, and that is how we fund the site. Commissions do not decide what we write or how we rank a product, and we cover providers that do not pay us at all. The full list of our partners and our editorial rules is on How we make money.
What this site is not
FairAscent is not a financial adviser, and nothing here is personal financial advice. We publish general information to help you compare products. Investing and crypto carry risk, including the loss of the money you put in, so only use money you can afford to lose and check the provider's official terms before you decide.
Contact
Questions, corrections or suggestions for a provider we should cover: kweiher.de@gmail.com. If you represent a provider or an affiliate network, see Partner with us.