Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

hey.paris

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 156 posts

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#41

Post by okanat »

pbmonster wrote: post #27

Are those fintech companies under any financial regulatory authority? If my bank pulls any kind of stuff like that, dropping the magic "I will have to report this to the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority" gets any and all gears unstuck right quick. Because this is absolutely unacceptable, and my local financial regulator agrees (and levies substantial fines accordingly). Might be an EU thing, though.

Some of them like Revolut and N26 are. German federal authority actually forced N26 to limit customer acquisition until they fixed their money laundering issues.

Wise is a "payment processor" so it isn't regulated to the same standard.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#42

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

As a private customer, they asked for more KYC (annoying but normal), then insisted on me providing a proof of address with components that my address (and any other address from my country that I know) does not have.

Luckily, this happened while they didn't have any money so I just found an alternative way of getting my transfer done, but I second the title: Avoid Wise!

Ironically, despite being a fintech and not known for great customer support, Revolut seems to be among the better options for international transfers, both in terms of fees and in terms of actually letting you make the transfers. (There likely will be a bit of KYC on the first transfer, but unlike with Wise, it actually worked. And from my experience, their customer support actually works and doesn't hallucinate answers!)

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#43

Post by alterom »

boomskats wrote: post #30

Ahh, I have fond memories of this. Their random KYC 're-verification' process (the lack of humans/computer says no) was _dystopian_ levels of frustrating. In the end I made a gif[0] and called them out publicly in the hope that they'd do something about it. The service they offer is amazing when it works, but it'll be a long time before I use them for anything my business depends on. [0]: https://x.com/boomskats/stat…

> In the end I made a gif[0] and called them out publicly in the hope that they'd do something about it.

Did they end up doing something about it because of that post?

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#44

Post by genewitch »

tormeh wrote: post #38
Meekro wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I'm talking about Wise. I was falsely accused of some stuff, my account was locked, and they were ignoring all communications even as I tried to prove my innocence. @patio11 helped me escalate and we had it resolved really quickly. I'm also a Stripe user, but I never had a problem there.

Hope he got paid for this service...

Think of the exposure, also they can put it in their portfolio.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#45

Post by thrashwerk »

justinde wrote: post #2

This is a familiar situation. I run a SaaS platform where I sell plugins for WordPress. Recently, my PayPal account was suspended, and a balance of €80,000 was frozen. The stated reason is a violation of the Terms of Service. However, no specific explanation has been provided — neither what rule I allegedly violated, nor how I violated it. I’ve searched through the lengthy documentation, but without clear guidance, t…

Welcome to paypal.

I had to create a paypal account because an online shop used it as the only method for payment, first time I could pay without registering but the second time they forced the use of an account so I registered.

I still used my card to pay, I didn't add any funds to the paypal account or did any other transactions or anything else really but after some time they froze my account for violating ToS. No actual reason, nothing. And it's next to impossible to find any support contacts, just redirects to useless FAQs everwhere.

Oh how I dream of paypal going bankrupt. The world would be a better place.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#46

Post by kome »

Anumbia wrote: post #31
kome wrote: post #24

wise seems to be managed rather unprofessionally. An ex-girlfriend of mine used to work there and once joked about some of my transactions. It was all in good humor and nothing sensitive was involved, but it raised a serious concern for me: how can a random employee access anyone’s account, is that SO common? It feels like there's zero privacy

Will she agree with your assessment of her as a "random employee?"

well, she was a new hire in customer service - so kinda yes?

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#48

Post by comboy »

Anumbia wrote: post #17
justinde wrote: post #2

This is a familiar situation. I run a SaaS platform where I sell plugins for WordPress. Recently, my PayPal account was suspended, and a balance of €80,000 was frozen. The stated reason is a violation of the Terms of Service. However, no specific explanation has been provided — neither what rule I allegedly violated, nor how I violated it. I’ve searched through the lengthy documentation, but without clear guidance, t…

Hope you're considering a lawsuit? €80k is no joke.

Paypal lawyers went over this situation thousands of times. If they would have any trouble with it, Paypal's behavior would already be different. AML/KYC and other bank regulations are so ridiculous and vague that it seems perfectly normal according to them to withhold somebody's money for a long time without even providing any explanation.

Re: Wise refuses to let us access our $60k AUD

#49

Post by trinix912 »

alterom wrote: post #37
FirmwareBurner wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to get justice from a local bank in your country, or to at least talk to a real person face to face than from PayPal Luxemburg or wherever they're located.

>It's easier to get justice from a local bank in your country, or to at least talk to a real person face to face than from PayPal Luxemburg or wherever they're located. Is it, really? It would not matter to the local court where PayPal's HQ is. PayPal needs to be licensed in your country to handle money transfers. They can lose the right to operate in your state if they aren't compliant with the laws. In the US, the…

I doubt they have a license to operate in all countries where the service is accessible/used. And yes, it is way easier to get justice from a local bank, a letter from a lawyer is usually enough if it ever gets to this point in first place, whereas for PayPal&co good luck with ever getting a response. Filing a lawsuit against a foreign company and getting anything out of it is even more of a gamble.
Post reply on HN