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

TransferWise changes name to Wise

wise.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 230 posts

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#121

Post by cik »

I might be one of the rare people who loves Transferwise? I've used them for 5 years, to transfer money from multiple businesses, and personally. I've sent money between businesses, to people internationally, paid for office rent, developers, heck I've done transfers to myself between countries with it.

I ran into KYC, which is only fair. They required proof of funds which included a letter from my accountant. They assigned a named case worker with a phone number, who I could call. 10/10 would do - and have done again, as recently as two weeks ago. I love this company.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#122

Post by lm28469 »

cik wrote: post #121

I might be one of the rare people who loves Transferwise? I've used them for 5 years, to transfer money from multiple businesses, and personally. I've sent money between businesses, to people internationally, paid for office rent, developers, heck I've done transfers to myself between countries with it. I ran into KYC, which is only fair. They required proof of funds which included a letter from my accountant. They a…

I also loves it and I've been using it for 5 years. I regularly transfer money internationally and it works in 24-48 hours for a few dollars per transfer

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#123

Post by nly »

jsnell wrote: post #8

This feels like an incredibly ill-advised rebrand. Everyone I know of who uses TransferWise uses it rarely, like once per year. They won't be slowly eased into the new name. They'll try using the service again for the first time in a while, and everything will have changed to look like a phishing scam. And this is a service where that trust is critical, since the interaction model of the service is so odd. I'm transf…

They're big win going forward is their business banking product rather than personal banking offering.

Businesses opening accounts with TW get real bank account details, that work in the traditional banking system, for each currency with little hassle, and good exchange rates to boot.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#124

Post by tdido »

dazc wrote: post #100
esperent wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I have come to believe there is no banking service that won't do things like this at some point. For example, I used to swear by N26 until I had a small issue (involving some tiny amount <€50). I told support very politely that I wasn't happy. Their response was full nuclear "pay everything immediately or we're sending your details to a collection agency". I was amazed, I had been a loyal customer for y…

In the UK we have the Financial Conduct Authority. For a registered financial institution you have protection of, I think, something like £80,000 in case the bank goes bust and you can also ask them to investigate any complaint. I have done this once for my own account and a couple of times for others. They really do look into every detail and will award compensation if it's clear the bank was at fault. Institutions…

They seem to be under the FCA: https://transferwise.com/help/articles/2932699/what-is-the-f...

Do you mean they don't subscribe to the 80k protection or something like that?

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#125

Post by sumedh »

MagnumPIG wrote: post #74
joecool1029 wrote: post #61

Someone didn't do their trademark research. Out on the east coast US (like NYC metro) anyone hearing the name Wise isn't going to think 'transfer service', they are going to think potato chips: https://www.wisesnacks.com

I assume they did and figured nobody would mistake a chips brand with an FX service. Legally I'm sure it's not a problem.

There is also another wise.us service.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#126

Post by nly »

pmfgpmfg wrote: post #64
doctorfoo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it as my primary spending debit card. I travel a lot, use it in random ATMs and I keep it topped up just enough that I wouldn't be devastated if the account contents were stolen. Also use the money transfer side monthly to pay rent in a foreign country.

I used to use TW for rent as well, the fees crept up over the years, and I realized that Revolut is the way to go here. TW has become uncompetitive

Unless I'm mistaken TransferWise provide Revolut with forex on the backend, so enjoy it while it lasts

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#127

Post by fookyong »

aikinai wrote: post #51
fookyong wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I and most people in my circle of friends use Transferwise on a daily basis, multiple times a day. It has replaced our "traditional" bank cards. FWIW, I totally understand the bigger picture goals they describe in this post and I wish them every success.

Honest question, what do you do with it multiple times a day? You use it as your regular bank and a debit card or something?

I use it for everything from:

- daily spending on goods and services - electronic transfers to ewallets* - any time someone needs to send me money, I use transferwise virtual account details so from their end it seems like a domestic transfer - I even bought a motorcycle using Transferwise to do a local bank transfer. Tried it with my regular (foreign) bank first and it failed, tried it with Transferwise and it worked fine.

*my traditional bank doesn't support this. They only know how to deposit to a domestic ewallet, Transferwise can do deposits in ewallets internationally

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#129

Post by maeln »

jeofken wrote: post #113
eafkuor wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I religiously send a the same (about 5k USD) to my home country every month Good lord, how much money do you people make in the US?

You’d be surprised how rich a society can be with a high IQ demographics, low taxes (I.e. barriers), and free enterprise. In Europe, landlocked no-oil Switzerland is a good example of this.

The average IQ in the U.S.A and the E.U is roughly the same[1][2]. The tax rate is also very similar [3]. Salaries can also vary a lot. If a tech worker in SF can have a salary that dwarf most of its EU colleague, a minimum-wage worker is often going to have a better salary and benefit in the E.U (although it vary a lot per-country basis and the same can be said with states in the U.S.A).

[1] https://www.worlddata.info/iq-by-country.php

[2] https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/average-i...

[3] https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=CTS_ETR

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#130

Post by refurb »

ranguna wrote: post #114
eafkuor wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I religiously send a the same (about 5k USD) to my home country every month Good lord, how much money do you people make in the US?

I guess that's the up side of not having free education, free health care system and a good social security.

The US has a good social security system, better than Canada’s in terms of providing retirement pension (where I’m from).

It also has very high quality (Berkeley, UMich, etc) public universities where you won’t pay $40k per year in tuition.

And for healthcare, a good tech job will provide good coverage.

So it’s kind of a “eat your cake and have it too situation” for some.

Post reply on HN