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TransferWise changes name to Wise

wise.com

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Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#151
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure whether their fees are really that low. For transfers between your own accounts, for anything over very small amounts, I found that their 0.35% variable fee is pretty large compared to adding the funds to a brokerage account and then doing the conversion there (ie. IB charges 0.002% on currency trades, with a min of $2), and transferring back out into the desired currency.

Could you explain how this works, or point me in the right direction on what to read? I'm interested in not using Transferwise as much if this is better.

https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=759

You'd open up a trading account, deposit funds from one country to it (generally free in EU/UK, can be done with a simple bank transfer, though can take 1-3 business days). Rather than the common use case of a brokerage account to buy stocks/invest, you place an order into their IdealPro order book they run to buy the currency you want (might have to jump through 2 trades, they don't run every single pair). Generally this is tailored at larger investors, so anything under $25k is subject to some additional fees due to being a small size (https://ibkr.info/node/1459), but still significantly less than the 0.35% TransferWise charges. The costs for you are commission (<0.2bps), potentially small size fee (1-2 bps), and crossing the bid/ask spread, which is ~0 for currencies). When that order has been filled you now have the desired currency in your account and you can transfer it back out (potentially to a different country or different account).

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#152

I love transferwise, depend on it often. I don't get the rebrand, their old name was descriptive, easy to google, and from all perspectives really good. The rebrand won't change me using it, but I really can't see the positive in this.

my understanding is they want to move further into financial services and "transfer-" was unnecessarily limiting. As you say yourself, the old name _waa_ "descriptive" but they have not been a simple transfer service for many years.

There is a common pattern where a startup is named after their main product, grows to the point of needing diversification, and starts being limited by their name.

On the other hand, Amazon worked around it.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#153
post #91

Great Timing! USERS BEWARE, my story I used the service for two years and just had the most surreal disastrous experience since the year flipped. I religiously send a the same (about 5k USD) to my home country every month so I can pay my mortgage and other bills I left when moved to NA. 2021 arrives, I start a transfer on January 27, days pass, nothing. I contact support 10 days later (of something that in the past 2…

A relative of mine recently had their account permanently terminated for attempting to do a low six figures transfer. They had been a customer for at least a year and frequently used their TransferWise debit card during that period.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#154

I love transferwise, depend on it often. I don't get the rebrand, their old name was descriptive, easy to google, and from all perspectives really good. The rebrand won't change me using it, but I really can't see the positive in this.

Prediction: zero negative will come out of the name change or redesign, and three years from now they'll be bigger than ever. I'm long on them and they haven't even IPO'd yet. Can't wait for them, and Stripe. Seriously, have you ever seen a rebrand negatively affect a product? Rebrands have to be thought about retrospectively: you need to think whether it would make sense to go from the new to the old. Number26 for e…

Worst one I can think of is ConvertKit's rebrand that was so bad they went back on it(kept the new logo, but reverted the name change because it had some religious meaning), then again, it's not as big of a brand as TransferWise.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#155
post #17
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the limitations?

The list of countries where the fees are lower than just using your card from $OTHER_COUNTRY is very short. That’s a dealbreaker for me, but I’m a happy customer of theirs for transfers.

Often getting an account in another country is a big hurdle - TW makes this incredibly easy.

e.g. I'm opening an account in France at the moment (as a French resident!) and it is taking literal weeks and lots of scanning documents, posting paperwork, phone calls etc. TW opened a Euro account for me in a few clicks.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#156

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.

Switzerland has the unique advantage of having staid neutral since somewhat 500 years which means their wealth never got plundered or destroyed in one of the way too many wars that have plagued Europe since then. Their neutrality status, combined with a long tradition of utmost banking secrecy, also made Switzerland a perfect "safe harbor" for lots of foreign dark money of all kinds - from kingdoms, warlords and other dictatorships to seemingly "non-profit" corrupt entities such as FIFA, not to mention ordinary European rich wanting to hide their money from the taxman.

tl;dr: Switzerland got rich because of staying neutral and not asking questions about where incoming money originates from, not because of "free enterprise".

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#157
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Compare that social security system with EU average. You don't pay 40k/year, but do you pay 0 and get top eduction ?

Good tech job? What about everyone else, are we that selfish?

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#158
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, when your government doesn’t take money from your pocket to pay for and give you "free" stuff, you end up with more you can then decide to spend as you need. Who would’ve thought?!

It’s indeed a hard point to get across when you’ve been indoctrinated (we all are about something) that leaving it to the government is a better option. For example, people in Europe obsess about retirement plans, but rarely consider the possibility for creating their own private future financial plan.

Because some people just can't. It's nice and easy when we are closed in our tech bubble, but it's not so good for everyone else.

I'll gladly pay my taxes knowing that the current retired people that didn't have the possibility to save up, can survive today. Also hoping that happens to me in case a horrible thing happens to my financial situation.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#159
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Yeah, when your government doesn’t take money from your pocket to pay for and give you "free" stuff, you end up with more you can then decide to spend as you need. Who would’ve thought?!

Except that most people will take they student loans to their graves.
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