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TransferWise changes name to Wise

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Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#171

Post by mbeex »

hiq wrote: post #4
xmodem wrote: post #2

I'm very happy with TransferWise' low fees, but their 'borderless' account is unfortunately no substitute for a real account in the native currency in a lot of cases.

The deal breaker for me is the fee for bank transfers, something I've never paid for before.

> The deal breaker for me is the fee for bank transfers, something I've never paid for before.

You are too young :-). This also might change. German banks start again to take monthly fees for accounts, so why not for single transactions.

This said, I have to deal with accounts in NZ and Europe. Fees as well as speed for transfers between them is a whole other world when using TW compared to classic banking. These kind of costs have exist forever, SEPA conditions are the exception, not the rule, internationally. TransferWises multi-currency account is a nice part of the package. I learned here today, this can be done even cheaper by using a Forex broker like IB, but I don't need this on a daily basis.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#172

Post by Kwpolska »

mythz wrote: post #37

Big fan of TransferWise, been using them for years as they're the only FX provider I've used who are actually transparent about their fees which are derived from the real-time actual market rate at time of submitting the transfer - which end up being substantially lower (and much faster to deliver) than any other FX service I used to use. I get why they'd want a rebrand to "wise", similar to "Apple Computer" -> "Appl…

“Apple Computer” wasn’t how anyone referred to the company, basically ever. Nobody calls it “Apple Inc.” today (outside of legal stuff, of course). But I doubt anyone called the fintech “Wise” before the rebrand.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#173

Post by benhurmarcel »

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

Revolut just raised their fees, FYI

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#174

Post by dgudkov »

chx wrote: post #54
crummy wrote: post #9

TransferWise makes it easy to forget how much of a pain it was to send money around internationally before.

That pain is so huge I just can't forget it. I am a Canadian resident , a dual Canadian-Hungarian citizen, my brother has accounts in Austria and Hungary, my clients are in the USA chiefly but also all over the EU. So international wires are quite a thing. Here in Canada, the traditional way I could send money was going to a bank branch , fill out a very long form to be able to do a SWIFT transfer and pay through the…

Many Canadian banks allow sending wire transfers online. For instance, with RBC you can send up to CAD 10K equivalent online for a CAD 15-20 fee. The UI is rather simple and they even have 2FA for transfers. RBC also has the more advanced RBC Express for online banking but I don't know much about it.

However, it's still worse than TransferWise. If a wire transfer is sent via RBC online, the actual amount received by the recipient is frequently $25-27 less which is supposedly due to some random routing fee (it's not possible to specify an intermediary bank in RBC online). As a result, the total cost of a wire transfer ends up being CAD 45-50. In TransferWise a wire transfer costs C$6 to send and the received amount is always the same as the sent. The UI is simple, and the support is helpful (never had problems with them).

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#175

Post by aurbano »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #107

"Horror" stories abound in this thread (of course, all is relative; first world problems; etc). My view is mostly that customer service is broken. Everywhere. A few days ago I wrote and published a "corporate memo" where I make the case that a company such as Stripe could tackle this problem and solve it [0]. I really hope that someone will eventually find a way to provide proper customer service, without resorting t…

I'm not sure if you're directing this comment at TransferWise or at companies in general, but I'll reply from TransferWise's point of view - Disclaimer, I'm an engineer at TransferWise, but this is my own opinion.

TransferWise takes customer support extremely seriously with an in-house team of support reps who are trained in all of our features. On top of that each team may have one or more CS "champions" who are the bridge between product teams and customer support. These champions usually know the product inside-out, and are in slack channels with the dev teams.

So when an issue is not a customer misunderstanding something, and turns out to be an actual bug, the CS rep will work with the engineers to find a workaround, and to get a fix deployed as fast as possible - all while the customer knows exactly what's going on.

Bottomline is that I agree that customer support is hard, and very expensive. But it doesn't have to be broken, and I don't think it is at TransferWise (well, Wise now)

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#176

Post by fadesibert »

m00dy wrote: post #30

Banks are still cheap when it comes to large amounts.

Depends on your definitions of cheap and large. Some banks are very good at FX in the 5,6,7 figure range. Others aren't.

Fidelity, for example, charges no fee but a 1% spread, which is a "hidden" fee.

FirstRepublic charges .01% (and thats because we are "small" by institution standards ~50k / transaction).

Most banks are badly set up for consumer size transactions, unless they are by default multi currency (Revolut and Starling come to mind).

The traditional banks may be "no-fee" - but some have charged as much as 2%.

Still nothing on the ultimate rip off - the foreign currency ATMs at airports - fee +5+% spread...

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#177

Post by refurb »

ranguna wrote: post #157
refurb wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

I actually did compare the retirement/disability payouts to one European country at one point (a Scandinavian country - Norway I think) and the US was comparable. Shocking I know. Sure the US doesn’t have the same extent of programs, but acting like US has nothing is just fake news.

And no, the education doesn’t cost $40k (that was my point) and the higher salary easily offsets the loans for a lot of careers.

And no, there are plenty of good paying jobs in the US, not just tech (I’m not in tech).

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#178

Post by simonklitj »

TheColorYellow wrote: post #92
simonklitj wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use it monthly. Have salary from foreign country, and simply keep a bank account there, then transfer it to US with (Transfer)Wise. Rebrand won't matter, as I guess I would always Google "Transfer Wise" either way, if nothing comes up for the query "Wise".

Newly in a similar situation myself. Are there tax implications in the US for doing this type of transfer monthly?

Don’t think so. Just make sure to put it all on your tax return.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#179

Post by barry-cotter »

eertami wrote: post #149
jeofken wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 things you mentioned aren't what make Switzerland a rich society. In my experience living here, it is the strong social security net (70% of your previous wage if unemployed), high minimum wage (up to 25$/hr in some areas), and general workers rights/protections.

None of those are unique to Switzerland but it’s a lot richer than any of its neighbors. The policies you describe don’t cause wealth. They’re things you can afford once you’re wealthy. If Kerala adopted those policies they’d either be widely flouted outside the formal sector (at best) or destroy the economy.

Re: TransferWise changes name to Wise

#180

Post by chx »

dgudkov wrote: post #174
chx wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That pain is so huge I just can't forget it. I am a Canadian resident , a dual Canadian-Hungarian citizen, my brother has accounts in Austria and Hungary, my clients are in the USA chiefly but also all over the EU. So international wires are quite a thing. Here in Canada, the traditional way I could send money was going to a bank branch , fill out a very long form to be able to do a SWIFT transfer and pay through the…

Many Canadian banks allow sending wire transfers online. For instance, with RBC you can send up to CAD 10K equivalent online for a CAD 15-20 fee. The UI is rather simple and they even have 2FA for transfers. RBC also has the more advanced RBC Express for online banking but I don't know much about it. However, it's still worse than TransferWise. If a wire transfer is sent via RBC online, the actual amount received by…

I just looked into the (relatively) new CIBC Global Money Transfer and it quotes me 4313 CAD for the other end to receive 1 000 000 HUF while TransferWise quotes 4298.23, a tiny 0.34% difference. However, TransferWise still has the huge, huge advantage of not sending a SWIFT transfer in a lot of countries -- this is the fee you mentioned, the recipient can be charged for receiving a SWIFT wire and you can't know ahead of the time -- when sending a proper wire from the branch you can volunteer as tribute erm accept those charges but the Global Money Transfer doesn't allow for this AFAIK. TransferWise uses local giro wherever they can. It also makes for a smoother experience, I just looked into it and quite a few forums are full of complaints -- SWIFT is old and finicky, no doubt at that. They also offer accounts connected to various giros as well , so you can have a HUF account, a SEPA enabled EU account and so forth.
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