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

TransferWise announces $280M investment

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 176 posts

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#81

Post by ddorian43 »

2K17 wrote: post #5
a_d wrote: post #2

I used to study remittance flows for a living. This was a problem that was (is?) begging to be solved. Incumbents like Western Union have always been very expensive and borderline evil. There are well known “corridors” of remittance flows that are still yet to be captured - like Kerala (India) Saudi Arabia (Middle-east more generally); Mexico US; US LatAm etc. My guess is TransferWise captured the UK Poland corridor…

I wish someone would challenge other dinosaurs like PayPal. Say what you want about Amazon's monopoly but at least they have actual customer support.

Paypal also has support (call,email) used them for refunds and changes on account.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#82

Post by graniter »

dboreham wrote: post #78
graniter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. But what would be the problem? If you legitimately have two bank accounts in two countries in two different denominations, what's the problem with having two different PayPal accounts connected to the different bank accounts? I don't know what would be illegal about that.

It would correlate strongly with people trying to evade taxes and/or launder money. PayPal doesn't like to facilitate illegal activity. I'm not theorizing about this -- I have first hand knowledge.

Ok I am not trying to be dense. I really am curious. Maybe it correlates strongly, but there's nothing dishonest or illegal about it that I can tell. PayPal has all your personal info. They have your bank account info on both sides. People transfer money between. So maybe it's a pattern that money launderers use, but so do regular people. What am I missing?

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#83

Post by 2K17 »

ddorian43 wrote: post #81
2K17 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish someone would challenge other dinosaurs like PayPal. Say what you want about Amazon's monopoly but at least they have actual customer support.

Paypal also has support (call,email) used them for refunds and changes on account.

I haven't seen the refund one. Do you have it? All I could see is the ticket system where issues are closed by support rather than user.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#84

Post by spIrr »

thesimon wrote: post #26
TulliusCicero wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha, have you never been to Germany? Tons of places still don't take credit cards.

Maybe 2-3 years ago, but at least in the cities the card acceptance is quite good. Berlin in particular and cafes in general being the exception.

… and bakeries, my god. I haven't seen a single bakery that accepts cards (EC or credit). Wanna buy €30 worth of cake to bring to work for your birthday? Nope, cash only.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#85

Post by mabbo »

I'm now paid in USD, but I live in Canada. My bank offered me the 'competitive' exchange rates of 2.5% more than the market offered.

TransferWise is literally saving me thousands of dollars per year. I can't thank them enough.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#86

Post by itissid »

I can send rupees to my indian bank account at a very competitive rate from the US. But getting it back means going through the bank's FX system which marks it up by ~3%. Are there FX brokers to which I can route money from my Indian bank account so that I will not be charged the 3% rate for the subsequent INR->USD conversion?

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#87

Post by TorKlingberg »

As a customer, I love TransferWise. The banks charge outrageous rates and fees. The competing money transfer/currency services promise the best rates, but make you sign up before telling you. Then you get constant calls from your "personal currency advisor". In the end you find out their rates are higher, and now you're on call with a sales person. This includes companies HN posters in a previous thread were recommending. TransferWise is upfront and self-service. The one time I had to email support they were great too.

On the business side, TransferWise tells an interesting story about peer-to-peer currency exchange, but I think that's a media play. In practice most transfers will not immediately match with reverse flow. TransferWise have to keep a buffer of each currency and trade on the open market, just like the banks do. That in turn exposes them to currency risks, and it wouldn't surprise me if they lost a lot of money on 24 June 2016. As a VC funded startup they could eat that as a learning cost.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#88

Post by dnohr »

alexee wrote: post #4

I wish they would issue credit cards soon. Every time I pay with credit card while travelling, my bank charges 1.5% for each transaction, in addition to bad conversion rate.

Depending on where you are from there might a better alternative.

In Europe, you have Revolut, N26 and Monzo which gives you a prepaid or debit MasterCard. Instead of the higher foreign transaction bank fees you will get either Mastercard’s or interbank rates, which is so much better than your traditional bank exchange rate.

I have tried to list some options here: https://globalmoneyapp.com

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#89

Post by ddorian43 »

2K17 wrote: post #83
ddorian43 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paypal also has support (call,email) used them for refunds and changes on account.

I haven't seen the refund one. Do you have it? All I could see is the ticket system where issues are closed by support rather than user.

Should be able to try for a refund on a payment until 6 months old.

Re: TransferWise announces $280M investment

#90

Post by gambiting »

graniter wrote: post #71
dboreham wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might also consider "more legal" as a factor. I don't believe PayPal wants you to have two accounts with different currencies.

Ok. But what would be the problem? If you legitimately have two bank accounts in two countries in two different denominations, what's the problem with having two different PayPal accounts connected to the different bank accounts? I don't know what would be illegal about that.

I do that, but it's explicitly against Paypal's terms and conditions. If they ever decide to crack down on it I will lose one or both accounts. Also, Paypal's currency conversion rates are terrible. Transferwise actually offers very good rates and the money is in my bank account within 30 minutes(vs ~2 days for a proper bank transfer).
Post reply on HN