[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Do you know what is going on at Wise?
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Ask HN: Do you know what is going on at Wise?
So my general impression is that Wise (the FinTech company/
previously TransferWise) generally has (had?) great reputation for
excellent customer service and a good product. I certainly
appreciated unparalleled service for them until they froze my
account a few weeks ago and changed my incoming US bank details
with 2 working days' notice
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37925678). I thought this
was a coincidence, but since then I've read or heard a bunch of
reports and maybe it is not in fact a coincidence. - Changed US
bank details at short notice, caused operational chaos for anyone
using them for incoming payments as all incoming payments to the
"old" details bounced:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37936076 - Deactivated all US
debit cards on 2 working days' notice, making a very fun weekend
for anyone who had a wise card loaded into 100+ SaaS services I
assume https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38046293 - Not limited
to US as there are accounts of them blocking Europe-based
businesses (mine above and also e.g.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38047863) - Reports on places
like https://www.facebook.com/groups/transferwisevictims/ of people
taking 3.5 months to get their funds returned - I randomly
mentioned Wise problems to a friend and she immediately said "Oh
wow I closed my account in the US and used them to transfer all the
funds to Europe. They just 'lost' the transfer as it's now gone
from my US account and is not credited to my Europe account and
they will not help me find it' Maybe a coincidence as I am aware
of frequency illusions etc, but I wondered if anyone knows of any
wider potential liquidity or solvency issues that they might be
having, (linked to having to move away from Community Federal
Savings Bank at short notice maybe?) which means they are playing
these games with delaying tactics? I was just told that they need
an extension for "reasons beyond their control" and will add 35
*working* days to the normal 14 _calendar_ days response time for
complaints.
Author : ritzaco
Score : 70 points
Date : 2023-10-30 13:18 UTC (9 hours ago)
| jokethrowaway wrote:
| Do you have anything to do with crypto?
|
| I've been hearing all sort of stories from crypto people having
| trouble recently (both banks and money transmitter, no one on
| wise though, actually someone I know started using wise after
| problems with revolut)
| ritzaco wrote:
| Nope, if you read the first thread I linked I describe the
| business (technical writing) a bit.
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| What are credible alternatives to Wise?
| ritzaco wrote:
| Payoneer, Revolut, and Airwallex are probably the closest in
| feature set. Using Payoneer at the moment.
|
| There are also currency exchange platforms like OFX and
| Currencies Direct and contractor management platforms like
| Remote.com and Lano.io, but it's hard to find something that
| does all-in-one (incoming payments, outgoing payments, virtual
| cards, batch payments).
| jddj wrote:
| I thought revolut used wise under the hood for Forex?
| jkepler wrote:
| Maybe revolut.com.
| ornornor wrote:
| Revolut has very questionable business practices like having
| candidates work for the company for free just for a chance at
| an interview and a sick CEO that demands people work on
| Sundays.
| jakub_g wrote:
| Also, Revolut has pulled off a super shady move this summer
| where they moved EU customers' US stock accounts to EU, and
| in the process, changed the insurance from "500k per account"
| to "500k overall for all customers" (meaning, a few dollars
| per customer).
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/Revolut/comments/12ssmnq/revolut_is.
| ..
|
| Beyond unbelievable.
| moffkalast wrote:
| Yeah both Revolut and N26 are involved in a constant stream
| of complaints from people on social media, I guess this
| adds Wise to the group of shady fintech corps that probably
| shouldn't be trusted with anything.
|
| I suppose that only leaves regional banks to fall back on,
| the devil you know.
| potatopatch wrote:
| Most credible is a credit union for your banking, a broker for
| your stocks, a Nigerian Prince for your crypto money market
| "account".
| colesantiago wrote:
| Did you try contacting Wise about this is unfortunate for Wise to
| do this, thankfully this is not the not the majority of people's
| experience with Wise.
|
| If you're involved with crypto or any illicit activity this could
| be the trigger for this.
|
| Wise is known not to be kind to those who are involved in crypto
| activity.
| ritzaco wrote:
| Yes I called them nearly daily in the beginning. I have also
| been corresponding with them by email and Twitter. Both the
| complaints and customer support team only give me canned
| responses saying they know it's disappointing but they need
| more time.
| Canada wrote:
| This is how we can all expect to be treated in a cashless
| society.
| nyargh wrote:
| Got burned by Wise doing an international transfer a few years
| back. Money was withdrawn but never reached the receiving bank.
| Wise wouldn't help at all, even after getting a statement from my
| sending bank that Wise had my money. Never again.
|
| OFX is boring but has good spreads, always been able to reach a
| human and always worked for me for international transfers.
| kodapoda wrote:
| Interesting, I use Wise fairly often, didn't realize they have
| such nonexistent support. Will look into other options, my
| transfers are critical.
| nyargh wrote:
| Which transfers aren't important though? I don't imagine
| anyone expects less than 100% performance when it comes to
| sending their own money.
|
| I was shocked at how they handled my case, but have seen many
| more horror stories since.
| rundmc wrote:
| I've been with them since the beginning and have had my
| suggestions included in the UI (e.g. account nicknames) but as
| far as I can tell they're in some sort of freefall.
|
| Something has gone badly wrong in there and the only answer is to
| close the accounts and move away asap. That's what I'm almost
| finished doing for my 4 companies and shortly my personal
| account.
| rundmc wrote:
| FYI, after looking at about 20 banks we opted to go with Amnis
| in CH which uses Currency Cloud as its backbone.
|
| Their UI is excellent and I've just noted that they have a
| double-sided reward for new clients such that if you register
| with amnis using a referral code (e.g. mine: 08e57b) and make
| your first transaction, they will pay you CHF 200.
|
| You can sign up directly here
| https://app.amnistreasury.com/create-an-account.
| yoaviram wrote:
| I run two nonprofits using wise. With both I have experienced
| several sudden account suspensions pending further verification.
| Twice (once with each account) they have asked me to upload a
| recent statement from our bank as proof of funds. Only problem is
| that they are our only bank. Sounds straight forward enough but
| not to them. In one case, this sad state of affairs took over a
| month to resolve. For over a month an alternative elementary
| school I founded had to run without a bank account. No supplies,
| no salaries. In the other case it "only" took a week to resolve.
|
| If anyone has a recommendation for a challenger bank in the EU
| which works with nonprofits I'd love to hear about it.
| ornornor wrote:
| Don't know if they'd suit your requirements but I've been
| pretty happy with N26.
| j0k3r_85 wrote:
| Full disclosure I work there.
|
| I would suggest using Revolut as an alternative. They are
| pretty good at getting problems resolved reasonably quickly.
| n_ary wrote:
| Something indeed is mysterious. Previously, I could generate a
| virtual CreditCard on the fly for random* online purchases but
| today while checking for some things, I can suddenly no longer
| generate any new ones anymore.
|
| Also, here in EU they were happily paying interest on current
| balance due to recent interest rate hike, but suddenly a while
| back this interest generation has to be claimed by moving money
| from current to "Jar" thing and accept some terms, which is a bit
| dramatic IMO.
| moffkalast wrote:
| Hmm, just tried it and I was able to generate a new digital
| card without any issues. Could be that you've hit some kind of
| max cards limit?
| refurb wrote:
| Go onto a Facebook and search "Wise". You'll find a handful of
| group where people are selling/buying validated Wise accounts.
| They have really big issues with money laundering and fraud.
|
| My guess is they either got a stern warning from regulators or
| are being proactive at try to eliminate the fraud. And not in a
| "this is our 2024 goal" but a "we better do this now or risk
| getting shut down". So massive changes to account validation are
| happening and customer service isn't prepared.
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(page generated 2023-10-30 23:02 UTC)