Transferwise suck...

[surfdog]

Many past threads people die hard promoting transferwise. I tried it out, did all the verification. Made 3 transfers over 2 weeks for $1K each. Then account deactivated with no expanation, and appeal denied.

 

Bangkok Bank new york is still cheaper, but transferwise was faster.

 

Anyways, can’t reccomend, and it isn’t the cheapest option just so people now, BKk bank is $5 + 260 baht for a $2k transfer, getting BKK banks daily rates.

 

Also you can’t combine borderless currency deposits with a bank transfer, that is stupid.

 

Just wanted to put this thread out there, since I only gave the company a go based on rave reviews here.

[simoh1490]

You can only transfer funds into Thailand with Transferwise, you can't transfer out, that always seemed like a waste of time to me.

 

Plus, making international transfers of only $1k each is never going to be cost-effective, it's something you need to do less frequently in larger amounts for it to be worthwhile.

[surfdog]

yes I was transferring in, never tried to transfer out of Thailand, my account was us based and verified, was transferring to accounts in Thailand.

Lets not tangent. Of course wire payment best for large amount, transferwise is not competing against that.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[surfdog]

yes sorry read that wrong as well, yes not being able to transfer out of Thailand is an issue, but it is due to government interference, to be fair not shortcoming of transferwise.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[simoh1490]

1 minute ago, surfdog said:

yes sorry read that wrong as well, yes not being able to transfer out of Thailand is an issue, but it is due to government interference, to be fair not shortcoming of transferwise.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Not really government interference, Transferwise doesn't have a banking license in Thailand and the central bank, BOT, requires such things and always have.

[surfdog]

paypal same issue, I dont think there are any competitors to the banks, paying small $50 invoice to Japan is extremely time consuming, frustrating, and expensive.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[simoh1490]

The problem for companies such as Transferwise and Paypal is that the Thai Baht is a restricted currency that can not be freely exported, there are low limits on how much can be sent outside of Thailand and the banks act as BOT agents to manage this. So the issue is not competition with Thai banks it's currency control.

[surfdog]

for my situation, it is not so important, tangent I was trying to avoid. In search of another service

[surfdog]

paypal just changed to $4.99 flat rate per transfer fee to se asia + usual currency spread (usually 1 baht per dollar)

so they aren’t even trying to compete anymore


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[simoh1490]

If I read that correctly it looks like you were making multiple small payments to Yala as a destination, if that's the case I'm not surprised they cut you off given that Yala is militant/insurgent central and the focus of lots of peoples attention!

[surfdog]

no you read wrong. it’s an ad from anotger service from “world remit”

 

have some coffee and come back to the thread after you wake up. I’ll do the same :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

[geronimo]

My Thai company receives funds from the UK via Transferwise every month. The rate is always fair. Never had any issues and its quick, but as a recipient only, I cant comment on anything else.

[Pib]

A review of WorldRemit

https://www.finder.com/worldremit-international-money-transfers

 

[i claudius]

I have used transferwise twice because of recomends here.they were great

Sent from my SM-A720F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[surfdog]

I too really liked transferwise, until they deactivated my account with no explanation. Did 3 transfers of $1k within 2 weeks from us to Thailand, then they closed the account. Called support but would only direct me to email. Email support would not comment why.

 

In the situation I actually did something wrong... ok tell me what it is. But I didnt, so.... is this a company I or other people should trust?

 

Also I read online from others, some had account deactivated while they were still holding their funds!!! i am so glad that is not my situation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, surfdog said:

I too really liked transferwise, until they deactivated my account with no explanation.

Just asking:

was your account at transferwise confirmed for identity and address?

(two respective emails from transferwise received?)

 

I remember it was possible to do "some" transfer before the account was confirmed completely, but after that they will probably lock it.

"some": can't remember the details.

It wasn't that easy for me to get the confirmation, particularly about the address in Thailand.

At xendpay I failed.

 

Edited May 5, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[surfdog]

Since they allowed Thai address confirmation, I supplied that, if that is the problem why don’t they just say and let me correct it, I have residence documents for both countries, but currently living here.

I don’t think I got any email, but they confirmed me somewhat which allowed me to add funds to the borderless account.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[KhunBENQ]

Just login to your transferwise account.

Then click the down arrow at the account name.

Select "Verification" and see what you get (two green entries "All done"?).

[seajae]

have been with transfer wise for over a year and they are great, only problem I ever had was when I didnt use my personal number when transferring my money, took a week to sort out and was fixed up. I usually receive my transfer within a few days and get the current mid term rate less the fee, works out far better than the bank rate. I dont need to transfer out of Thailand so that doesnt bother me, they have always been very efficient and helpful to me, cant comment on your problems though but there must have been something  that caused it to happen, would be interesting to see what they say in their emails as to why they stopped it

 

[surfdog]

they said I was not using account under “acceptable use” rules. Telephone calls to clarify not helpful, told me to email. Emailed and got a boilerplate response above “not acceptable use” I didn’t appreciate this insinuation that I did somethimg wrong or illegal. Asking them to clarify would obviously fix the problem, but noone can help from customer support.



Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[surfdog]

Oskar wrote:
Hi,

We have reviewed your appeal against your account deactivation.

Unfortunately, following further investigation, we have taken the decision not to reactivate your account. Please note based on our Terms of Use Agreement TransferWise has reserved the right to refuse or to accept any new user or any transaction at its own discretion.






Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[wgdanson]

On 5/5/2018 at 6:24 AM, simoh1490 said:

You can only transfer funds into Thailand with Transferwise, you can't transfer out, that always seemed like a waste of time to me

Seems like a waste of time transferring in, then transferring out.

[Chou Anou]

On 5/4/2018 at 7:53 PM, surfdog said:

I too really liked transferwise, until they deactivated my account with no explanation. Did 3 transfers of $1k within 2 weeks from us to Thailand, then they closed the account. Called support but would only direct me to email. Email support would not comment why.

 

In the situation I actually did something wrong... ok tell me what it is. But I didnt, so.... is this a company I or other people should trust?

 

Also I read online from others, some had account deactivated while they were still holding their funds!!! i am so glad that is not my situation.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

 

You were probably flagged for potentially illegal activity, money laundering and the like. When a bank suspects you of that in the US, they shut you down. And not only are they not required by law to give you a reason, they are actually PREVENTED by law from alerting you to what they suspected you of that led them to shut you down; they can get hit with a huge fine for telling you (the idea being, I assume, that they could be interfering with a wider-reaching government investigation of you by giving you specifics). You need to be really careful with banks and other financial institutions in the US and not triggering suspicion of fraud or money laundering nowadays

[Rc2702]

Sounds more like a user error and no one has reported similar issues.

 

They are great and very cheap compared to the banks.

 

 

[BurgerGung]

Trying to hijack the thread - hoping a Bank of America user can answer a quick question?

 

Am getting house payments wired. $ 667 arrived as like 458 €. am not happy. Q: how much is Bank of America charging for international wires? Just wondering!

 

A PM would also work, hope someone knows... Thank you in advance!

[Pib]

3 hours ago, BurgerGung said:

Trying to hijack the thread - hoping a Bank of America user can answer a quick question?

 

Am getting house payments wired. $ 667 arrived as like 458 €. am not happy. Q: how much is Bank of America charging for international wires? Just wondering!

 

A PM would also work, hope someone knows... Thank you in advance!

Info on their website regarding their Int'l Wire (SWIFT) sending fees.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/foreign-exchange/wire-transfer.go

 

Keep in mind this is a separate sending fee which is not deducted from the sending amount....the sender pays that separately.   Now how much of the $667 you actually receive is going to depend on several factors such as:

- There may be an intermediary bank fee sliced off as the funds flow from BoA to your bank

- Unless the Sender selected the transfer option for him/her to cover "all" fees along the way to your account that means he's only going to pay the separate sending fee and the receiver (you) will incur all other fees along the way such as an  intermediary bank fee or maybe even a receiving fee by your bank.

-  The exchange rate used.  If the sender allowed BoA to accomplish the exchange of USD-EUR then you get whatever the BoA exchange rate is which is probably going to be several percent below the mid-market/interbank rate.  If the sender didn't allow that and said send in USD this mean either an intermediary bank or your receiving bank did the exchange and you will get whatever exchange rate they used.

 

Now unless you have a provision in the rent contract saying the rent must be paid in EUR versus the USD sent ( sounds like the rent contract is denominated in USD) "and you must receive a specific EUR amount" unless you can convince the rent payer  to send in a different way like maybe using a Transferwise account where he could specify a certain EUR amount to arrive which means the USD is going to be varying all the time instead of the $667 rent agreement I'm not sure you can do much.  Both of you need to talk as to how to reduce the amount being sliced off by banks due to fees and exchange rate to see what is agreeable to both of you.

 

 

Edited September 10, 2018 by Pib

[billd766]

I find that this is an interesting thread and there is another thread also running plus information on the UK pension thread as well.

 

I am about  to start a Transferwise borderless account for my UK state pension and here I find that there may also be a downside to it.

[Esso49]

2 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I find that this is an interesting thread and there is another thread also running plus information on the UK pension thread as well.

 

I am about  to start a Transferwise borderless account for my UK state pension and here I find that there may also be a downside to it.

what is the downside ?  can you explain please as I have used them regularly for transfers

[billd766]

3 minutes ago, Esso49 said:

what is the downside ?  can you explain please as I have used them regularly for transfers

 

Did you read the OP?

 

That was a downside for him.

 

I have not used them yet so I have no personal knowledge yet.

[BritManToo]

Just now, billd766 said:

 

Did you read the OP?

That was a downside for him.

I have not used them yet so I have no personal knowledge yet.

 

Think the problem is OP, not Transferwise.

They decided not to do business with him. Up to them.