TransferWise Considered Fraudulent By My US Bank

[soalbundy]

I've used them 4 times now to transfer funds from my German account to Thailand, next day transfer ! I like the way they let you follow the transfer and tell you when the money has reached their Thai bank, so far no problems.

[JimmyJ]

I appreciate this thread.

 

I was planning to use Transferwise after reading so many recommendations on TVF.

 

However, after looking at the myriad of non-stop negative reviews on several sites mentioned in the thread, I will not.

 

One of the negative reviews stated "Transferwise is great if there are no problems.

If there is a problem, the customer is screwed."

After reading many complaints, this seems to sum it up perfectly.

 

Someone in this thread stated that Trustpilot.com has it rated 5 stars out of 5, unlike the other review sites.

Trustpilot is actually the nail in the coffin as far as me deciding that Transferwise is to be avoided -

 

Look closer at all of the glowing 5 star reviews.

 

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/transferwise.com?page=1

 

They are all 1 - 2 sentences, many of them every day - MUCH too many, from posters whose median number of posts on the site are ONE.

 

So there are either scads of people who had such an ecstatic experience transferring funds on Transferwise that they are rushing  to Trustpilot and taking the time to register for the first time so they can write 6 or 8 words of praise.

Or - there is a Transferwise employee spending an hour a day churning these out. (And/or a bonus/credit of some kind is being offered secretly by Transferwise for people to "show us some love on Trustpilot.com").

 

It is obvious to me, and it should be to you, which is the case.

 

The fact that Transferwise feels this is necessary is not a good sign.

 

I do believe that the odds favor a good experience. But the savings are not worth it to me if I become one of the many casualties.

 

(My Certainty Equivalent is pretty low these days - avoiding headaches is important to me).

 

Edited February 16, 2019 by JimmyJ

[Orton Rd]

I know one thing i would trust TW over any Thai bank, and more than a few in the UK

[Longcut]

On 1/29/2019 at 7:24 PM, Ahab said:

Never had an issue or heard of an issue with TW prior to this post.

Been using TW for a long time with USAA Bank. Never had a problem. Plan to continue using them. 

[steve73]

2 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

 

They are all 1 - 2 sentences, many of them every day - MUCH too many, from posters whose median number of posts on the site are ONE.

First time I used TW... successfully after a very quick and easy sign-up, they invited me to rate their service on Trustpilot.  I'd never heard of this before, but was happy to give TW a 4/5 (since I NEVER give full marks for anything).  I've never looked again at TP.

This probably explains why there are so many single posts from users.

 

Most of my fellow countrymen (UK) have used TW with no problems.  More often than not the US users that I know have problems.  From oz it's about 50/50.      But no one I know has ever lost their funds..  It just takes a few days/week extra to set-up.

 

For UK users there's a significant saving to be made since Thai bank TT's are very low.  For USD, the bank TT is closer to the MMR, so TW is less worthwhile.

[JimmyJ]

3 hours ago, steve73 said:

First time I used TW... successfully after a very quick and easy sign-up, they invited me to rate their service on Trustpilot.  I'd never heard of this before, but was happy to give TW a 4/5 (since I NEVER give full marks for anything).  I've never looked again at TP.

This probably explains why there are so many single posts from users.

 

 

Thanks for posting. That would explain what I was questioning.

If they ask everyone who signs up to rate them on Trustpilot and are not giving a reward for doing so, then the overwhelmingly positive posts are meaningful, and my conspiracy theory was wrong.

 

An awful lot of 1 star (with 5 the best) posts on other sites, but hopefully they are a tiny minority.

Edited February 16, 2019 by JimmyJ

[racyrick]

On 2/16/2019 at 1:41 PM, lopburi3 said:

That can happen if holidays/weekend involved.

I understand that and with my last transfer, this was not the case.

Like I said, I have always got my money the next day because I do the transfer on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

The last transfer, I did a transfer on a Wednesday and it was paid the following Monday.

When I went to their cover page in the transfer box rate calculation it was very interesting.

If I entered a value over $2,000, it said the money would arrive on Monday.

If I entered a value under $2,000, it said the money would arrive the next day on Thursday.

This scared me that maybe they don't have enough money to cover all the Thailand transfers.

With some other people having delays before me, I am just a littlce concerned now.

[bungcheese]

The problem is your bank and not Transferwise. USAA is appalling on so many levels, so its not very surprising that they will do all they can to ensure your monies remain with USAA including making false claims about Transferwise. They have 4M subscribers and transfer about $8B per month. If any fraud was taking place they would have been shut down eons ago. Change banks, USAA does ZERO for vets like ourselves. I learned quick and ran from USAA years ago.

 

Your local credit unions are always the best choice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Bungcheese goes good with  Ritz"

[bungcheese]

On 2/16/2019 at 6:32 PM, JimmyJ said:

I appreciate this thread.

 

I was planning to use Transferwise after reading so many recommendations on TVF.

 

However, after looking at the myriad of non-stop negative reviews on several sites mentioned in the thread, I will not.

 

One of the negative reviews stated "Transferwise is great if there are no problems.

If there is a problem, the customer is screwed."

After reading many complaints, this seems to sum it up perfectly.

 

Someone in this thread stated that Trustpilot.com has it rated 5 stars out of 5, unlike the other review sites.

Trustpilot is actually the nail in the coffin as far as me deciding that Transferwise is to be avoided -

 

Look closer at all of the glowing 5 star reviews.

 

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/transferwise.com?page=1

 

They are all 1 - 2 sentences, many of them every day - MUCH too many, from posters whose median number of posts on the site are ONE.

 

So there are either scads of people who had such an ecstatic experience transferring funds on Transferwise that they are rushing  to Trustpilot and taking the time to register for the first time so they can write 6 or 8 words of praise.

Or - there is a Transferwise employee spending an hour a day churning these out. (And/or a bonus/credit of some kind is being offered secretly by Transferwise for people to "show us some love on Trustpilot.com").

 

It is obvious to me, and it should be to you, which is the case.

 

The fact that Transferwise feels this is necessary is not a good sign.

 

I do believe that the odds favor a good experience. But the savings are not worth it to me if I become one of the many casualties.

 

(My Certainty Equivalent is pretty low these days - avoiding headaches is important to me).

 

 

Trustpilot is filled with "scads" of reviews from users that suffer from a severe case of PEBCAK.

This segment of end-users should always proceed with caution. ????

 

Follow Transferwise's precise instructions and no issues will arise, period. The platform is intuitive and easy to use. I have experienced at times that they are slow to answer phones, but as with life one must be patient. Bottom-line, your monies will never just disappear into the Transferwise abyss.

[theoldgit]

1 hour ago, racyrick said:

If I entered a value over $2,000, it said the money would arrive on Monday.

If I entered a value under $2,000, it said the money would arrive the next day on Thursday.

This scared me that maybe they don't have enough money to cover all the Thailand transfers.

With some other people having delays before me, I am just a littlce concerned now.

However, I made a transfer of a tad over £3,000 late on Friday evening and it hit my Kasikorn account this morning, so there was enough in the pot to cover my transfer.

[racyrick]

3 hours ago, theoldgit said:

However, I made a transfer of a tad over £3,000 late on Friday evening and it hit my Kasikorn account this morning, so there was enough in the pot to cover my transfer.

I was transferring $USD from the USA.

Maybe it's just from the USA or maybe it's just dollars, but I am confused.

I just went to the TW cover page and filled in the box-very interesting.

When I put in an amount over $2,000, it says will arrive on the 21st Thursday.

When I put in under $2000, it says will arrive on the 20th Wednesday.

No next day like in the past. Wonder what's going on?

[JimmyJ]

On 2/16/2019 at 6:24 AM, steve73 said:

First time I used TW... successfully after a very quick and easy sign-up, they invited me to rate their service on Trustpilot.  I'd never heard of this before, but was happy to give TW a 4/5 (since I NEVER give full marks for anything).  I've never looked again at TP.

This probably explains why there are so many single posts from users.

 

 

 

Just thought about this again:

 

"First time I used TW... successfully after a very quick and easy sign-up, they invited me to rate their service on Trustpilot."

 

Did they ask you to rate them after you signed up and initiated the transfer, or after the transfer arrived at its destination?

 

Since you say "successfully", it sounds like they asked after your transfer completed and arrived at destination on schedule.

 

 

If that is the case, it would explain the overwhelmingly positive reviews, because people who experience problems and have problems with the signup or with initiating or completing the transfer are not prompted to leave a review.

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by JimmyJ

[JimmyJ]

4 hours ago, bungcheese said:

 

Trustpilot is filled with "scads" of reviews from users that suffer from a severe case of PEBCAK.

This segment of end-users should always proceed with caution. ????

 

Follow Transferwise's precise instructions and no issues will arise, period. The platform is intuitive and easy to use. I have experienced at times that they are slow to answer phones, but as with life one must be patient. Bottom-line, your monies will never just disappear into the Transferwise abyss.

 

"PEBCAK" - I had to look up that acronym - 1st time I've seen it.

 

I like it.

 

[lopburi3]

20 minutes ago, racyrick said:

I was transferring $USD from the USA.

Maybe it's just from the USA or maybe it's just dollars, but I am confused.

I just went to the TW cover page and filled in the box-very interesting.

When I put in an amount over $2,000, it says will arrive on the 21st Thursday.

When I put in under $2000, it says will arrive on the 20th Wednesday.

No next day like in the past. Wonder what's going on?

You are aware US banks are closed for holiday until Tuesday their time? 

[Pib]

4 hours ago, racyrick said:

I was transferring $USD from the USA.

Maybe it's just from the USA or maybe it's just dollars, but I am confused.

I just went to the TW cover page and filled in the box-very interesting.

When I put in an amount over $2,000, it says will arrive on the 21st Thursday.

When I put in under $2000, it says will arrive on the 20th Wednesday.

No next day like in the past. Wonder what's going on?

Interesting.  At this moment in time, up to $1950 it says delivery by 20 Feb.  But enter $1950.01 and higher and it changes to 21 Feb.  I know the 18th is Presidents Day (a holiday in the US) but I doubt that's the reason.  Just something to do with the amount.  Maybe for amounts of $1950 and below there is less review of the transfer....go one penny above and there needs to be some extra review that adds a day. 

 

Edit:  I checked around a half dozen USD-XXX currency pairs and when you go one penny over $1950 it adds a day's delivery time.  So, it's not related just to the USD-THB currency pair since it applied to other currencies also like USD-PHP, USD-HKD, USD-GBP, etc.  Then I tried some GBP-XXX and EUR-XX currency pairs.....that extra one day did not come into play.  I bet it's just a level TW has picked for USD-XXX currency pairs transfers that triggers some additional review which takes extra time....maybe driven by some US Treasury regulation/rule.

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Pib

[mtls2005]

On 1/31/2019 at 6:08 PM, Pib said:

If TW can directly interface with your bank (i.e., you can logon to your bank acct within the TW interface)

https://transferwise.com/help/article/2912059/us-dollar-transfers/why-do-i-need-to-enter-my-us-online-bank-details

 

If your bank does not directly interface with TW for an ACH transfer link (i.e., must use the trial/micro deposit setup method)

https://transferwise.com/help/article/2729169/us-dollar-transfers/micro-deposits

 

The link to the first article appears dead. Does anyone have a list of banks in the U.S. with which TW interfaces directly? Or can anyone share which bank(s) they use this feature with?

 

Regarding the micro-transfer method, has anyone gone through that? With which banks?

[Pib]

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

Regarding the micro-transfer method, has anyone gone through that? With which banks?

TW will send to micro/trial deposits to your bank acct....wait a day or two for them to appear in your bank acct....then log back on your TW acct and enter the two amounts to complete the validation process. 

 

Basically works just like setting up an ACH transfer link between your bank and another one of your banks.  

 

Now I think if you don't complete the micro deposit process within 7 days then TW just cancels that transfer.  

 

The next time you do a TW transfer you will not have to do the micro deposit thing to fund the transfer from your bank acct as it's already linked within your TW acct.

[cmarshall]

On 1/29/2019 at 12:14 AM, NCC1701A said:

Transfer wise guys says they are partners with Wells Fargo Bank in the USA. But when I tried to link my Transferwise account to WFB their security people went crazy so I gave up. I am sure others have been successful.  

 

Transfer wise is not a USA company. UK I think. 

Did they actually use the words fraudulent?

 

 

Wells Fargo is fraudulent on a huge scale.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells_Fargo_account_fraud_scandal