Meet Wise Interest

[CallumWK]

As the title says, Wise has accounts in USD - GBP - EUR, that can earn you interest.

https://wise.com/gb/interest/

They aren't actual savings accounts, but rather investments in a BlackRock fund.

Anyone here that has money in such an account for a considerable time already, and can give feedback on the performance compared to a savings or other currency account in the same currency?

[RSD1]

30% tax withholding on all interest earned is deducted and paid to the Belgian government. No refunds. 

[CallumWK]

12 minutes ago, RSD1 said:

30% tax withholding on all interest earned is deducted and paid to the Belgian government. No refunds. 

 

First of all, withholding tax in Belgium is 15%, secondly you pay withholding tax in the country you are tax resident, which is Thailand

[RSD1]

33 minutes ago, CallumWK said:

 

First of all, withholding tax in Belgium is 15%, secondly you pay withholding tax in the country you are tax resident, which is Thailand

All I know is that they deduct 30% from the interest I earn on my Wise account balances. And the address on my Wise account isn't in Thailand. 

[xllxix]

@CallumWK

About 2 months ago, I transferred some USD, GBP & EUR across from my regular accounts to the interest-bearing 'jars'.  So far, all is good.

The first time you transfer, Wise creates a new jar.  You will have to go through some tax declarations at first but even if Wise was set up with an UK/European address, you can fill out the declarations as being resident in Thailand.  

No withholding tax so far. Once the jar is set up, you can transfer freely to/from the jar and interest, etc is all very clear.  Wise warn that there may be a couple of days delay transferring money back to your main cash account, but so far my 2 transfers back have been instant.

The charges are as advertised and are debited once a month for each jar but the mildly irritating thing is that they are actually charged to the main account, not to the jar itself.

 

All the above refers to the 'interest only' option and not to their option for to add your money to a fund.  Funds bear a lot of added risk and I do my trading through a broker, not in my 'safe' Wise accounts.

 

The above was my experience.  Yours might be different 'YMMV'.

 

[gargamon]

5 hours ago, CallumWK said:

but rather investments in a BlackRock fund.

Which blackrock fund? Should be easy to look at past performance.

 

 

 

[CallumWK]

3 minutes ago, gargamon said:

Which blackrock fund? Should be easy to look at past performance.

 

 

 

 

There are links to the blackrock fund in the Wise link in the OP

[gargamon]

2 hours ago, CallumWK said:

 

There are links to the blackrock fund in the Wise link in the OP

Ah, it's a money markey fund. Hardly an investment account.

 

Open a Schwab International account and pick whatever you want. Get an ATM card from them and they'll pay all fees with no ATM international transaction fees. I'm sure there are others.

[CallumWK]

1 hour ago, gargamon said:

Ah, it's a money markey fund. Hardly an investment account.

 

Open a Schwab International account and pick whatever you want. Get an ATM card from them and they'll pay all fees with no ATM international transaction fees. I'm sure there are others.

 

So as a European I can get a Schwab account in Euros that pays interest?

 

Could it be you missed the point of the OP, which is getting interest?

[Justanotherone]

22 hours ago, RSD1 said:

30% tax withholding on all interest earned is deducted and paid to the Belgian government. No refunds. 

 

interest rates also suck in BE compared to USA/UK...  I always wonder, how can santander UK give 5% and only 2.xx something in Belgium... same bank...

 

I wanted to buy blackrock ishares, but only for US citizens...

 

European stocks, not interested

[rutteketuut]

23 hours ago, CallumWK said:

 

First of all, withholding tax in Belgium is 15%, secondly you pay withholding tax in the country you are tax resident, which is Thailand

You are giving wrong information, dont post a comment when you dont know what you are talking about. The OP is right!

[CallumWK]

Just now, rutteketuut said:

You are giving wrong information, dont post a comment when you dont know what you are talking about. The OP is right!

 

I AM the OP, and Belgian, so I guess I know how much withholding taxes are in Belgium

[sandyf]

2 hours ago, CallumWK said:

 

I AM the OP, and Belgian, so I guess I know how much withholding taxes are in Belgium

Indeed, but the OP asked for comments without saying anything about Belgium or taxes. I believe the poster you replied to was referring to your comment about Thailand which was obviously wrong. You are not in a position to say which tax residency would be applicable to the account concerned.

My account is UK and I have had the interest jar since it started and there has been no withholding tax.

I also have also had the stocks jar for over 3 years and there has been no mention of tax. I was asked to confirm tax residency on both jars when opened, I have dual tax residency so for Wise it would be the UK.

As far as I can remember the interest has been in the order of 4.2% during it's time, better than the 4% on my HSBC bonus saver.

The stocks got of to a bad start with negative growth in the first year but last 2 years or so growth has been quite steady.

[CallumWK]

12 minutes ago, sandyf said:

I have had the interest jar since it started and there has been no withholding tax.

I also have also had the stocks jar for over 3 years and there has been no mention of tax. I

 

What is the interest jar and the stock jar? I don't see any options in the link I posted in the OP.

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, rutteketuut said:

dont post a comment when you dont know what you are talking about.

Why should he be the exception, there's plenty of inaccurate information posted here regularly!

[Justanotherone]

4 hours ago, rutteketuut said:

You are giving wrong information, dont post a comment when you dont know what you are talking about. The OP is right!

 

savings account 15%

 

term account or others is indeed 30%

 

someone has to sponsor all the illegals, politicians, ...

[NoDisplayName]

On 1/13/2025 at 10:59 AM, CallumWK said:

As the title says, Wise has accounts in USD - GBP - EUR, that can earn you interest.

https://wise.com/gb/interest/

They aren't actual savings accounts, but rather investments in a BlackRock fund.

Anyone here that has money in such an account for a considerable time already, and can give feedback on the performance compared to a savings or other currency account in the same currency?

 

I recall reading on the Wise website somewhere that their jar balances earn a whopping 0.5% interest.

 

This would be bigly betterer!

 

Earn up to 3.92% APY with our interest feature,  FDIC insured.

 

Think immigration will accept this account to hold 800K?

[NoDisplayName]

22 hours ago, CallumWK said:

 

So as a European I can get a Schwab account in Euros that pays interest?

 

Could it be you missed the point of the OP, which is getting interest?

 

At Wise, dollars pay 3.92, pounds 3.32, and euros.........1.61%

[NoDisplayName]

On 1/13/2025 at 11:43 AM, CallumWK said:

 

First of all, withholding tax in Belgium is 15%, secondly you pay withholding tax in the country you are tax resident, which is Thailand

 

All US customers with a SSN/EIN will be eligible to opt in (SSN/EIN verification will be required during opt in, unless already verified). We need this to verify your tax information so that we can report your taxes correctly. Please note this feature is not available to residents of New York and Alaska at this time.

 

https://wise.com/us/interest/

 

Nothing has been remitted to Thailand.

[nahkit]

2 hours ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

At Wise, dollars pay 3.92, pounds 3.32, and euros.........1.61%

My Wise Sterling jar is currently paying 4.2%, Dollar 4.18% and Euro is paying 2.61%.