TransferWise

Hi
I haven't used Transferwise for a while. I have sometimes experienced delays. These were always related to my Philippine bank. Transfers to Hong Kong and to UK have always been  without delay and often much faster than the estimated transfer time.

The Transferwise app shows how the transfer is progressing and hence where the transaction is held up.

Steve

BassMan_720 wrote:

Hi
I haven't used Transferwise for a while. I have sometimes experienced delays. These were always related to my Philippine bank. Transfers to Hong Kong and to UK have always been  without delay and often much faster than the estimated transfer time.

The Transferwise app shows how the transfer is progressing and hence where the transaction is held up.

Steve

I use western union.  I can get the money within 10 min at western union counter.

Richard Yan wrote:

I use western union.  I can get the money within 10 min at western union counter.

When I was in the states I used Western Union (higher fees) to send money to the Philippines.

What I'm doing now is a bank (USA dollar) to bank transfer (Philippines peso), via internet using TransferWise.

A side note about Western Union, when in the states I used them for 10 years, building up enough credits to get a $150 debit card. Then the fools sent me 30, $5 cards, I put them in the drawer not realizing they had a quick expiring date and  they expired. I tried contacting WU, (try that some time), repeated phone calls to a whole bunch of numbers (several hours), that I gave up in frustration.

I had considered TransferWise but generally use Wells Fargo Express Send service. Super reliable  - never a delay in many years..  and bank to bank (BPI). Always completed within the hour. I compared to Transfer-wise, Moneygram and XOOM and they all come out very close when you add up the fees and exchange rate.  I do use Moneygram sometimes, to send dollars that she can pick up at M L'huillier and get a slightly better exchange rate.

I use OrbitRemit, always fast and reliable, also very cheap, only £2 for up to £10,000.

Sending money from abroad via Transferwise usually takes longer to BPI accounts. to my BDO it takes usually 10 minutes. Around the holidays maybe a bit longer

World remit new web site.

DO NOT USE World Remit for regular payments any more.  You have to enter the persons (who you used to send regular money to) details each time you want to send them money again.  Not just the amount, but the persons full details.

I now hate WORLD REMIT

I used to use them all the time, and even recommended them here.  I now withdraw that recommendation.  There new web site is HORRIBLE.

Further update on TransferWise.

On Monday Jan 4, I transferred $500 with TransferWise, they said it will arrive Friday Jan 8.

I checked my Citibank account in the states and the money was debited on Jan 5.

They also debited $300 which I did not authorize on Jan 5. Checking on TransferWise website, it shows no transaction for the $300. They do not answer my email inquiry about the  debiting  of $300.

I disputed this charge with Citibank, they said they will have an answer in 90 days.

Hi!

Yes we are transferwise users. Now they are wise!

Delays are not an issue for me. I never experienced it. It's just wise transfers to any local bank account takes 2-3 days.

But I can totally wait coz I love using it! As a freelancer in the Philippines, I am enjoying its benefits such as high exchange rate from dollars to peso.

People can easily use add it as a USD bank account payout method on their upwork too. So they can now receive direct payouts in USD.

***

Personally I use Xoom I get the money within 5 min and can pick it upin many locations The cost for dollar transfer is 7.99 first 1000 then 1 dollar for each 100 max id 15.99 up to 2900

Enzyte Bob wrote:

Further update on TransferWise.

On Monday Jan 4, I transferred $500 with TransferWise, they said it will arrive Friday Jan 8.

I checked my Citibank account in the states and the money was debited on Jan 5.

They also debited $300 which I did not authorize on Jan 5. Checking on TransferWise website, it shows no transaction for the $300. They do not answer my email inquiry about the  debiting  of $300.

I disputed this charge with Citibank, they said they will have an answer in 90 days.

Since this thread is revisited, I'm posting an update

When posting this I had not received an email reply from TransferWise, but shortly afterwards did receive an answer.

They had claimed they sent the money before they received it from CitiBank and sometime days later they debited the $300 from my account. Which I find highly unusual and maybe a flaw in their system at the time, it's more than unusual it's stupid.

I went through all my past records correlating TransferWise and CitiBank. One problem I had is that I  consistently sent $300 adding to the confusion. At the end they were correct and I notified CitiBank and told the the problem was resolved.

Now what I am doing and you might consider doing is never repeat sending the same amount. Each time send a different amount, for example instead of repeating $300 send $299, next time $301, never repeat the same amount. It will be easier to justify your book keeping.

My suspicious mind is working again, a post by Blisspointers got my antenna twitching again. I'm always suspicious when somebody joins Philippine Expat and in the same day has an external link in their first post, which was caught by Cheryl.

Now I have not seen this link, but TransferWise now called Wise has a referral program that
pays cash. Was the post a "link" out of the goodness of his heart or maybe for his wallet?

Hello Enzyte Bob.
I too transfer different amounts,  but these are A$5,000,  A$10,000 and A$12,000 about every 6 months so it is easier to track. I only get charged A$10 per transaction no matter the amount.
regards Bruce

GoDees wrote:

Hello Enzyte Bob.
I too transfer different amounts,  but these are A$5,000,  A$10,000 and A$12,000 about every 6 months so it is easier to track. I only get charged A$10 per transaction no matter the amount.
regards Bruce

Hi Bruce. . . .You're a little braver than me. I prefer to keep my money in the states and transfer money just in time as needed.

I use Wise now, in the past I had used Xoom. About a year or so ago someone told me about Transferwise, now Wise, and upon comparing them it was almost a no brainer to go through Wise. I was saving on average $20 to $30 USD on each transaction.

Wise does at times take a few days to go through. I think there is an algorithm they use that screws it up, but on average the money is in our bank, BDO, within an hour or two.If I know money is needed there immediately, such as when my wife's  father was sick and had to go to the hospital, I sent it via Xoom. Xoom is always fast, anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour and it is in BDO.

The biggest thing that slows down Wise is ensuring you have the money in the bank at the time you send it. My wife sends money every paycheck to her family and there has been once or twice the money was still caught in the direct deposit cycle-it showed in the bank but not yet been fully processed- and it kicked it to an automatic 4 day wait. I assume this is to ensure the banks have sufficient time to process everything but who knows. Don't try to cancel this and submit another, it will only lengthen the time from 4 days to 6 days. Once it goes through, it will return to the normal couple hours for a transfer. I have experienced this a couple times and understand why, I just wish they would fix their algorithm to what I think would be a more reasonable time frame. But then again not all banking systems are set up like the US, so maybe it is needed for other countries systems.

Overall, I have found Wise to be trustworthy, reliable, and the cheapest option by far out there. When you have a household in one country to maintain, try to save for retirement, while helping the family back in the Philippines, every dollar saved is very helpful.

dadof3at1ce wrote:

I use Wise now, in the past I had used Xoom.

Overall, I have found Wise to be trustworthy, reliable, and the cheapest option by far out there. When you have a household in one country to maintain, try to save for retirement, while helping the family back in the Philippines, every dollar saved is very helpful.

Yes my Wise transfer was really fast, they received the money in less than 10 minutes and said it will be sent in 8 minutes.

Many years ago in the states decided to use Xoom in the place of Western Union. The next day Xoom called me and asked if I authorized a $3,000 transfer to Europe, which I did not. That was the first and last time I used Xoom.

Check out OrbitRemit, when this thread began I checked out Transferwise against OrbitRemit because I'm always looking to save money if possible. I found that both the Transferwise Peso exchange rate was lower and the transfer fee was higher than OrbitRemit.

+1 for Wise. It's well known not some new startup so you can be assured it knows how to deal with the banks here. They have good conversion rates and are timely. It took a while for me to get verified. Should have been simpler, or I need to buy a better phone to take photos. Their diligence gave me confidence they were legit.

Great input and a learning curve for all, difficult to navigate at times and one has to find their comfort zone with transferring funds to another country obviously achieving the best rate and fees.

At 09:20 I checked the live market rate AU to PHP and was 37.56
Wise or ex transfer wise live rate was   AU to PHP   "        "   37.30
My bank (Westpac in Oz)   "      "      "     AU to PHP    "       "   37.45

Wise fee appears to be AU $7.08 and Westpac is AU 5.00.
Westpac to our BDO account here is next day and worst was 2 days over the last 8 or 9 years.

There is some bias on the Wise site giving numbers against other institutions, example: they offer up that the Westpac (Oz) exchange rate is 35.634 and a fee of 10 bucks. Their offered and I can only call it proper gander is like 1.8 peso to my dollar lower than the facts, get you in? A 10 dollar fee instead of the actual 5 dollar fee.

Buying a house and car here I negotiated with many brokers for the best rate and fees and yes they could beat my bank after the haggle game. Research for the best deal.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

It is always good to do your own research. So far out of world remit, Xoom, Transferwise, and Western Union, along with my own US Bank, Transferwise saves me the most money. I guess I should look at USAA too. I am glad you  found something even cheaper in Australia.

It seem I got only 0.045 percent less than the marketvalue If https://fxtop.com/  is saying what the market value is  (The end value yesterday, paid today.)
Perhaps the bank was extra kind     by I have needed to wait so long time because of what USA have forced banks and nations to follow 
but actualy it was LUCK it became a delay by the currency value improved for me during the waiting time so I got over 2 percent extra. But now I have send pesos , so now it's good if tthe value of pesos turn up 

TransferWise/Wise got me thinking.

Not that long ago two teenage kids sat in a garage maybe playing Super Mario or Pac Man and they became Micro Soft. In our lifetime we seen many computer related ideas by young people become billion dollar enterprises.

Suppose two teenage kids sitting in a garage developed their own software to be the go between accounts for the transfer of funds. No brick & mortar building or address, no assets or employees, just a software program.

It grows where it has millions of customers (like Paypal did) and sells out for billions of dollars maybe to a major bank that uses this platform as a clearing house for all financial institutions.

Now comes along a mighty Hedge Fund Company who can execute transactions in 15 milliseconds and can arbitrage in a fraction of a cent. Plus they can charge one cent per transaction from their customers, with millions and millions of daily transactions.

It's called cryptocurrency, but in its current form (Bitcoin), has become too expensive for micro transactions. This is why so many are investing in alt coins that promise to do instantaneous/borderless transactions.

marioph wrote:

It's called cryptocurrency, but in its current form (Bitcoin), has become too expensive for micro transactions. This is why so many are investing in alt coins that promise to do instantaneous/borderless transactions.

Marioph. . . . I need some education about cryptocurrency. . . .So I take dollars from my bank account in the states and buy cryptocurrency then deposit this crytocurrency in my peso account in PH?

Now with crytocurrency I can understand you can keep your finances from prying eyes moving your money around for many reasons so that you won't leave a trail. (So that old phrase "Follow The Money" will lead to a dead end.)

Since I've had nothing to hide, what will crytocurrency do for a little guy like me?

Recently I read where a deceased Bitcoin hoarder leaving no instructions (password) to his Bitcoin account, so his heirs lost out.

I have told long time in financial forums too, Bitcoin is a big BUBBLE, whuch will burst when enough Bitcoin investors start understanding ONE Bitcoin realisticlly is worth only 2-3 US dollas, not the CRAZY 50 000 usd. But  it has droped from 63 000 usd so perhaps they have started understanding now...   

Do you need to be verified with Transferwise ( Wise) to send money overseas to a friends account bank to bank? I registered last night, gave all her details in Vietnam, gave my card details including CVV which I was nervous as the URL didn’t look secure and it’s stuck in limbo at the point - ‘we are waiting for your money’. Now I can’t even log in due to unexpected error 200.

azzopardi88 wrote:

Do you need to be verified with Transferwise ( Wise) to send money overseas to a friends account bank to bank? I registered last night, gave all her details in Vietnam, gave my card details including CVV which I was nervous as the URL didn’t look secure and it’s stuck in limbo at the point - ‘we are waiting for your money’. Now I can’t even log in due to unexpected error 200.

I would have stopped at that point because you may have been re-directed to a spoof website, maybe you should contact your bank or credit card company to see if any money has been debited.

FindlayMacD wrote:

azzopardi88 wrote:

Do you need to be verified with Transferwise ( Wise) to send money overseas to a friends account bank to bank? I registered last night, gave all her details in Vietnam, gave my card details including CVV which I was nervous as the URL didn’t look secure and it’s stuck in limbo at the point - ‘we are waiting for your money’. Now I can’t even log in due to unexpected error 200.

I would have stopped at that point because you may have been re-directed to a spoof website, maybe you should contact your bank or credit card company to see if any money has been debited.

Maybe azzopardi88 should take your advice because he mentions his card detail and CVV number (debit or credit, he didn't say). If he is sending a transfer bank to bank, they would require a swift code or routing number. I don't know why they would need any info on his card.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

FindlayMacD wrote:

azzopardi88 wrote:

Do you need to be verified with Transferwise ( Wise) to send money overseas to a friends account bank to bank? I registered last night, gave all her details in Vietnam, gave my card details including CVV which I was nervous as the URL didn’t look secure and it’s stuck in limbo at the point - ‘we are waiting for your money’. Now I can’t even log in due to unexpected error 200.

I would have stopped at that point because you may have been re-directed to a spoof website, maybe you should contact your bank or credit card company to see if any money has been debited.

Maybe azzopardi88 should take your advice because he mentions his card detail and CVV number (debit or credit, he didn't say). If he is sending a transfer bank to bank, they would require a swift code or routing number. I don't know why they would need any info on his card.

That's why I prefer OrbitRemit. I thought it was a bit of a nuisance with them at first that I couldn't use my debit card and had to log onto my online banking and transfer the money to their bank account using my reference number after I had entered the transfer details on their website, but it definitely is more secure. The only downside seems to be if you are American because they only offer to transfer UK Pounds, Australian dollars and New Zealand dollars.

FindlayMacD wrote:

Enzyte Bob wrote:

FindlayMacD wrote:

I would have stopped at that point because you may have been re-directed to a spoof website, maybe you should contact your bank or credit card company to see if any money has been debited.

Maybe azzopardi88 should take your advice because he mentions his card detail and CVV number (debit or credit, he didn't say). If he is sending a transfer bank to bank, they would require a swift code or routing number. I don't know why they would need any info on his card.

That's why I prefer OrbitRemit. I thought it was a bit of a nuisance with them at first that I couldn't use my debit card and had to log onto my online banking and transfer the money to their bank account using my reference number after I had entered the transfer details on their website, but it definitely is more secure. The only downside seems to be if you are American because they only offer to transfer UK Pounds, Australian dollars and New Zealand dollars.

I'm using TransferWise (Wise) with CitiBank in the states. It was easy for me to set it up, the routing number and account number was printed on my checks. I initially transferred $5 to see if everything was working.

Once I set up the account with routing & account numbers I was all set, with no need to repeat the process.

An interesting read about Wise can be found on Wikipedia. In May 2017 Wise was transferring  over one billion pounds per month. On July 7, 2021 Wise went public and the stock is valued at $11 Billion dollars.

One of the founders was Skype's first employee.

azzopardi88 wrote:

Do you need to be verified with Transferwise ( Wise) to send money overseas to a friends account bank to bank? I registered last night, gave all her details in Vietnam, gave my card details including CVV which I was nervous as the URL didn’t look secure and it’s stuck in limbo at the point - ‘we are waiting for your money’. Now I can’t even log in due to unexpected error 200.

Sounds a bit dodgy to me. If you are still unable to log in to wise to verify the payment. Perhaps you ought to think about cancelling the card.

It might be OK though. My bank in HK will not allow direct payments to Wise. I am able to pay Wise via debit card, which had a small additional charge. This is still  cheaper than direct bank to bank.

Thanks for all of your responses 🙏

I removed available funds from that account and cancelled the transaction. Sticking with Western Union now which was almost instantaneous albeit a lower rate. I only tried the Transferwise as Western Union showed as being closed permanently in Nha Trang. Our friends didn’t tell us they have WU inside the banks as well. They have the money now so problem solved 🙏