Currency Exchange - "Wise" Web-based Transferring Experience?

[pc95]

Hello, has anyone used or have been using "Wise" online currency exchange business (link follows)?

https://wise.com/us/

IF so how did it work for you? What were your impressions of the transaction/business? Any problems?

We're looking at better/cheaper/efficient ways of currency exchange - USD to JPY and vice versa.

Thanks for Replies.

 

[OldShooter]

More info please. Magnitude of money? frequency?

Where we have (rarely) needed to transfer money overseas we just have our bank wire it in dollars and leave it to the recipient's bank to make any conversions necessary. Wires are usually free to us.

Where we need money to spend overseas we use cash from ATMs and we charge credit cards in the local currency, with no FTF fees, counting on the card company to do the conversions

A quick look at the Wise financials is not hugely alarming, although there is the popular "Adjusted EBITDA" fiddle used to make the numbers look better. Hard to tell without a bunch of work whether this is something to worry about when doing transfers. Regardless, I would not leave money on deposit with them.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, a number of us use Wise with excellent results.
Personally, I've used it for about five years, since it was called TransferWise, and I've always been very happy with their service and exchange rates.
I know others here have had similar experience, and I've actually never heard a complaint about them.

 

[pc95]

Yes, a number of us use Wise with excellent results.
Personally, I've used it for about five years, since it was called TransferWise, and I've always been very happy with their service and exchange rates.
I know others here have had similar experience, and I've actually never heard a complaint about them.

Thanks for the vote of confidence braumeister, I noticed Wise charges a bank ACH transfer fee.....does the back-end (rcv) bank (ours is UFJ) levy a receive charge as well? Or does that vary from bank to bank?

 

[captain3d]

Yes I also like wise for the once or twice a year transfer that I do.

I would also consider digital currency options if both ends were up to speed as it is cheaper faster but only if accounts are already set up

 

[Alan]

Thanks for the vote of confidence braumeister, I noticed Wise charges a bank ACH transfer fee.....does the back-end (rcv) bank (ours is UFJ) levy a receive charge as well? Or does that vary from bank to bank?

I have also used Wise for a number of years from sums varying from $1k to $100k with no problems. Since my US bank has free wires then that is how I normally send money to Wise. My receiving bank in the UK does not charge for incoming transfers but you will have to check your receiving bank for charges.

The way I use it is to start a transfer through Wise on line and tell them I will wire the money rather than ACH and then wire them the money. If I do this in the morning then it will be in my UK bank within hours. (Once it hits the Wise US Wells Fargo bank account it takes seconds to move into my UK account so I am purely limited on the time it takes to complete a US to US wire)

I have my Wise USD account linked to my Vanguard account so when I transfer money out of Vanguard it appears in my Wise USD account then when I initiate the transfer to my UK account it takes seconds.

 

[braumeister]

Thanks for the vote of confidence braumeister, I noticed Wise charges a bank ACH transfer fee.....does the back-end (rcv) bank (ours is UFJ) levy a receive charge as well? Or does that vary from bank to bank?

I don't think so, but can't say for sure since I've only used it for outgoing transfers.

 

[pc95]

More info please. Magnitude of money? frequency?

Where we have (rarely) needed to transfer money overseas we just have our bank wire it in dollars and leave it to the recipient's bank to make any conversions necessary. Wires are usually free to us.

Where we need money to spend overseas we use cash from ATMs and we charge credit cards in the local currency, with no FTF fees, counting on the card company to do the conversions

A quick look at the Wise financials is not hugely alarming, although there is the popular "Adjusted EBITDA" fiddle used to make the numbers look better. Hard to tell without a bunch of work whether this is something to worry about when doing transfers. Regardless, I would not leave money on deposit with them.

Right now its sporadic, but we're planning to live in Japan in the medium term future. At some point we probably will need more regular transfers. We've been doing $1000's of dollar exchange recently on work.

How are your foreign wire transfers free - is that due to your type of bank account? -- paid for by your bank I assume. Similarly wonder if the receiver bank charges.

 

[pc95]

I have also used Wise for a number of years from sums varying from $1k to $100k with no problems. Since my US bank has free wires then that is how I normally send money to Wise. My receiving bank in the UK does not charge for incoming transfers but you will have to check your receiving bank for charges.

The way I use it is to start a transfer through Wise on line and tell them I will wire the money rather than ACH and then wire them the money. If I do this in the morning then it will be in my UK bank within hours. (Once it hits the Wise US Wells Fargo bank account it takes seconds to move into my UK account so I am purely limited on the time it takes to complete a US to US wire)

I have my Wise USD account linked to my Vanguard account so when I transfer money out of Vanguard it appears in my Wise USD account then when I initiate the transfer to my UK account it takes seconds.

Thanks for this, so you transfer:
1. US bank/Brokerage -> Wise (ACH/Wire) Wells Fargo
2. Wise (ACH/Wire) Wells Fargo -> Foreign Bank/Brokerage.

A little confused, you have 2 different account fund sources (1 Vanguard, and 1 Wells Fargo), or is the Wells Fargo just the wire pass through? Or you can use either Vanguard or WFC?

 

[Alan]

Thanks for this, so you transfer:
1. US bank/Brokerage -> Wise (ACH/Wire) Wells Fargo
2. Wise (ACH/Wire) Wells Fargo -> Foreign Bank/Brokerage.

A little confused, you have 2 different account fund sources (1 Vanguard, and 1 Wells Fargo), or is the Wells Fargo just the wire pass through? Or you can use either Vanguard or WFC?

Wise uses Wells Fargo to receive the US funds, so when I wire money for the transfer to Wise the bank details they provide (account and routing number) is a Wells Fargo bank used by Wise. I don’t believe Wise actually sends the money to the UK as they have their own bank there with a London address etc so just do a UK to UK bank transfer. There are lots of folks sending money from the UK to the USA and vice versa so I think they keep their costs so low by not having to actually do too many international movements of currency. (They have banks in all the countries they operate in I believe). The Wise US account (Wells Fargo) is always the same so I have it saved in my US account as a payee so it is very easy to send a new Wire to them, using my Wise account number in the reference field.