Wise (formerly TransferWise)

Wise

 3.6/5 (722 reviews)

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Overall Rating3.6 out of 5
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About Wise

Wise, formerly TransferWise, is disrupting the way the world transfers money. Move your money with no hidden charges and for up to eight times less than traditional banks. Our method is easy and fast without sacrificing security and has been trusted by over one million customers across the world.

Wise (formerly TransferWise) Reviews

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Page 1 Reviews 0 - 10
Verified Reviewer
Original review: May 22, 2023

Previously used Wise monthly. Sent several hundred thousand dollars in family support over many years. Transfers would take 2-3 business days at most and 4-6 hours, normally. My last 3 transfers totaling over $2,500 usd have not gone through after a week and a half. No solid reply from inquiries; only seemingly automated boilerplate. I fear my money is being held to let them collect interest. I would almost guarantee it. I expect once they've had it for an interest cycle, it will transfer. AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE.

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Verified Reviewer
Original review: May 19, 2023

Wise repeatedly suspended incoming transfers from my main clients in Germany for no reason. The apologetic customer service never answered my questions. For the past five days, I've been attempting to resolve this issue by contacting customer service multiple times. However, like most customer service representatives, they only offer sympathetic phrases such as "I understand your frustration." The information I received from Wise is quite alarming. It appears that Wise utilizes artificial intelligence to identify suspicious or fraudulent transactions. Strangely enough, after five years of recurring transfers from my German client to my company in California, the system suddenly flagged something as suspicious. This is perplexing, as the transfers have always included a sequence of letters and numbers that serve as my client's accounting references.

Despite my client's explanation of these references, the transfer and the associated funds vanished without a trace. When I inquired about the whereabouts of the money, the staff at Wise were unable to provide any answers. Subsequently, some technical individuals claiming to represent Wise contacted me, and we spent numerous hours attempting to rectify the issues with my account. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. At this point, it remains unclear whether the money is being returned to my client, returned to my account, or stuck in limbo. The staff at this supposedly remarkable bank have been unable to provide me with any information, and after five days, my money has yet to be returned, as is the case with my client.

I have been calling Wise twice daily, explaining the situation to their customer service, but for five days, no one has been able to resolve my problem. When entrusting my finances to a financial institution, I expect a significantly higher level of service. This unprofessionalism raises serious concerns about the security and safety of my funds. Undoubtedly, this has been the most dreadful banking experience of my life, and I strongly caution others against using Wise. Considering the harm caused to my company and the strain on my relationship with my client, I am now pursuing legal action against Wise.

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    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: May 16, 2023

    I've been using Transferwise for 3-4 years now and it was a really great app. Fast, streamlined, uncomplicated, and had good rates. Since they changed to wise, the app is very slow, UI is convoluted. Accounts I had set up already and still are in there now need to be paired with other services I need to sign up with, the whole experience is terrible. Also the color and branding is terrible. Transferwise was much better.

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    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: May 15, 2023

    A WORD TO THE WISE: DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY. I sent them $30. to initiate opening an account and for some unknown reason was turned down. My credit score is 858 with Equifax and I don’t have a criminal record, not even any parking tickets. They have an appeal process, which is a joke. I was turned down ½ second after I pressed enter. After 5 months of back and forth useless emails with their “support staff” who, by the way, have no authority to do anything, I’m still waiting for my $30. deposit back. Go figure, they turn me down and I have to fight for my deposit back. I got approved for a similar product (CIBC-Air Canada Conversion Prepaid card) the same day I requested. Save yourself a lot of grief and look elsewhere.

    2 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: April 26, 2023

    I was trying to send from INR to EUR. A lot of documents were asked and were shared with them but they were asked again after I had received confirmation from them regarding the same documents. Very poor transparency after all the documents were shared. They mentioned they were still checking the documents. After waiting for a couple of days, they wanted more documents to be shared regarding source of funds which was salary. If bank statements showing salary credit is not considered salary proof, then only they would know, what is! Horrible experience and all that came out after the whole exercise of document sharing was a 0.

    7 people found this review helpful
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    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: April 14, 2023

    My nightmare started on April 11. SCAMMERS ALERT. My nightmare started on April 11, 2023. After doing an extensive research into reviews from different Currency Converting Companies and chatting with people who have already done the currency conversion while living overseas, I decided that WISE was the company I was going to use. I set up my WISE account and linked it to my bank account. While on the WISE account since it was connected to my Bank, I decided to do the etransfer from my account to WISE.

    WISE sent me an email stating that everything was ready for the transaction. I clicked on the link and the link sent me to my Bank Website with my personal Bank Window. I proceeded to do the etransfer for 10000 Canadian Dollars to the email etransfer provided for me by WISE. (Inserted is their email.) This is the email that they use for the etransfers. After I did that, I went and check my email and to my surprise, I received a notification from Interac saying this. (Hi Ricardo, The $10,000.00 (CAD) you sent to ** PARI (PARI **) has been successfully deposited.)

    Right away red flags popped up! I sent WISE an email because ( there is no other way of contacting them in their website) asking them if this notification is them. Sometimes representatives of a Company use different names. I got a reply saying this: "Good Morning Ricardo, If your Interac transfer wasn't confirmed through the link provided, we will most likely not get the payment. Approval requests created manually by inputting our email will not be received and is rejected back to sender. This doesn't appear like the our account as the approval request would come from Wise Payments Ltd. I would suggest reaching out to your bank and attempting a recall. I am here to help. Let us know if you have any other problems, don't hesitate to reach back out to us here at Wise."

    How can a company who deals with people's money do not have proper security measures, to prevent hackers from accessing their etransfer account. I have done hundreds of etranfer transactions, credit card payments, Paypal payments, Western Union payments, etc. etc. and have never had a problem transferring money, or paying or people hacking my accounts. The moment I use WISE then I run into trouble?? I am not a novice in these matters and know how to proceed in cases like this.

    After I received this email from WISE I contacted my Bank and after spending close to 3 hours in the phone talking to different levels of Customer Services and finally explaining the situation to the FRAUD Department in my Bank, they told me it will take them 7 to 10 days to find out what happened because they have to investigate. While I talked to the Customer Services Representatives from my Bank they reassured me that I did sent my etransfer to (inserted is their email address wise.com) because they could see it and I could see it in my Bank website window for etranfers history, and that they knew that I follow the proper guidelines.

    My Bank cancelled my Card and I had to go to my Bank Branch to get a new Card. The Cashier at my Bank reassured me that the FRAUD Department in my Bank are very good and they will get to the bottom of this. They also instructed me to talk to INTERAC which I did, and they also reassured me that My Bank is very good at investigating fraud and they are just the middle man in the transactions. I contacted WISE numerous times and all they said was to contact the local authorities because they could do very little. Everyone that I talked to and I have proof of this, including the police in my City think that WISE is responsible and all WISE does is clean their hands with emails and in the phone calls all they say is we will send this information to the proper department.

    10000 dollars is a lot of money for me. I have worked very hard my whole life to get those 10000 dollars. I am a tradesman and I have sweat and work countless hours to get this money. I am not sitting in an office, collecting my check and having coffee every hour. I do not play with people's money and I strongly believe in KARMA. Whoever did this will have their payback. But in the meantime I strongly advise anyone to stay away of this Company since they do not protect their website from hackers and when something goes wrong the Customer(you) are the ones paying the price.

    I know that they make tons of money, and that the founders of this Company are Millionaires right now. I hope that this is clean money and not money that has come from stolen money from people like me. The last time I talked to WISE I told them that most likely the person who took my money is connected to their organization. I also told them that I will do Google Reviews, Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube, etc. etc. I am not defaming or slandering anyone, because I told the police department in my city that I will do this, based on my experience with WISE. Date of experience: April 10, 2023.

    13 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
    Original review: April 12, 2023

    I have transferred a large amount of money to a Georgian bank named TBC and they managed to use the wrong intermediary bank which was recently changed. So now they expect me to wait for up to several weeks, for their own mistake, to trace back the wrong transfer and refund or transfer through the proper intermediary bank. Disappointing to say the least ....and a warning for other potential customers.

    7 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: April 7, 2023

    We have a accounts opened for our company and during last 3 weeks something terrible begun. All our commercial transfers to our vendors and suppliers are hold for compliance review. 3 first transfers have been made 12 days ago and they are still "on review". No clear answers, just standard mails sending every day with the same text. message says that I do not have to worry. It may take 1-3 days...but it last already 12 days and still unclear what was the exact compliance concern bank has about the transfers. We work with the same type of bank in Singapore and we never had such issue before, all compliance questions resolved within a few days. I was trying to ask the bank if they have any questions? They do not, but still not process the transfers. This is very disappointed and degrades our company's trust with our partners. I am still do not understand why it happens and no answers from the bank.

    6 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: April 3, 2023

    I have been a loyal customer of Wise for many years, but I am compelled to share my recent experience with their disappointing and inadequate customer service. I am currently dealing with a €25,700 refund that has been pending since the 16th of March, almost a month ago, and Wise's handling of the situation has left me feeling desperate and frustrated. The issue began when a transfer of €25,700 was made from my account to my supplier's account. The recipient bank rejected the transfer, and I have been waiting for the refund ever since. I understand that issues may occasionally arise with transactions, but the lack of communication and assistance from Wise during this time has been absolutely unacceptable.

    I have reached out to Wise through numerous phone calls and emails, seeking information and assistance on this matter. However, my attempts have been met with vague responses or no response at all. As a valued customer, I expected a much higher level of service and communication from a financial institution that I have entrusted with my hard-earned money. Despite the urgency of the situation and the significant amount involved, Wise has failed to:

    1) Conduct a thorough investigation into the current status of my refund.
    2) Provide clear and concise communication regarding the results of the investigation and the steps being taken to resolve the issue.

    3) Return my €25,700 promptly without further delays or complications.

    In light of these circumstances, I am now considering filing a formal complaint with the UK Bank Ombudsman and am currently seeking legal advice. Additionally, I have shared my experience on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to raise awareness of Wise's unprofessional and inadequate service. It is disheartening to see the level of service deteriorate to such an extent, and I would like to warn others who may be considering using Wise for their financial needs. I sincerely hope that Wise takes note of my experience and makes the necessary improvements to prevent others from encountering similar distress and frustration. I will update this review if and when the issue is resolved. Until then, I urge potential customers to proceed with caution when dealing with Wise.

    10 people found this review helpful
    Verified Reviewer
    Original review: March 31, 2023

    On my first transaction abroad my account froze, with no explanation, I contact the customer service that told me to contact appeals@wise.com and they will solve my problem in 5-20 days. 27 has passed and nothing, no communication, no new password to restart the account. NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING! This is when people want to open a bank in a cheap way...if something happen...you just die with your problems! AWFUL!

    9 people found this review helpful
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    Wise author review by ConsumerAffairs Research Team

    TransferWise is a web-based money transferring company founded out of frustration due to the lack of a global currency. With a TransferWise personal or business account, you can send money around the world, paying real exchange rates and small fees.

    • Personal accounts: Transferring money with a bank costs more because banks set their own exchange rates so they can make money. TransferWise uses real exchange rates, known as mid-market rates. You can see real-time exchange rates on their website, as well as charts of exchange rates over the past 30 days. TransferWise boasts a savings of as much as 8 times more than when using a bank.

    • Multi-currency account: TransferWise has a new account called a multi-currency account. This account lets you send, spend and receive money in over 25 currencies. Also called a borderless account, these are great for businesses with employees around the world. You can easily switch between currencies and avoid high exchange rates.

    • Pricing: TransferWise does not charge monthly or receiving fees. They charge small converting fees when you convert across currencies, a small fixed fee when you send money to a bank account in the same currency and the normal conversion fee plus a small fixed fee when you send money to a bank account of a different currency. The normal conversion fee is $1.30.

    • Global impact: TransferWise is used in 59 countries covering 504 currency routes. It moves over 600 million dollars every month and saves people around 287 million dollars in hidden charges.

    • Mobile app: TransferWise has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices so you can track and transfer money on the go.

    The ConsumerAffairs Research Team believes everyone deserves to make smart decisions. We aim to provide readers with the most up-to-date information available about today's consumer products and services.

    Wise (formerly TransferWise) Company Information

    Company Name:
    Wise
    Year Founded:
    2011
    Website:
    wise.com