Alternative to Wise?
Dear readers,
Have been using Wise for years to full satisfaction, good price, not too high costs and fast processing. So no reason to change or is it…? Yesterday I received an email with the following info:
Wise
Some of our fees are increasing on 26-Apr-2022 when you'll:
- Send money from EUR, GBP, and CHF to any currency
- Send money to RON, PLN, and CZK from any currency
Thresholds and fees to hold EUR are changing on 26-Apr-2022:
- It's free for personal customers to hold up to: 3,000 EUR
- It's free for businesses to hold up to: 30,000 EUR
- Fee on anything above threshold: 0.90% per annum
Why have our costs increased?
- Recently we've implemented additional verification checks to keep your money protected.
- Markets have been more volatile, which makes it more expensive for us to buy and sell currencies.
- The negative interest rates in the Eurozone mean it costs us more money to hold larger amounts of
EUR for our customers.
We know that this isn't great news, and we're sorry. We'll bring fees back down for you as soon as we can. Read more about when price changes could apply to you.
—–
Since I transfer money monthly, new rules mean more costs, namely 0.9% on amount above Euro 3.000 exemption. I also have a built-in distrust of percentages. After all, if the principle is accepted, who determines which level is used? Turning the knobs (higher but probably never lower) is very easy, but also unclear why this happens.
Have already found some alternatives like: CurrenyFair, Revolut, XE, Panda, WorldRemit, KeyCurrency, MoneyGram, TorFx, MoneyTransfer, OFX. For example, I tried to register with Panda, but I need a Dutch address for a possible check. Let me not have that address after more than 15 years of living in Thailand!
Hence my question whether other users of Wise have already found an alternative or whether other readers of Thailand blog have a good suggestion?
Very curious about the right alternative.
Regards,
Robert
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As I read it, that 0,9% is only if you have more than $3000 in an account with Wise, plus they say it will go down again as soon as the costs they incur drop again.
Of course you can doubt that.
If you just transfer your state pension and pension every month, like I do, the fee will go up slightly, but it will remain much cheaper and faster than the bank.
I wouldn't worry too much in advance, I find them very reliable, although that remains a matter of feeling.
Most do not use a Wise account but transfer well from a Dutch bank to a Thai bank. You can also open a euro account with bank card at Wise. I think that's what the 0.9% is about. Not about sending money
In my opinion, the 0.9% is not about costs for sending euros to Thai baht, but about costs for keeping Euros (hold) on a Wise account.
WorldRemit uses a fixed fee I think, don't know if it increases as the amount to be transferred is higher. But the principle applies to everything that you have to pay for: not you, but the provider usually determines the price. And whether that is reasonable, that is indeed up to you and you decide on the basis of this whether you want to purchase that service or product or not. Remember, 'quality comes at a price' and 'free' is a fiction.
Worldremit is expensive compared to wise. For example, to send 1000 euros you get more than 900 baht less at worldremit than at Wise.
AZIMO ? I have had problems with WISE after I once sent a larger amount (25k+ EUR) to my own bank account in Thailand. Been a customer for about 5 years before that without any problems. No notification, it didn't arrive. I thought the handling was scandalous and I could not access the other funds. Called at least 10 times and I was treated like a criminal. Provide documents, refer, that department would contact you, etc. Nothing. Finally, after 1 month, I started posting and reposting on FB 5 times every day how badly I was treated. The money was in the account within 3 days. So much stress and canceled account. Things are going well until they don't go well and you are shocked by how many negative reviews there are on FB.
Dear P. Kelijer, can you please give me the phone number and email address of Wise you used? My thanks are great!
Ruud
People sooner or later find out that Bitcoin is the solution to all these woes. One is faster than the other.
THE solution is a world without money…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-monetary_economy
Bitcoin the solution???
Firstly, you pay more costs when purchasing and secondly, the price fluctuates like a rowboat in a hurricane. (I charge a little).
Bitcoin is good at best, at least for people with a pension and state pension, if you accidentally get an inheritance or something, say 5000 euros that you used about five years ago to buy bitcoin or one of those other coins. Then the value per Btc was: € 1167 and now € 37400.
To spend your state pension on it is throwing money away unless you can afford to wait for the price to skyrocket and hope it doesn't happen while you're asleep.
No, I completely agree with Chris' suggestion… a world without money.
one is more easily deceived than the other. Don't fall for these kinds of recommendations.
in the past, both the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) warned about the risks of Bitcoin. According to the financial regulators, these are vulnerable to deception, fraud and manipulation. The AFM even advises consumers against investing in new crypto currencies that are not subject to its supervision.
Pieter Hasekamp, director of the Central Planning Bureau, goes one step further. In an article in Het Financieele Dagblad (June 11, 2021), Hasekamp argued that the Netherlands should ban bitcoin as soon as possible.
Bitcoin is therefore not the solution to the misery.
Of course they think so. Bitcoin is a threat to their financial scam. The ECB is printing money en masse, causing hyperinflation. Meanwhile, they blame Putin. When it was just Christine Lagarde. And the US sanctions against Russia are also driving up inflation. So not Putin, but the US caused this.
You can use Bitcoin to send it from A to B. Once it arrives at B, you can still convert it to Thai Baht if you so desire. It's about moving money quickly, without permission and cheaply. And that at any time of the day or week. You don't have to wait for the bank to open on Monday at 9am.
It takes 1000 hours to understand how Bitcoin works. Try to make that effort and save yourself. Check back in a year to see if you or I were right.
Well, be careful what you write. I have been using Bitcoin since 2016 and there was also a time when transaction fees were low. I even transferred money through a wallet for a while. But unfortunately, Bitcoin is not really suitable for normal daily or even monthly transactions.
BTC is too volatile for that. Bitcoin is certainly not wrong in the long term, but not for transferring your pension.
I have also been a customer of Wise for years and have not received this E-mail!
I always use Wise, Azimo and worldremit.
Open all 3 at the same time and then compare which is the cheapest.
We got that email too.
Transferred 1350 Euro yesterday due to the maximum amount with a transfer to our TH bank.
The strange thing was that this email arrived a minute after the transaction.
Actually nothing to worry about, I think there will be many more emails like this.
First they show you a cheap sausage, and then when they have built up a large customer base, they slowly increase the price.
Then a listed company comes to buy up the trade and the business gets a new name, now you pay the main price.
Then it's time to find a cheaper way and cancel the account.
Regards,
jos k.
Dear Eli and Willem,
thanks for your response. Given the comment about having to park money and negative interest that must be paid for it, I think you are indeed right. I didn't find info from Wise complete hence my question. Because I am otherwise satisfied with Wise, I can continue to use this method.
I got that email too.
If you click on “See the new fees” in the email and enter an amount, you will see the old and new fees.
For 2500 Euro it is about an additional cost of 1,43 Euro.
Never had any problems with Wise and it was always handled correctly. Even when I once made a mistake by accidentally using the wrong account. Within a few days the money was back in my account.
Yes and on FB, the complaining corner par excellence, you also only see the negative reviews.
You usually don't hear those who are satisfied responding,... actually the same as on TB 😉
You know, dear Ronny, what this means: 1.43Eu…. that is a delicious full meal...... You can already look for an alternative for that.
After years of using wise, I suddenly had to show where my income came from. That was AOW and pension. But demonstrating that is not easy, Wise cannot read it, contact with Wise is difficult or even impossible. It took months before I could use Wise again.
But now there is another obstacle, ING. I bought a new phone and wanted to install the ING_App. Everything went well until the SMS code had to be entered. I received no code, after days of trying, in many places, nothing. So I just filled in 2 times. Yes Dom! When I requested the SMS code again, I suddenly received a code in my phone. I filled it in and sent it back to ING. WRONG code. The app has been closed, a letter with a reopening code is on its way. That has been going on for 5 weeks now. I live in the Philippines. The mail can be here for up to 3 months. There is no point in contacting ING, I have to wait. My daughter in the Netherlands did not get a foothold either, privacy was the response for her. For now it's ATM and credit card, costs more than wise and the local bank.
Good reading, translating and understanding Robert.
This concerns him about ACCOUNT HOLDERS who have more than 3000Eu on the account with Wise. This is not about transferring money from…. Unpleasant….
I also received this message, but it does not apply to me at all because I do not have an account with Wise, only transfer money a few times a year, for years now.
Dear Lung Addie,
I found the story unclear and I don't need to translate it. My English vocabulary is more than sufficient after working internationally for 41 years. You're acting a bit rude to me. I simply asked a question, but also to bring this to the attention of others if higher costs were introduced. Always learned that there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. You transfer a few times a year, I every month and if I had to pay that 0,90% extra it would cost me several hundred Euros. Hence this topic, nothing more and nothing less.
Apparently there are people who feel stepped on their toes very quickly, especially if they are pointed out a mistake. Despite the fact that you have worked internationally for 41 years and your English vocabulary is more than sufficient, you had not understood those few sentences, which were very clear to me. And yes, you brought something to the attention of the other TB users, but it was wrong as it wasn't about wire transfers.
I didn't write anywhere that you asked a 'stupid question'. And by the way, there are no stupid questions. The addition to this is not: there are only 'stupid answers', but 'there are only stupid questioners'.
Dear Lung Addie,
Have you ever been a schoolmaster? So you think I'm a stupid questioner, typical Dutch reaction with the familiar finger of: we know everything better.
I think it's about the interpretation of the article and I didn't think that was clear enough. I didn't think it was clear so I'm asking a question and not stating this as a fact.
I have submitted topics several times in the past to provide information to readers.
Anyway, I'm too old to worry about this anymore so I don't post anything anymore.
Greetings
RNo, I don't understand what you're going to do now: 'Well, I've gotten too old to worry about this so I won't post anything anymore.'
Are you now going to punish all blog readers for being mad at one person?
Dear Erik,
no i'm not mad but i've really had similar reactions in the past. So it's not about 1 person, although I don't like his language.
C'est le ton qui fait la musique / It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
In other words, my interpretation is incorrect for the following reasons. After reading the email from Wise again, it turned out that I had not read the words 'hold EUR' in the correct context, which meant that the email was misinterpreted by me.
Tried to regularly post important information on this blog, but too many comments from better-knowing Dutch people does not really motivate me.
That's why my sum is that I better stop posting.
RNo, sorry. I got calloused on my soul, among other things, when I received comments such as 'you are stirring things up' after a thorough article with a scientific background; but then I count the positives and I think 'oh well, let them talk…'
Is not too bad.
For a transfer of 2500 Euro, that is 1,43 Euro.
Do you have to make transfers for several months, I think to get to those hundreds of Euros extra costs.
But maybe there are those who transfer 50 000 Euro every month. Then the additional cost is 30 Euro per transfer.
But it doesn't matter whether you transfer a few times a year or every month, like Lung Addie. The final amount you transfer will ultimately determine the additional costs. Maybe Lung Addie transfers more money in those few transfers than you do every month... I don't know
Personally, I think it's all right. I transfer 2500 Euro every month and then that is 1,43 Euro. So be it.
And it's like Lung Addie says.
That is a delicious meal that will be added monthly to compensate for this. At first I also thought of scrapping a Leo, but you shouldn't deny yourself too much in this country, right?
So it will be my wife's meal 😉
The entry really testified to not understanding Wise's email. Or you must have unintentionally expressed yourself completely wrong. You mentioned a monthly transfer for which you suddenly pay 0.9% more. That is not the case as explained a few times. I think Lung Addie is absolutely right. Sorry
Did you get that email from Wise?
Again I did not receive that e-mail, but is it only about Euros or combined values of 3000 euros on a borderless account!?