Just got an e-mail notification from Wise that it had arrived in my account, about 11.5 hours after I sent it. I checked my Mega Bank balance and sure enough it was in there…and exactly the full amount I sent of US$3,849.32 with nothing at all deducted. Strange, but welcome, and pretty fast! The Mega Bank clerk definitely told me previously that they charged about US$7 (although he was quite vague about how much was from Mega Bank).
Mega Bank didn’t even call me to ask the source of the funds this time. (Last time they tried but I didn’t answer, and it still went through.)
My assumption was that they’re just charging a typical/expected amount and taking the risk that it’ll be higher. I think my most recent transaction was an “OUR” one, so the fees need to be paid for upfront. (I would assume that such things are cheaper when done on the bank/financial institution end, rather than charged to the end consumer.)
Just one question left: Why don’t they offer this kind of transfer to me? USD 14 for an OUR-transfer, all fees included, would be cheaper than what I am paying now…
I don’t know. It’s also cheaper than I expected actually, and less than I paid previous times. I might go withdraw it all now before Mega Bank realizes they forgot to charge me…
I do think they change exactly what they’re offering quite often though. A few days ago I noticed that some transaction limits for GBP were really low (like 250 GBP), presumably because of its nosedive.
Yeah, but that’s only the additional Wise fee (which in total will amount to EUR 3.83 in Wise fees). And then they just say there might be additional fees (spoiler: yes, there will be…).
Which country is your Wise account? Did you set a UK address? Or a Taiwanese one?
If it’s really an OUR transfer, then Wise should have also paid for the Mega-bank fee.
I opened it in 2015 and it was originally registered to my UK address (I think), though I lived in Thailand at the time. I updated it to my address in Taiwan a couple of years ago.
That’s what I thought actually. I was tempted to complain about that last time when I’d chosen the “with fees” option and Mega Bank still deducted US$7.17. I just assumed that recipient fees weren’t covered and it wasn’t worth the hassle asking about it.
Last news I heard was that Citi and DBS had come to an agreement on price, but I don’t think DBS have actually purchased Citi Taiwan’s consumer section yet. Hopefully the deal will fall through
Oh interesting, I had not heard that DBS was taking over. Would that mean that DBS is worth looking into? They offer retail banking in many countries don’t they? HSBC was the other one that’s also in the US but they’re also shutting down their retail banking in Taiwan.
I discovered a new use for Wie today- getting a letter proving your Taiwan address in English.
I was looking through all my bills and bank letters but nothing had it, then I went through my online accounts. Wise was the only account that let me download a PDF letter that included my address
if you try to send a non-domestic currency to a country, like USD/EUR/GBP to Taiwan, where Wise does not have any presence btw, the tx will be charged accordingly since they will send the funds from “abroad” (basically from the domestic country of the currency, so SEPA area for EUR, US for USD, UK for GBP).
Wise bypasses all the intermediary and other fees only if you send a currency from the domestic market and convert it to the domestic currency of the destination market (so like sending EUR from SEPA area to convert to USD to a US account).
so sending or receiving USD in TW does not exploit the full potential of Wise.
At present, no company can pay or receive locally TWD.
Something that bothers me a lot is the very hands off approach of the FSC. Not even the HKMA in HK, which …was… the home of laissez-faire, lets financial institution so free.
Even if it is written clearly that their duty is to supervise and enforce financial markets regulations and to develop the financial market here, they can’t be bothered about the enforcement and absolutely deny it is their job to help the markets to grow…
Until the current high echelons of the FSC are there, there won’t be a change of “perception” of what they need to do. Some fresh air is needed
I’m still a newbie here with a very basic question.
I opened a Malaysian Wise account to receive ongoing payments from a Malaysian sender. My Wise account also has USD and Euros. I believe there is a fairly low limit to how much MYR I can hold on Wise…I’m not in danger of reaching that limit yet, but I probably will eventually.
In my daily life (US citizen living in Taiwan) I make financial transactions in the US and in Taiwan.
So the question: What should I do with my MYR? Do a currency exchange directly into one of my US bank accounts? Taiwan bank account (not possible right?) Just exchange to my USD/Euro Wise accounts and hold there as Forex investment? It seems like I’d be hit with a fee just exchanging within Wise, so maybe I might as well just get the money into a US bank? MYR is continuing to nose dive…I do not need to access the funds right now but just hate seeing it lose value day after day.
lol, sorry for the basic question. I’ve gotten confused a few times reading the Wise website, thanks!
my advice is not to keep large balances in Wise, it is not what it was designed for. Convert the MYR to USD and send it to either your US accounts (where now they will at least accrue some interests) or send it in USD to your foreign currency account in TW (this will be both more expensive and slower than sending USD to a US account, but it is still doable).
