TransferWise alternative to save on FX conversion fees

[Evidence Alpha]

Hi,

For some reason I ignore, TransferWise desactived my account and won't explain why when I appealed for my case. Also, I'm struggling to get a refund of my balance for now.

I learned about the free “debit/credit card to any bank account top up” service of Skrill, so that part of TW was not interesting me anymore anyway.

Now, I'd like to find a service which exchange currencies at mid market rates or very close, to not give up hidden fees to banks...
(Note, it should service Andorra, which is outside the UE and EEA)

Thanks in advance for your time.

 

[TurnedToRobot]

are your documents real and have you asked them to transfer the money to another account of yours?

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[Evidence Alpha]

Surely, I provided them with all guenine documents requested to process with the refund they offered. Waiting patiently : I'm told their team is overbusy... the support of EMIs never been over-reactive (usually 3 days for TW). PaySera is even worse (sometimes a week), waiting for a bug fix since 6 weeks

 

[Evidence Alpha]

bunq or N26 both use TW for non SEPA transfers. Are there other entities teaming up similarly servicing non EEA customers ?

 

[JohnLocke]

Evidence Alpha said:
Surely, I provided them with all guenine documents requested to process with the refund they offered. Waiting patiently : I'm told their team is overbusy... the support of EMIs never been over-reactive (usually 3 days for TW). PaySera is even worse (sometimes a week), waiting for a bug fix since 6 weeks
Click to expand...

For how long have you been waiting for the refund?

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[Tax Cow]

WorldFirst and Revolut are the best innovative players for FX, but service access is limited. Santander bank offers unlimited mid-market rate for their Select customers, but their risk tolerance is low after they were fined for bad AML controls; also the minimum balance of 75K pounds or currency equivalent applies.

With Revolut, after you breach 50K top-up (in my case, but likely everyone's), they will automatically lock your account and block incoming payments for source of funds checks which can cause major issues if you receive payments daily. It's best to ask their support if you can do source of funds checks upfront to avoid that hassle later down the road.

 

[Evidence Alpha]

Admin said:
For how long have you been waiting for the refund?
Click to expand...

Only 8 days of plain and simple communication blackout (only the support tells me that my query is queued to their busy schedule, unreachable competent service, while they were reactive initially)

 

[Evidence Alpha]

@xzars thanks for the comments

Will check WorldFirst
Revolut ceased to service Andorra some time ago
I'd rather avoid picky banks from experience. I have selected BBVA as my spanish pro account of choice, but haven't checked their conversion rates yet...

 

[ohassanabd]

Evidence Alpha said:
Only 8 days of plain and simple communication blackout (only the support tells me that my query is queued to their busy schedule, unreachable competent service, while they were reactive initially)
Click to expand...

I had such issue with transferwise as well and this is what I got as a response after writing a lengthy email of annoyance over not being reactive.
" With regards to the funds on your Borderless account, we are still carrying out further due diligence with relevance to these funds as today its 42 days since account closure while the stated time-frame to complete the checks is 60 days.

With that said, your account and the funds in it are completely secure. Once this standard procedure is complete, we will be in a position to give you a clear response regarding account and the funds in it. "

🙁

 

[TurnedToRobot]

It is the same s**t all over all EMI's .. don't believe them, it is a way to delay funds to gain interest on them or even just to freeze them for ever.

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[Evidence Alpha]

Huumm that's bad news. I was hoping TW to be more serious than that 🙁

 

[Evidence Alpha]

I'm more worried because a week before the desactivation, I initiated an outbound transfer. That money never arrived to the destination recipient. Now, even if this event happened before my account blocking, not overlaping, they won't handle me a proof document that this money was sent properly. So I cannot claim a research on my side. That's a pity, especially if this begins to last a couple of weeks.

Did other people fail to get their funds back with TW after the investigation period ?

 

[Evidence Alpha]

@xzars Unfortunately, WorldFirst does not conduct business with Andorra

Any other currency broker recommandations to replace TransferWise please ?

 

[Evidence Alpha]

Unfortunately, it seems like most if not all currency brokers, like WorldFirst, CurrencyFair and the likes, are closed to Andorra

I think I'm gonna use InteractiveBrokers for currency conversions. At 0.2% trading fees + free (1st withdrawal if the month) then $10 for withdrawal, it should beat TransferWise

 

[Evidence Alpha]

Hum, however IB has inactivity fees of $10 to $20 by month :/

 

[smbdoff]

darkster said:
are your documents real and have you asked them to transfer the money to another account of yours?
Click to expand...

Is transferring funds to a personal account in a real bank a bad thing?

 

[Evidence Alpha]

I was able to open at OFX (minimum transfer >150) and CurrencyTransfer (minimum transfer >5000) currency brokers.
Also LYNX Broker, which is a white label of InteractiveBrokers without inactivity fees (if balance maintained above 1000) with slightly higher fees: 0.005% min 5

After some calculus, below 1000, OFX is recommended (aside TransferWise), then above, LYNX Broker is always better (always beats TW)
Bye bye TW without sorrow

 

[Nyep]

Evidence Alpha said:
IB has inactivity fee
Click to expand...

It's not an inactivity fee. It's a maintenance fee that gets offset by trading fees (e.g. if your monthly trade fees were $4 then your maintenance fee will be $6). They waive it entirely if your account balance is over $100K.

 

[Evidence Alpha]

TW refunded me with 50 € extra. Zero communication in between

 

[ohassanabd]

Evidence Alpha said:
TW refunded me with 50 € extra. Zero communication in between
Click to expand...

You're so lucky, I am yet to receive my refund.