Transferwise - Do's and Don'ts - How to avoid trouble

[keggo]

I have a transferwise business account for a shell/fake company. Therefore, I want to avoid any problems such as account freezing, asking for documents/ invoices etc. It seems here are some experienced users who can give advice on how to avoid this.

Background: I will receive about 10-15k monthly. Around 5k of this will be withdrawals from paypal. The rest will be sepa transfers from different european countries.

1. What kind of actions trigger transferwise to freeze your account or ask for documents/ invoices?
2. What do you recomend to do to make the account look more natural? Does it help if I frequently use the debitcard and make some sepa payments to purchase small things or is that just a waste of time?
3. My other emi account started to ask questions after I have made 3 sepa transfers (less than 1k each) within 1 month to a corporate account from a east european country. Can I expect that transferwise will do the same for such small amounts?
4. Can I use TW to receive small and frequent payments (for example 100 sepa payments per months, average 75-100€) or will that cause trouble?
5. How is your experience with cash withdrawals? Does it raise a red flag if I cash out the maximum possible amount every month (as far as I know this is 3k)?

Looking forward to any type of advice and experience regarding this topic.

 

[Martin Everson]

keggo said:
1. What kind of actions trigger transferwise to freeze your account or ask for documents/ invoices?
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If you install the TW mobile app then do not access it from a high risk country. It will flag your account immediately.

keggo said:
2. What do you recomend to do to make the account look more natural? Does it help if I frequently use the debitcard and make some sepa payments to purchase small things or is that just a waste of time?
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Pay for natural business expenses such as office rent, utilities etc on a regular basis. Do not simply do heavy card loading with every incoming payment. Do also currency conversion every time money comes in and use the new currency to withdraw. After all they are a currency conversion company and they will be earning money from you rather than zero if you are just wiring funds in and out.

keggo said:
3. My other emi account started to ask questions after I have made 3 sepa transfers (less than 1k each) within 1 month to a corporate account from a east european country. Can I expect that transferwise will do the same for such small amounts?
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East Europe in general is shady and high risk especially Balkans. It's just they way it is sadly. Wire out to western Europe and then to eastern Europe if needed. i.e no western EMI wants to see 5 digits sums going to Bratislava one of the poorest places in Europe.

keggo said:
4. Can I use TW to receive small and frequent payments (for example 100 sepa payments per months, average 75-100€) or will that cause trouble?
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That's not what TW is meant for. You want to use a merchant provider or market place to receive these type of volume of payments aggregate them and send them as single payment to TW and don't forget to do a currency conversion after it arrives.

keggo said:
5. How is your experience with cash withdrawals? Does it raise a red flag if I cash out the maximum possible amount every month (as far as I know this is 3k)?
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Not necessarily if the source of funds is well known i.e apple store or some large market place. The bottom line is TW knows the volume and revenue from each customer account. When they notice 180k annual turnover and 60 euro in revenue from that relationship they are not interested in having you as a client as it makes no economic sense and they will find a reason to offload you. However if they see 180k in annual turnover and plenty of currency conversions generating 1000 euros you are a good profitable client for them to want to keep you.

Bottom line TW will keep you if your are profitable for them and do low risk activity where it is clear where money came from and where it ultimately goes after leaving them.

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.

 

[keggo]

@Martin Everson Thank you for the info. Everything is useful to know.

Martin Everson said:
When they notice 180k annual turnover and 60 euro in revenue from that relationship they are not interested in having you as a client as it makes no economic sense and they will find a reason to offload you.
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That makes sense. However, I will receive only payments in € and only have outgoing payments in €. Under which logical purpose could I use currency conversion in that case in order to keep them happy?

Does anyone know what the maximum amount of incoming transaction is per month (without being bothered)? Are 20-30 incoming transaction per month fine?

At Revolut they ask for documents after 40k if I am not mistaken. Is there something similar with Transferwise? I read here in the forum that some people used a TW account for 2 years without being asked for any documents.

I am also wondering if I should use the account only for withdrawing funds from paypal (and no direct SEPA payments from customers) or if I shall do both. Any thoughts on that?

 

[JohnLocke]

keggo said:
At Revolut they ask for documents after 40k if I am not mistaken. Is there something similar with Transferwise? I read here in the forum that some people used a TW account for 2 years without being asked for any documents.
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So far we have moved more than 80K using transferwise over a period of I think 4 months, they don't ask any questions at all. We have even open multiple accounts with the same owner but for several different companies in different countries i.e. Georgia, UK, Cyprus, Seychelles and Sweden. We have provided a business plan to them and for good asked our lawyer to use his business paper and make a note on the papers.

No issues so far. I think the advise of @Martin Everson is really good. If you have a legit and solid business I don't think they close or freeze your account.

From my experience then at least 80% of the people around on this forum, most new users, come here because they have some dirty business or simply don't know how to run a online business. This is not bad and I don't judge them, but this most often lead to the threads you see around.

On the other hand, I need to say here, there have also been SCAM operations which for instant @Martin Everson has been good at to point out, thanks for that thu&¤#

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[Martin Everson]

keggo said:
That makes sense. However, I will receive only payments in € and only have outgoing payments in €. Under which logical purpose could I use currency conversion in that case in order to keep them happy?
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What sort of business are you running and which countries are involved? What might seem like a fair business to you may in fact be a clear high risk one.

keggo said:
Does anyone know what the maximum amount of incoming transaction is per month (without being bothered)? Are 20-30 incoming transaction per month fine?
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You need to explain more about source and value of these transactions. Your account could be shutdown after a single 100 euro transaction if source is high risk.

keggo said:
At Revolut they ask for documents after 40k if I am not mistaken. Is there something similar with Transferwise? I read here in the forum that some people used a TW account for 2 years without being asked for any documents.
Click to expand...

Each EMI is different. Revoult has had problems with FCA over sanctions filters and compliance issues. Each EMI is different when it comes to the details of compliance, volumes etc.

keggo said:
I am also wondering if I should use the account only for withdrawing funds from paypal (and no direct SEPA payments from customers) or if I shall do both. Any thoughts on that?
Click to expand...

None

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Please note my posts should not be taken as financial or tax advice. Please seek professional advice in that respect.