Transferwise limitation withdrawing from balance: workarounds?

[Tr0nad0r]

I just found that Transferwise doesn't allow me to transfer more than 650 GBP (or equivalent in other currencies) from my balance to my home country currency (COP) per month and since this limitation doesn't apply when the transfer is paid with another payment method (e.g debit/credit card or from bank accounts) I'm trying to find workarounds like moving the money to a bank or prepaid card that allows me to do the transfer.

I'm thinking maybe doing something like

Transferwise -> Bank/Prepaid Card via IBAN -> Transferwise (via bank/prepaid card) -> My final bank account.

It has been a bit tricky finding banks/prepaid cards for personal use (not for business) with low fees and suitable for non-EEA residents, I would appreciate it if anyone has recommendations or any ideas about other workarounds for my problem.

Transferwise is very convenient (they had a partnership with my bank and they offer a better FX rate than any other provider so this is why I'm trying to look for workarounds to use it before exploring other alternatives.

 

[Cetme308win]

guilleiguaran said:
I just found that Transferwise doesn't allow me to transfer more than 650 GBP (or equivalent in other currencies) from my balance to my home country currency (COP) per month and since this limitation doesn't apply when the transfer is paid with another payment method (e.g debit/credit card or from bank accounts) I'm trying to find workarounds like moving the money to a bank or prepaid card that allows me to do the transfer.

I'm thinking maybe doing something like

Transferwise -> Bank/Prepaid Card via IBAN -> Transferwise (via bank/prepaid card) -> My final bank account.

It has been a bit tricky finding banks/prepaid cards for personal use (not for business) with low fees and suitable for non-EEA residents, I would appreciate it if anyone has recommendations or any ideas about other workarounds for my problem.

Transferwise is very convenient (they had a partnership with my bank and they offer a better FX rate than any other provider so this is why I'm trying to look for workarounds to use it before exploring other alternatives.
Click to expand...

Why not using directly transferwise card for withdrawals?

 

[Tr0nad0r]

Cetme308win said:
Why not using directly transferwise card for withdrawals?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the transferwise card isn't available for my country yet.


I found a couple of prepaid cards that might be useful but I would like to know if someone had experience with those before paying a setup fee for a card that might be useless for my case (e.g if Transferwise blocks transfer to those):


- Satchel
- VIABUY
- Paysera (according to their FAQ "Cards are issued and delivered to EEA countries only.", but I'm not sure if they limit the availability to legal residents of EEA countries or just the delivery of the card)
- LeoPay

Last edited: Apr 29, 2021

 

[jjrapy]

Why don't you use your bank account? You said that TW has a partnership with your bank.
Or is another bank?

 

[Cetme308win]

guilleiguaran said:
Unfortunately, the transferwise card isn't available for my country yet.


I found a couple of prepaid cards that might be useful but I would like to know if someone had experience with those before paying a setup fee for a card that might be useless for my case (e.g if Transferwise blocks transfer to those):


- Satchel
- VIABUY
- Paysera (according to their FAQ "Cards are issued and delivered to EEA countries only.", but I'm not sure if they limit the availability to legal residents of EEA countries or just the delivery of the card)
- LeoPay
Click to expand...

another idea is getting a bank account in Panama or Puerto Rico

 

[Tr0nad0r]

jjrapy said:
Why don't you use your bank account? You said that TW has a partnership with your bank.
Or is another bank?
Click to expand...

My bank (the one receiving in COP) has a partnership to move the money immediately between TW and the bank using the real-time FX rate so I don't need to deal with conversion at lower rates when receiving the money (sending it as USD) or the currency fluctuations during the day. Apparently, this partnership is limited to the money send using payment methods different to a TW Balance and thus they limit those to 650 GBP.

Cetme308win said:
another idea is getting a bank account in Panama or Puerto Rico
Click to expand...

Thank you I'll check this as well, I'm looking first for options not involving USD accounts to avoid the delays of wire transfers, that's why I'm checking alternatives in Europe first.

 

[12345]

When forum users mention they can't use some EMI's card because they don't ship to their country I am thinking why don't you use freight forwarder that can accept the card in eu/us and ship to you?

I can recommend tiptrans.com for example

Or it won't work for some reason? I think they usually allow different correspondence address than billing, hm maybe when they see unsupported country they won't let you even request card or they don't allow correspondence in different country or it's huge withdrawal fees if unsupported?
Thanks

 

[Tr0nad0r]

MichalS said:
When forum users mention they can't use some EMI's card because they don't ship to their country I am thinking why don't you use freight forwarder that can accept the card in eu/us and ship to you?

I can recommend tiptrans.com for example

Or it won't work for some reason? I think they usually allow different correspondence address than billing, hm maybe when they see unsupported country they won't let you even request card or they don't allow correspondence in different country or it's huge withdrawal fees if unsupported?
Thanks
Click to expand...

In the case of TW, they don't allow you to request it if your country is not supported and since you do a verification process during the onboarding they know what's your country of residence.

For PaySera I'm not sure if it's limited just for the shipping (I have a P.O Box in Europe) or if they limit it to residents of Europe as well.

 

[geyolak937]

Why not use P2P, a lot of people would buy your usdt vs usd or gbp on transferwise?

 

[Tr0nad0r]

Cetme308win said:
another idea is getting a bank account in Panama or Puerto Rico
Click to expand...

can you recommend some banks in Panama/Puerto Rico that open accounts online?

geyolak937 said:
Why not use P2P, a lot of people would buy your usdt vs usd or gbp on transferwise?
Click to expand...

On P2P markets the exchange rate for USDT/COP is way lower than the USD/COP FX rate, right now the best USDT rate that I can find is 3,597 and the FX rate is 3,775, so you can lose ~4.7% on the P2P market.


In the end, I decided to just send USD to my bank account from Wise using SWIFT but looks like now Wise doesn't like this either:

So I guess I would find alternatives for Wise.

 

[JohnLocke]

Try Bankera, Spectrocoin or Intergiro they may be able to help you as an alternative to Wise. I'm not aware of the problems with USD with these EMI's, but worth to have a look.

FYI: Inside mentor group gold and the RESOURCE database there are tons of other valid EMI's and payment processors for hard to place business activity.

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[Tr0nad0r]

Thank you very much, I think Bankera and Spectrocoin seem to be a good alternative for my case.

 

[Fred]

Paysera gives you close to free Visa Debit Card that can be received with Tiptrans and forwarded to your personal Address.

They don't ask too many questions for relatively small amounts <100k€ / month.

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[Tr0nad0r]

Fred said:
Paysera gives you close to free Visa Debit Card that can be received with Tiptrans and forwarded to your personal Address.

They don't ask too many questions for relatively small amounts <100k€ / month.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I ordered the card already but still waiting for the KYC questionnaire approval since 1 week ago so I haven't been able to test it yet.

 

[Cetme308win]

guilleiguaran said:
can you recommend some banks in Panama/Puerto Rico that open accounts online?
Click to expand...

Yep look in your PM I sent a couple of them that should work