TW closing UAE accounts

[Martin Everson]

Well TW didn't last long with UAE....lol

What are the alternates Fintechs that operate over there like?

Like the below ones:

https://nowmoney.me/https://denarii.cash/en/

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

 

[BlueMist]

Martin Everson said:
Well TW didn't last long with UAE....lol

What are the alternates Fintechs that operate over there like?
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The most serious would be Ebury I think. AED 8500 one time fee opening which includes AED and USD held at Barclays or Citibank UK. Additional currencies are AED 4000 per currency, e.g. EUR and they have few countries to choose from where it can be held.

 

[Martin Everson]

Ok cool. But does anyone know what this regulatory update that TW is facing actually is. Could it not affect Ebury also?

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

 

[BlueMist]

Martin Everson said:
Ok cool. But does anyone know what this regulatory update that TW is facing actually is. Could it not affect Ebury also?
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Who knows really? The update might be related to ADGM itself and Ebury may not be affected because they were granted DIFC license few weeks back.

 

[rowena]

Gediminas said:
Strange, because I get the opposite feelings. I use a UAE account for my business and enjoying the speed of swift transfers. Only positive vibes.
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I don't know which bank you use but I have a bank account in the biggest 3 banks of UAE. I sent a USD transfer to the USA 2 weeks ago it took 4 days to reach. I had to deal with the super bad UI of the bank and the outdated mobile app. UAE banks are famous with their bad service.

VS

I transferred 100.000 EUR yesterday from my TransferWise Belgium IBAN to my personal bank account in France and it took 7 seconds(Sepa Instant).

Last edited: Dec 30, 2020

 

[BlueMist]

rowena said:
I don't know which bank you use but I have a bank account in the biggest 3 banks of UAE. I sent a USD transfer to the USA 2 weeks ago it took 4 days to reach. I had to deal with the super bad UI of the bank and the outdated mobile app. UAE banks are famous with their bad service.

VS

I transferred 100.000 EUR from TW Belgium to France it took 7 seconds(Sepa Instant).
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I think it depends on the bank. From ADCB to UK (international SWIFT) it reaches in few hours if submitted before 3pm. I have never had to wait more than 24 hours for the transfer to reach the recipient from ADCB at least. Also TW failed in my case, I thought I could easily send money to US, but it was not possible. The instructions I got from recipient (AMEX USD banking details in US) were not accepted by TW system, I even emailed TW about it and they said it is not possible to send money to US using details provided. No such issues with ADCB or Moneycorp.

 

[JackAlabama]

rowena said:
I don't know which bank you use but I have a bank account in the biggest 3 banks of UAE. I sent a USD transfer to the USA 2 weeks ago it took 4 days to reach. I had to deal with the super bad UI of the bank and the outdated mobile app. UAE banks are famous with their bad service.

VS

I transferred 100.000 EUR yesterday from my TransferWise Belgium IBAN to my personal bank account in France and it took 7 seconds(Sepa Instant).
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You forgot to compare sending crypto.
You can send 100M and they reach your goal within minutes and no paperwork nor bad ui.

sending in $ can always cause issues. i Remember some wires to panama which took ages or have been returned to me.

 

[rowena]

BlueMist said:
I think it depends on the bank. From ADCB to UK (international SWIFT) it reaches in few hours if submitted before 3pm. I have never had to wait more than 24 hours for the transfer to reach the recipient from ADCB at least. Also TW failed in my case, I thought I could easily send money to US, but it was not possible. The instructions I got from recipient (AMEX USD banking details in US) were not accepted by TW system, I even emailed TW about it and they said it is not possible to send money to US using details provided. No such issues with ADCB or Moneycorp.
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You can transfer money to the UK in seconds with TW. I can't say anything for USD because I don't use USD currency too much but as far as I know, they now support all USD account.

ADCB & ENBD are the best options in the UAE but they still the worst banks I have ever used.

Not too long several months ago ENBD decided to start planned maintenance but they messed up and couldn't open the bank back again 😀. It took 4 days: I mean no atm withdrawal, no card usage, no bank transfer, no online banking. People went crazy. Can you imagine a bank culture this? Btw ENBD is the biggest and "best" bank in Dubai.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/bus...services-for-emirates-nbd-customers-1.1061131
https://www.reddit.com/r/dubai/comments/i6zq1a

 

[Runway]

rowena said:
Stay away from any UAE bank especially for business purposes. Try Payoneer, Paysera or Airwallex.
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Aiwallex onboarding for UAE is not easy, they insisted on seeing a public registry and this obviously was not possible

 

[BlueMist]

rowena said:
You can transfer money to the UK in seconds with TW. I can't say anything for USD because I don't use USD currency too much but as far as I know, they now support all USD account.

ADCB & ENBD are the best options in the UAE but they still the worst banks I have ever used.
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No, TW doesn't support all USD transfers unfortunately. I can't pay my AMEX USD card through TW, as TW doesn't accept Standard Chartered Bank NY details provided by Amex. TW confirmed it via email.

I can't speak for ENBD, as I don't use them much for the personal account. Their online banking layout is not appealing to me at all.

But ADCB is very good both personal and business. I sent a bank transfer today at 12:30pm to SQ Lux, just checked SQ Lux at 7pm and money is already there. That's not bad I think. Don't forget it is sent as normal SWIFT transfer and not instant SEPA, both cannot be compared really. Also instant SEPA is not supported by majority of the EU banks, so no matter what, SEPA transfer is +1. My transfers from ADCB reach faster Europe than normal SEPA transfers.

 

[rowena]

BlueMist said:
I sent a bank transfer today at 12:30pm to SQ Lux, just checked SQ Lux at 7pm and money is already there. That's not bad I think. Don't forget it is sent as normal SWIFT transfer and not instant SEPA.
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SWIFT transfer doesn't take much time now. I use Payoneer for my USD SWIFT transfers and generally only takes 1-2 hour to reach.

BlueMist said:
Also instant SEPA is not supported by majority of the EU banks
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Do you mean SEPA Instant? SEPA supported all over Europe.

 

[BlueMist]

rowena said:
SWIFT transfer doesn't take much time now. I use Payoneer for my USD SWIFT transfers and generally only takes 1-2 hour to reach.


Do you mean SEPA Instant? SEPA supported all over Europe.
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Yes, SEPA Instant is not supported by most EU banks. That means standard SEPA transfer will reach the recipient only next day, slower than ADCB. If I would send SEPA transfer today from another EU bank to SQ Lux it would arrive on the 4th Jan.

Don't compare EMI. They may have local banks in place like US Payoneer, so obviously it will be fast.

 

[rowena]

BlueMist said:
Yes, SEPA Instant is not supported by most EU banks.
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Sure, SEPA instant does not have 100% coverage but already supported by many big banks: Participants

BlueMist said:
That means standard SEPA transfer will reach the recipient only next day, slower than ADCB. If I would send SEPA transfer today from another EU bank to SQ Lux it would arrive on the 4th Jan.

Don't compare EMI. They may have local banks in place like US Payoneer, so obviously it will be fast.
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My TW SEPA transfers always reach the same day to a foreign country.

BlueMist said:
Don't compare EMI. They may have local banks in place like US Payoneer, so obviously it will be fast.
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Nope, Payoneer transfers are SWIFT transfers and originated from the USA(no local bank transfer). Check my latest USD SWIFT transfer, it took about 40 minutes to reach Europe. Swift transfers are much faster than before in everywhere compared 1-2 years ago.

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[BlueMist]

rowena said:
Sure, SEPA instant does not have 100% coverage but already supported by many big banks: Participants


My TW SEPA transfers always reach the same day to a foreign country.
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That's a very short list of supported banks. Also quite few EU countries do not use EUR as a base currency so EUR is never same day, at least I never saw unless within the same bank. My point is if I send normal SEPA transfer between normal banks (not EMI) it's never the same day, even within the same country . It's always +1.

 

[rowena]

I don't know why your transfer always +1 but I frequently send 6 figure SEPA transfers between Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France and I always receive payment the same day(both via EMIs and Banks), If I execute a payment before 15:00. Even the country doesn't use the EURO as a base currency you can still send a SEPA transfer(like Switzerland).

 

[kkein]

It often happens to me that transfering from TW to Revolut lands the money in the destination account (with associated push notification) seconds BEFORE TW is actually showing it's completed lol

 

[BlueMist]

rowena said:
I don't know why your transfer always +1 but I frequently send 6 figure SEPA transfers between Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, France and I always receive payment the same day(both via EMIs and Banks), If I execute a payment before 15:00. Even the country doesn't use the EURO as a base currency you can still send a SEPA transfer(like Switzerland).
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Yes I know I can send SEPA in countries where base currency is not EUR, what I am saying is that I never saw same day SEPA credit in such countries. I often send SEPA transfers between normal banks in Cyprus / Malta / Poland / Luxembourg / Italy / Netherlands and it is never same day even if submitted at 10am. Bank of Cyprus for instance shows you always the date on which recipient will get the payment and for SEPA they always show next day. Bank of Valletta SEPA transfers are always reaching next working day, never the same day (even between Malta banks...). In many EU countries not a single bank support instant SEPA yet, while the normal regular SEPA is always +1.

Also another thing to consider is that some banks support incoming instant SEPA transfers but they do not support outgoing instant SEPA. So while you may get the impression the bank support it, but it only support it 1 way. Sending transfer the other way around would result in crediting money next working day. It's just the way the system works.

Anyway, I find the few hours form ADCB completely sufficient and it is the only local bank in the UAE in my opinion worth partnership on the higher than standard levels (Excellency / private banking).

Last edited: Dec 31, 2020

 

[BlueMist]

@rowena I just sent a bank transfer from ADCB at 3pm to UK and it's there at 3:15pm, total 15mins! Things are really smooth and fast with ADCB to some countries at least.

 

[rowena]

BlueMist said:
@rowena I just sent a bank transfer from ADCB at 3pm to UK and it's there at 3:15pm, total 15mins! Things are really smooth and fast with ADCB to some countries at least.
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ADCB, ENBD, Mashreq(probably most of the local banks) have branches/intermediary banks in the UK because of lots of Emiratis in the UK. They're probably routing GBP transfers via their UK branch but still slower than TransferWise because GBP transfers are instant with TW.

 

[BlueMist]

rowena said:
ADCB, ENBD, Mashreq(probably most of the local banks) have branches/intermediary banks in the UK because of lots of Emiratis in the UK. They're probably routing GBP transfers via their UK branch but still slower than TransferWise because GBP transfers are instant with TW.
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The transfer was in EUR. ENBD does have a presence in London, ADCB doesn't. The transfer went to Barclays bank. But apparently this same day feature is listed on ADCB website under money transfers:
"Instant and same day** transfers for major currencies such as USD, GBP, EUR, CAD and INR"

I don't want to say UAE banks are great, as they are definitely lacking many things, but I sent bank transfers few times the other way around from different EU banks to UAE and it was never credited on the same day in the UAE.