Whats your thoughts about Transferwise now?

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My account is three years old and seven figures through it annually⁤ with no problems; occasionally they want extra information
 
Second that, so far not a sinble‍ problem at all, they work smooth for mee too and only asked a question one⁠ time which was sorted out in minutes.
 
Thank you all for your nice reviews and comments. TW has been working great for‌ me for a very long time.
 
Does anyone know how Transfer Wise handle SWIFT payments?

I want to make a payment‌ to TransferWise by Euro SWIFT and there are the options:

BEN - in this case‍ TransferWise would pay the fee
SHA - fees shared by banks
OUR - bank sending⁠ the payments pays fees

Does anyone know if TransferWise are able to accept BEN payments?⁤ the support didn't give a proper answer.
 
It depends on⁣ the corresponding banks, something you do not have any influence on. If you choose OUR⁢ you will pay all fees but money will reach in full, if you choose SHA,︀ you may pay half fees and corresponding banks will charge from the amount sent some︁ fees, so TW will credit a smaller amount than you sent. If you choose BEN,︂ nothing will be charged by your bank but intermediary banks will take a cut from︃ the amount sent, so TW will credit less.
 
Is a BEN payment only taken out of the sum you are sending? Or︀ can it also come out of the receiving account?
 
You have‍ no influence on that. Some banks have incoming transfer fees as well. E.g. if incoming⁠ bank transfer fee $5, so if you send $1000 and intermediary banks will cut $20⁤ + receiving bank $5, you will receive $975. If you send SHA you will pay⁣ $1000 + $10 and intermediary bank $10 + receiving bank $5, you will get $985.⁢

This is just an example because you have absolutely no influence on that fees. For︀ instance some banks may charge OUR fee of $25 but recipient will get money in︁ full. However the same bank may have SHA fees of 0$ and now it is︂ a lottery, maybe recipient will get money in full or maybe intermediary banks will take︃ a cut. And there is no way to predict that fees, the only way is︄ to try both OUR and SHA and see how it works. I have never sent︅ anything BEN.

Few years back I had a client who was sending payments from Europe︆ to Asia using SHA fees, because the payments were not small, intermediary banks were taking︇ a fee of approx. €200 on each transfer. In the end I asked the client︈ to send payments with OUR instructions and it turned out it cost him 1/3 to︉ cover all the OUR fees.
 
If I am right,‌ is there no circumstance in which any money is taken from the recipient's account? The‍ money is either taken from the sender's account or from the amount being sent?
 
The recipient's bank may charge a fee⁠ for receiving the transfer. So money can be taken from your account, from the amount⁤ you're sending and from your recipient's account.
TransferWise sends using BEN. TransferWise can receive any type of SWIFT.︂ So yes, TransferWise can accept BEN payments.

Probably it'll be cheapest if you send from︃ your bank using BEN. TransferWise's fees are much lower than most banks. Intermediary banks may︄ still charge fees, but from my experience using TransferWise this is more rare. SHA and︅ OUR tend to be more expensive. Unfortunately there's really no way to know beforehand. You︆ don't know what the fees will be until after the transaction has been executed.
 
Thanks @eomeakyl . Have you tried sending money to your TransterWise account using BEN, OUR,‌ SHA?

This is one of the most concise write-ups I could find:

  1. " Share" (SHA)‍: The costs are shared between the beneficiary and the issuer of the payment, at⁠ each transaction: the costs of the issuing bank are borne by the one sending the⁤ funds, the costs of the intermediary and beneficiary banks will be deducted from the amount⁣ and therefore borne by the beneficiary. The more institutions involved, the higher the costs will⁢ be. This system is used for about 60% of market transactions.
  2. "Ben" (BEN): the︀ transaction costs are invoiced to the payment beneficiary, as a deduction from the payment︁ amount. This system is not very widespread and accounts for only 10% of market transactions︂.


  3. "Our" (OUR): the issuer of the payment chooses to cover all costs. This︃ ensures that the beneficiary receives the full payment. This model represents about 30% of︄ market transactions.

Source: BEN, SHARE, OUR: 3 options for international payments
 
I don't usually send EUR wires to TransferWise. I've‍ sent USD wires to TransferWise without issue (TransferWise now charges $7.50 to receive USD wires).⁠ If I was going to send a SWIFT I'd use BEN. SHA is the default⁤ but I find it is often expensive to use SHA because then the banks try⁣ to charge everybody. If you use OUR or BEN then sometimes fees are lower because⁢ the banks will only charge one party (in theory they're all meant to have the︀ same fees, it's just not how it works from my experience).
 
I had a reply back from the TransferWise support, which reads:

While on the⁣ website it says:

However, that doesn't really make sense, since︀ the BEN charges are evidently taken from the transferred balance and not the receiving account.︁
 
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