Wise
 

Disappointing news in the inbox from Wise.
The tax doesn't make much difference but you need to show a passport and proof of address if you want to receive P100,000 or over a month.

I understand there's a fair few of you who use them.

Any alternative suggestions welcome.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...ce24f23d17.png

Re: Wise
 

Yup, got same message. I've used Wise for years so will likely swallow the 12.5% VAT - I notice its only on the FEE that Wise charge so unless I transfer millions its not going to be high. I.E on a 500pesos transfer fee it will be 62.5 pesos.
The alternatives seem to be doing the same or similar so presumably part of the global anti-money laundering schemes.......
Proof of address etc is no problem, scan of passport and SRRV ID and hopefully done!

Re: Wise
 

Yes, they still look good in a comparison list, but one they issued themselves.
A bit concerned that Wise Pilipinas Inc is not a bank. One is giving them personal information.
Still it is a good service from the app so may stay with them.
I emailed them yesterday about how where you give them the photos or scans as I couldn't see any instructions on that.
No reply yet.

Re: Wise
 

No, I could not see how to upload the info. Probably when I next come to transfer next week. Both mine and my wifes ID are scanned and ready to go! Now and then I transfer more than 100K pesos but mostly just under.
Yes, I see Wise Pilapinas is not a registered bank here and I emailed Wise asking what Wise Pilapinas would be doing with my personal info. No response yet .

The service is very good and has improved over the last few months - transfers now take minutes, not hours, unless it is a Bank Holiday!

Re: Wise
 

The help desk initially denied asking for personal details then when I sent them their email said that instructions on what to do will come later on in another email. So the first email an alert. Hmm..

Re: Wise
 

Personally I can see no problems with the change over.

Today I tried it out and transferred my normal 10k PHP and it came within about 30 mins or so. Fee was £2. I assume the VAT was included.

For those that need to go above the 100k threshold, the two requirements are simple enough to perform from previous experience....and I would assume it's a one off for future transfers.

On the subject of how and when to upload their additional requirements, I would assume it's the same that happened to me some time ago....they will ask for it when you try to make a transfer.

Re: Wise
 

Well, last Friday I transferred both my wifes teachers pension and my pension. Both around 90K. Interestingly my wifes went with no problem at all but mine asked me to confirm my address then carried on OK .Both pensions were here within 30 minutes.
No other ID was asked for. Maybe it kicks in at the 100k mark?

Re: Wise
 

Just asked for 90k and it says sending.
Not asked for anything.
The over 70 rate didn't last for long!

Re: Wise
 

Let the Tories complete their infighting at the Manchester Conference then maybe we we see some stability in the GBP exchange rate.

Re: Wise
 

Then next week Labour, also at Manchester. Interesting given HS2. Either can't do much with the economy for some time after 2024..
Someone said that the PHP doing well lately as the Bangko Central is doing a good job. ​​​​​What, with inflation? Growth? The
​ UK is too much in the news.

Re: Wise
 

It seems that the PHP is beginning to have a difficult time. The latest approval ratings for BBM will do nothing to strengthen the PHP.
As for Blighty the current administration is failing to encourage confidence in its ability to effect positive change. It seems that as far as they are concerned anything North of the Midlands is of no interest. I'm sure that next years General Election will witness the collapse of Blobby's Blue Wall. Interesting times ahead on both sides of The Pond.

Re: Wise
 

Wise is usually quick but this morning they wouldn't do my transaction before submission of ID photos and a selfie.Took a while as quite picky. Was it just me who needed to do it?
Anyway wise to allow time.

Re: Wise
 

Yes, this happened to me quite a while back. Cannot remember the reason given if one was supplied. The only difference possibly is that they took the money and held it until I supplied them with the relevant information. Money would be returned in X amount of days if I could not provide the relevant information.

Re: Wise
 

No choice on that given this morning.

Re: Wise
 

Over the past few months, I've transferred over 100K on a few occasions and except for once being asked to do one of those picture "find the bike" type verifiers, have had no problems at all.
Money is in BPI here within a couple of minutes most times.

Re: Wise
 

They mentioned the 100k limit last year and said if you went over they needed passport and proof of address.
I sent over that last month with no request. Earlier this week a similar amount but they requested an ID and selfie before they would do the transaction.

Re: Wise
 

Just sent over 100k today. No checks and was in BPI 3 minutes later!

Re: Wise
 

Just had my first problem transferring money from my UK bank account to my BPI account here using Wise. I have had this BPI account for 9 years and and no details have been changed.

Yesterday on numerous occasions I tried to transfer money to my BPI account and I get this error message:. "We cannot send to this recipient. Bank is not supported."

Tried again this morning. Same. Wise are looking into it.

Re: Wise
 

If you search you will come across a Wise "Guide to PHP transfers". Says bank transfers :"currently not supported".
But you can send from your Wise account..
Last time I used a bank transfer. So does that mean we've all got to set up and use a Wise account?

Re: Wise
 

I would have thought if that was the case they would have informed us more formally.... not by rejecting a transfer.

I normally use Wise weekly for my transfers... last time about 5 days ago with no problems.

But as an afterthought, I think I had an App update a few days ago after my last transfer. Maybe a glitch?

Anyway, Wise are onto it and will update on the outcome.

I

Re: Wise
 

Hope they sort it quickly! I have a potential "problem" looming in that BPI are closing my old branch and accounts are being transferred to another branch - as it happens, nearer to me, BUT it means the account numbers need to be changed. This means I need to amend Wise details. I contacted them and they have told me that effectively I have to make a new Wise account for the new account numbers and have told me how to do it but I'm waiting for the first problem to jump out of the woodwork.
I need to ask BPI if my current debit cards will work with the new account.........................
Keep us updated please.

Re: Wise
 

Sorted!

My BPI account when opened 9 years ago was at a BPI (Family) branch. Therefore it was annotated BPIF when registered with Wise.

This is no longer recognised, hence the error messages in the last couple of days.

Remedy was to change my bank details to BPI.

Re: Wise
 

Recently I was in the middle of a transfer and WISE asked for proof of identity including photo via computer of passport, and I was in middle of something so just deiced to cancel and do later- however WISE went ahead and took money out of mu account- then said I had to wait 5 days for amount to be returned, and of course no explanation why after years of doing transfers through WISE this being the case - seems when WISE works it is convenient, but slightest issue and it is difficult to resolve in a timely, reasonable and efficient manner. Now for any transaction I have to account for the possibility of a recurrence- and the transaction was from/to myself.

Re: Wise
 

Find an alternative - & dump Wise. For us all, financial transactions have to be absolutely reliable, every time, all the time.

Re: Wise
 

There is a concerted worldwide effort to ensure that all international financial transactions are legal and in no way involved in money laundering and other questionable financial practices. Of course there are a number of countries that avoid such oversight and you don't have to be an Einstein to guess who.
All banks and other financial institutions are in the business of making money. So suck it up and expect more severe oversight in the future.

Re: Wise
 

And consistently financial institutions fail in that effort no matter how many checks they put in place- my objection is the cost to a customer when corrections not implemented.Taking someone's money as WISE did and not giving it back in a timely manner is simply bad customer service and actually immoral.

Re: Wise
 

We transferred a substantial sum from the UK to our bank in Hungary.
After 8 days of the bank here saying they didnt know where it was they finally sent it back to the UK. We only found out when our UK bank phoned us and said the funds had been returned, but they didn't know why. Chatting to the agent she said that "banking peopke can be funny like that, don't know why". Fortunately the second attempt went through in a few hours.

Re: Wise
 

While not my main bank, Barclays has superb international department that sort out issues well if one gets the right person.

Years ago I was with a US company, and we would use an account in Jersey for international transactions simply because we could call up and get things faster and better than our local bank in the states. I still find UK banks better than US banks and more advanced for international transfers or ease of using online, I also find the same with UK government sites- dealing with HMRC a pleasure compared to the IRS and there seems a minimum education standard.

Re: Wise
 

Same happened to me today. Was sending my wifes pension and got "Cannot send to this recipient". Knowing how you got it sorted I just deleted her account and set up a new one - same account number, but changed bank to BPI from BPIDirect. Worked fine! 30 secs and money transferred. Small point - I notice Wise only list BPI as the bank , no subsidiaries at all.

Re: Wise
 

Asked Wise to send 1,000 pounds here yesterday.late afternoon.They are promising arrival of funds in my account tomorrow afternoon.
But at midday today I asked them to send 500 pounds here, same account,. Pleasantly surprised to see it took just seconds to arrive in my account.
Can any of you Wise users explain the difference?

Re: Wise
 

Yup! As I understand it, transfers up to 50K pesos go via instapay, above this they go via BSP for "checking" , supposedly anti money laundering etc. It changed when Wise set up Wise Philippines last year and BSP added VAT onto transfer fee..
I transferred my pension last Friday morning and it was in my BPI account mid afternoon. If I had sent it later in the day I would not have seen it until Monday..

Hope this is of interest..................

Re: Wise
 

Yes, thanks it is.
Having a 50k limit to tie in with Instapay here makes sense.
Yes, you shouldn't leave it too late on Fridays otherwise you get a weekend delay.
Just a thought, but in case there was an emergency of some sort and you wanted 70k quickly could you get away with sending two remittances a few hours apart, say 30k and 40k?

Re: Wise
 

I've no idea! I would think that doing it in the week would be no problem but at the weekend? Probably get caught in the system till monday!

Re: Wise
 

The 50k limit on remittances explains why my DWP pensions are now reaching my BDO account a day later than was the norm until a few months ago. Very interesting that anything greater than 50k (why so low?) is regarded as money laundering potential.

Re: Wise
 

They did up the Bank Sentral maximum insured deposit limit per depositor to P1M last year. So they do review limits.

This doesn't involve Wise but it does Instapay so I will mention it here.
Currently dealing with a lost transfer of a good sized sum under P50k between two banks here using Instapay.
The intended receiving bank has spent two days looking for it to no avail. I've told them I will be going to the sending bank branch about it on Monday if they dont get it by then.
Looking it up seems you only contact Instapay yourself if the "participating institutions dont solve the problem.
Will update here later.

Re: Wise
 

Update:
My funds made it to my account after 8 days.The sending bank arranged them to be freed from Instapay. Of course, they gave me no reason for the long delay. It usually takes seconds..First time I've had such a problem. A few times with using Gcash. In those cases many other people were affected.
Probably nothing one can do to avoid it. I suppose just be aware it can happen. Good it wasn't a situation where I needed the money quickly!
Instapay is run by the Banko Sentral. In the first instance only your sending bank can deal with them.

Re: Wise
 

This doesn't just pertain to Wise, but I suspect others as well.

I am with Lloyds Bank and transfer funds on a regular basis to my BPI account here and have been doing so for many a year.

Normally the amount is 10k php as an when needed.

A few days ago, my Wise transfer of 10k was refused by Lloyds and thinking it was a glitch, transferred the said amount instead to my recently opened account.... again at BPI. No problem.

Today, I tried to transfer 10k to my old BPI account again and it was successful..... but then I got an email from Wise not long after, that Lloyds refused the transfer.

I then transferred the 10k to my recently opened BPI account with no problems.

Obviously I intend to query this with Lloyds tomorrow (Monday) and find out what is going on.

My point is that if Lloyds had decided that there was a potential problem with these regular small transfers over the years, they should have informed me. Not just refuse without prior explanation.

For me, it didn't create a problem. But for others it could have resulted in financial hardship.

Re: Wise
 

When things go wrong it is more likely the UK bank is at fault rather than Wise. A while ago Virgin Money wrote to me saying they are closing all accounts of non UK residents. I still needed a UK type account as my income is from UK. I opened a Wise current account and had my house rental and private pension income paid into that. Virgin blocked every attempt to transfer money into the Wise account. Apparently Croatia is on a blacklist of countries with weak anti money laundering laws which is why these transactions get blocked. I suspect Croatia simply does not get enough money laundering cases to justify tighter laws. After a lot of argument, Virgin agreed to keep my account going as long as I agreed to have my UK state pension paid into it. I don't get that yet but I will be 66 in a few days time.

Re: Wise
 

Thanks for that.

Yes, I agree that it's nothing to do with Wise, they were only carrying out my request which they have done efficiently over the years.

If it's a suspected money laundering issue, then it begs the question why Lloyds would happily allow the transfer to one account in the Philippines... but not the other.

On your other point, Lloyds is only one of a few that permit UK bank accounts for expats.

Regards..

Re: Wise
 

Spoke to Lloyds today and they confirmed that there are no restrictions on my account.

Sent another 10k to my old account via WISE and it went through with no problems.

Hmm....