lansbury

You need to live in the US but it seems Wise is now paying interest, and via Chase FDIC cover.

https://wise.com/help/articles/4D0d0...live-in-the-us

As far as I can tell my UK "bank account" with Wise is covered. Be interested and what others make of this.

PetrifiedExPat

Will start morbid.... once my family pass away in the UK and my need for a UK bank account goes to zero, I will jump on this.

Sorry that was dark, but that is literally why I keep a checking account open over there.

MMcD

I think I posted about this at the time...Wise first offered an interest bearing opt-in feature around May (?) of 2023.
At that time the interest rate they offered was 3.22APY (which was highly competitive back then)
Currently it's 4.85% APY (great rate now)
For those whose Wise account documentation show them to reside elsewhere...this US account is not available because your USD is not held in a US bank.

To answer your question Lansbury...I think it's a ***great*** feature
Interest is credited monthly, on the 1st, like clockwork.
They send an email notification immediately
And issue a 1099-R for taxable interest reporting to IRS

.... which leads to my question:
.... Should one submit an F-BAR for the Wise GBP Account (from which the USD funds were transferred) ?

durham_lad

Yes, I believe you should put your Wise GBP account on your FBAR as it is a foreign bank with UK sort code. It also has an address in London.

MMcD

Thanks for your speedy reply

lansbury

I must have missed you earlier post about this. Saw it when an info box popped up when using my Wise account yesterday. The interest rate now is still 3.22% for UK pounds, but that is much better than NatWest offer. I clicked on the offer and registered my UK pounds account and was accepted for the interest add on.

Now this was the point which raised a flag with me. My Wise account has my US address. The UK pound account has a UK sort code and account number, and an address for Wise in London. Reading the info on then transferwise when I opened the account I believed all such money was actually held in a Barclays Bank account in London belonging to Wise (transferwise).

If that is the case is it in fact covered by the FDIC insurance. As I was accepted to add on the interest and FDIC offer it would appear the money is in a Chase account in the US. Still as I have been doing I'll continue to list it on FBAR.

lansbury

Decided to give it a go, and transferred money from my NatWest account to Wise to earn interest. Big mistake. Found an email from NatWest this morning about a fraudulent transaction on my account, and online access to my account had been suspended.

45 minutes on the phone speaking to 5 different people in NatWest fraud prevention and they finally decide to allow the payment to Wise to go through. What they haven't done, over 2 hours later, is restore online access to my account.

durham_lad

That really sucks, but thanks for sharing your experience.

TerryGoX

I was wondering the same question and have decided not to include on FBAR - as the interest in dollar accounts is better, I transfer to dollars and thus my sterling balance falls below the $10000 level always. On the dollar account, they send a 1099int and the address of wise on the account is in New York so I report the interest as I would any us bank.

durham_lad

As always you only need to complete an FBAR if the sum of the largest balances during the year exceeds $10,000, but using Treasury arithmetic. If you have $6,000 in a UK account and transfer it to a savings account you still only have $6,000 but you exceed the FBAR limit and have to report all foreign accounts.

TerryGoX

But the question is on dollar accounts with Wise. The account has a US bank account number, the bank lists a New York address and they issue 1098INT so to me that looks exactly like a US bank account. Of course the pound account needs to be listed on FBAR and on 1040 but only if balance exceeds 10k dollar equivalent

durham_lad

The question you answered above was, I thought, the post you quoted:
"Should one submit an F-BAR for the Wise GBP Account (from which the USD funds were transferred) ?"

If you have a Wise GBP account then it will have a sort code and account number to a Wise bank in London in which case it is a foreign bank but you don't need list any Wise USD accounts because they are not foreign banks. I think we are very much in agreement here, just crossed wires on wording.