I Changed My Address, and Transferwise in Two Days Will Empty My Account
Key topics
Recently, I changed the address.
TransferWise then KYCed, and requires;
1. A bank statement.
2. A utility bill.
There are no other bank accounts, and it's a one-man company; there's no rental, no phone bill, no water bill - there is a server bill, for the server the company web-site is on, and this TransferWise have refused.
To date, TransferWise stated in their communications that if I could not prove the address, the account would become emit-only; I could not pay money in.
I have just received a message from TransferWise that in two days, all funds in the account will be refunded.
This is wholly different to what was said before, and I'm not clear about what it means : refunded? to whom? me? to those who paid in the funds?
This message from TransferWise has come Friday evening. It seems to me if I now move funds out of the account to other bank accounts, this will not occur over the weekend, and so not until Monday morning.
The deadline issued by TransferWise expires Sunday evening and I have no idea what then will happen.
As it is, I have a personal TransferWise account and transfers to there are immediate, so fortunately I have an emergency escape route.
I note that the address I had on file for the last some years also could not be proved, for exactly the same reasons.
I will now write to TransferWise customer support. I know from experience this is futile - there was an earlier occasion, some years ago, when the account was almost closed, because document upload on the TransferWise site was for me at least broken - but I will do so anyway. I will update the thread here with events.
The author, a UK-based IT contractor, changed their address and TransferWise required KYC documents, which they couldn't provide, leading to a threat to 'refund' the account funds in two days. The author is unsure what this means and is concerned about the implications. They plan to contact TransferWise customer support despite expecting it to be futile.
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- It is simple to construct/figure out the direct HN link if the site ever fails to work.
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Based on username I suspect you are a little biased :)
If a bank is making vague threats, move your money to another bank.
Personally I’d just edit any existing real utility bill, but I understand why most people might not be willing to do that.
OTOH, depending on your utility provider you might also just be able to go to your account settings and change the information on your bills to match that which you wish to provide Wise with.
User here. Yes, every system is broken once you fall off the happy path and nobody cares.
The OP is only guilty of complaining of minor issues (ie: In AirBnB, it's the currency or something). In his defense, I had issues with all of the services mentioned above; and it's a very common experience across the internet.
From the first person;
1. TW cannot confirm or deny if standing payments on the account will go through.
2. It is clear I cannot produce a suitable document to prove address.
From the second person;
1. The message fro TW that "if we don’t hear from you in the next 2 days, we’ll need to refund any money you’ve paid in" in fact means "you will no longer be able to make payments from your account".
It turns out "paid in" means "payments you make to other people".
2. TW cannot confirm or deny if payments into the account will still work.
So you probably blew through that the minute your account triggered elevated kyc.
I guess the downside is, well, this, specially having thought it is a good idea to rely on Wise as first and only option for business banking, with their reputation...
I'd picked up a contract in the UK and relocated to the client and needed to open a company for the contract.
I then tried to get a business bank account with a normal bank, and failed.
Metro bank took forever and tons of info and then said no.
(I issued a GDPR data access to see if I could find out anything. After a while, they sent me the same letter twice, arriving on the same day, telling me they had performed the data deletion I had requested.)
HSBC seemed to lose the application - it disappeared. I didn't try again.
I looked at some others, Lloyds and Barclays, and it's been a while so I can't remember why but they didn't pan out.
TransferWise was my final choice.
When the contract was done, I left the UK, so no opportunity to open further bank accounts in UK for the business.
- my hometown(i can provide the electricity bill, Also the address on my ID card)
- my rental house(address on my residence card, also my actual address.)
- Express Station (Packages are only delivered here.)
- post office (receive letters or international delivery)
Ok, now Wise ask me for my address, I give my rental address, but the electricity bill is in the landlord's name. Scanned copy of handwritten rental agreements are not valid.
I give my hometown address. Now I need to offer my bank account details. Sucks. The card was on my rental address.
The same thing sucked out Wise's customer service.
When I have ended the anti-money laundering investigation and get my money back, several months passed. And now I lose access to the account. I cannot delete the account and then create a new one.
Sucks