Wise (formerly TransferWise)

[harryopal1]

I'm still not brave enough to involve another party into the equation. My bank gives free wire transfers with competitive exchange rates. Saving a couple of dollars just doesn't seem worth it. When there is a problem you will have three parties pointing the finger at each other. Already some instances in this thread. Plus you are giving yet another party all of financial information to be seen when it is hacked. Not really a question of if anymore but when.

Given the number of scams I understand your reticence. However, if you look up wise.com it will open a site where you can, without registering, immediately check what would be the cost for a transer from your home bank to your local bank and also the exchange rate. Worth comparing the rate you would get using your own bank transfer. I began using Wise when I realized that my Australian bank had been giving me appalling low conversion to Rph rates and it had cost me hundreds of dollars difference over some time.

 

[Hawk256]

Given the number of scams I understand your reticence. However, if you look up wise.com it will open a site where you can, without registering, immediately check what would be the cost for a transer from your home bank to your local bank and also the exchange rate. Worth comparing the rate you would get using your own bank transfer. I began using Wise when I realized that my Australian bank had been giving me appalling low conversion to Rph rates and it had cost me hundreds of dollars difference over some time.

The first thing that would kill it for me is that if I don't change currencies and send dollars to dollars the wire transfer fee is $50.00 US. It's only free if you change currency. I have checked the exchange rate in the past against other sources but the difference has been very low. Just don't think it would help me at all. Plus I have the benefit of not having a 3rd party involved in case of a problem. Maybe it works great for some people but I just don't think it would benefit me.

 

[harryopal1]

I understand your points. Curious to know the end result. Not sure if you are sending US or Aus dollars. If you transferred $5000 Au how many Rupiah do you finish up with at your Indon bank and what have the costs been?

A Wise transfer Au $ converted into Rph would have you receive 51,793,575Rph and cost $28.31.
If it were US dollars you would receive 81,158,957RPh and cost $30.07.

 

[marcus]

I recently started using Wise just as an international money exchange & transfer tool , and it has a cost comparable to other 2 new competitors in my home country , but with a big advantage of directly converting my home country's currency into Indonesian Rupiah when the other 2 send me US Dollars instead (my best option was to exchange the USD manually in a money changer) .

Wise's cost is now a lot smaller than the cost I paid to HSBC (through their zero cost system) some 10 years ago .

In my almost 20 operations , the Rupiahs arrived in my wife's account in less then 5 minutes total (day or night) : first I request the exchange & transfer at Wise (around 1 minute) , then I pay Wise with my home bank account's app (around 1 minute , although Wise gives me around 24 hours to pay) , then Wise "send" to our bank in Indonesia (around 1 minute) .

 

[Shadrach]

I also have been making several $ transfers without a hitch, with Wise. They offer you the option of reverting the Dollars into Rupiah to send here, which like Harryopal saves a lot of money. They also have different ways of sending it. They show you the different ways and the cost for each option. I chose the one that says ACH something or another. It cost me about $10 to send $1000. Which I think is a good deal. And it's all done in Minutes. It does state that it might take a few days, to show up on your bank statement. Good Luck!

 

[Hawk256]

I understand your points. Curious to know the end result. Not sure if you are sending US or Aus dollars. If you transferred $5000 Au how many Rupiah do you finish up with at your Indon bank and what have the costs been?

A Wise transfer Au $ converted into Rph would have you receive 51,793,575Rph and cost $28.31.
If it were US dollars you would receive 81,158,957RPh and cost $30.07.

It's hard to know for sure until I initiate a transfer with the bank. They give the rate at the time of transfer since it changes hourly. You can always decline. But let's say that my bank is somewhat competitive with Wise and it did cost $30 US. Since my bank does it for free, it would take a large difference in exchange rate to make up that $30. Plus I can transfer any amount even if it's $50 or $5000.

 

[harryopal1]

The exchange I quoted were today's rates. I am not sure if you have the exchange done by your home bank or here. Whichever, you could ask that bank what their exchange rates were for the 20th of Feb and then be sure which is the best option.

 

[Balifrog]

The first thing that would kill it for me is that if I don't change currencies and send dollars to dollars the wire transfer fee is $50.00 US. It's only free if you change currency.

Correct, as their business model is similar to the Islamic Hawala system.
I use Wise every month, and never had a problem.