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Comment by CosmicShadow | Hacker News Reader

I definitely love using Wise for my business. As a Canadian I can collect USD (which my shops charge in) and hold it for free as opposed to the fees my bank would charge and I don't get hit with conversion fees on every deposit. I can convert it at far better rates for way cheaper than my Canadian bank too. I confronted my major bank in person and they won't match their rates or even come close. I can transfer money from WISE to my Canadian bank for $0.66 and it takes like a day or less with 2 clicks. I also get a USD based credit card for free I can use and not get screwed on fees by conversion or my Canadian bank. Big fan here so far!

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> … hold [USD] for free as opposed to the fees my bank would charge and I don't get hit with conversion fees on every deposit.

Note that, in the U.S. and Canada, Wise accounts aren’t traditional bank accounts but “transfer” [1] accounts, and aren’t really built for holding money. Senders can do chargebacks, for example.

https://wise.com/ca/legal/terms-of-use

[1] I made up the term “transfer”. I’m sure there’s a correct name for these accounts.

Yeah, I don't hold a lot of money in there if I can help it, just until the rate seems favourable, then I convert it to CAD and send it off to my Canadian bank account for safer keeping as WISE is not FDIC protected.

I agree. I recently bought a house in Europe and needed to convert USD to Euro for the purchase. I called around trying to find the easiest and cheapest way to convert a large sum and have it ready to transfer out, and Wise ended up being one of the lowest cost solutions. I was also able to set rate targets for the when to convert, etc... Really great product.

I've recently made some larger EUR denominated purchases as well - I ended up just buying the currency through my normal broker (Fidelity), since the rate seemed good and I wanted to use them for the wire transfers later anyway. I don't recall any particular fees. Did I take an L there or is Wise more or less doing something similar?

There may well have been fees, you should check. But if there weren't, 99% of the population in Europe (that's where they started) haven't got a broker. Also once you get the currency there might be fees to make international transfers. They started off matching people on both sides, at least that's how the story goes. Estonian expats in UK wanted to buy EUR and vice versa. They're an alternative to high street bank transfers, not a service for semi-professional traders.

Wise spreads are competitive with broker rates (better for most of the larger transactions (including a house purchase) I made with them) and their fees are presented to you in app while you are arranging the transaction.

Oh wow, a house purchase is a lot of money!

I also used Wise for a home purchase. The other upside is they give you an IBAN which lets you transfer money anywhere in EU at zero cost. The process is ACH from your US bank to Wise, then convert to Euros, finally transfer IBAN to IBAN. There might be a better way, but it was the least expensive and easiest method I found.

Canadian here who have been using Wise! Amazing product and experience.

Their website has some odd price comparisons.

Wise claims a debit transaction on a $1000 to $1000USD would cost $15.

That’s an incredibly high rate for a debit txn.

Seems right. https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regii-average-...

Many consumers prefer durbin-exempt cards since they have more favorable terms. Average fee on durbin-exempt cards is 1.41%, and they are 38% of transactions.

Average fee on covered cards is 0.45%, and they are 62% of transactions.

Seems reasonable to me that Wise wants to make a profit on every single transaction. Probably would have issues with abuse from 1% debit cashback cards otherwise.

What do you mean by debit transaction? An international bank transfer? There are many layers of fees that often get charged by banks: - You don't get the market rate - There's a percentage fee on the exchange - There's a fee to send abroad for the sender - There's a fee to receive from abroad for the receiver Not all charges necessarily apply but they often enough do. Try it out and you'll see.

Isn't it around 0.66%? For the conversion anyway.

Sorry, I meant after I've converted my USD to CAD in Wise, I can then send the CAD to my Canadian bank for like $0.66

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