Transferwise have just changed their name to Wise.
And this rebrand means they are having to treat all existing customers as new customers and go through a verification process which I have to say even I as a serious geek tech user am finding tortuous.
I have been a Transferwise user since 2013 thanks to this site’s recommendation and recently the tranfers have been instant which is great.
But last night I went to make a routine UK to France transfer and was met with the fanfare of the new branding - whoop - follwed by “your transfer is paused while we verify you”.
Verification requires you to take a selfie holding a form of ID - National ID card - Passport - Drivers Licence - next to your face.
I’d advise getting someone to help you as trying it on your own is quite a struggle!
The problem then is the system is very fussy and rejected every attempt I made. I ended up talking to a chat advisor and sending documents to her but 24 hours later my transfer is still paused.
Hopefully you won’t experience this carry on but I just wanted to alert people who are used to fast transfers using the service formerly known as Transferwise.
I had to do this the other day (pound getting stronger…). Yes a nuisance, but only took 2 minutes. And then transfer went through. Maybe I have a very simple face…
Hmm, a pain indeed. Not sure I like their solution to verification, it would trigger massive amounts of “this is a scam” in almost any other situation.
That’s a big nuisance! Being very low-tech people, that kind of verification may be a problem. I need to do a transfer tomorrow so will check and see… Thanks very much @James_Hargreaves for letting us know!
I did it some weeks back. In the end used a camera on a tripod with a 10 second timer and got Wise to give me an email address I could use to send it as an attachment. Tedious, but worked ok.
I’m hoping I don’t have to do it again.
I agree with you, it’s annoying that they ask you to do this when you are trying to send money instantly. I gave them the feedback that they should ask people to verify when they are NOT in the middle of a transaction. Fortunately OH has a Currency Fair account so he sent me the money. Otherwise I would have been spitting blood. French banks aren’t too keen on people who inadvertently go overdrawn.
Thanks for the headsup James. The last thing one wants is a delay in a urgent transfer.
I’ve received the emails advising of Transferwise morphing into the Wise bank too and based on your warning I transferred in some euro and then transferred it out to a UK STG account. It just executed with no problems. I suspect the recertification depends on where you are resident. I am EU resident.
Hi folks - it looks like the automated system has a problem with the fact I have a French address but am trying to submit UK documents (passport / drivers licence). And for some reason the docs I sent to the online advisor Monday night are taking forever to be processed.
I can only guess this has none of the 3 online help counsellors have been able to offer any actual help whatsoever other than to offer apologies and tell me it’s “procedure”.
The transfer I tried to make on Monday night got cancelled after being paused for 2 days and I ended up have to transfer direct from my UK Barclays account (first time ever!) which was surprisingly hassle free and instant - albeit yielding about 28€ less than I would would have got sending £1,000 via TW.
I don’t want to sound down on Wise, I have always thought they were a great service and still are.
Strange!
I did a UK-France transfer yesterday which went through in seconds as usual.
No additional verification asked for.
The address that I use for Wise is our French one, passports etc are UK.
Set up an account with Revolut. They’ll ask for ID but last time we had to do this it required separate photos of Passport and a selfie which took minutes to get approved.
Sorry to have caused unecessary alarm, it’s just the way it was thrown at me out of the blue on Monday night, in conjunction with the new branding, made it look like it was a blanket thing applying to everyone.
Clearly they are just targetting some of us for some reason.
If only the euro lottery could see its way to singling me out for such special attention.
too and based on your warning I transferred in some euro and then transferred it out to a UK STG account. It just executed with no problems. I suspect the recertification depends on where you are resident. I am EU resident.