Loathe online banking but it has to be done. Have happily been using Wise for a few years without change. Have just tried to transfer money from US to France and been told I have to now use Plaid.
Who is Plaid and what do they have to do with Wise?
Iāve been able to transfer both GBP and EUR to USD in recent times using Revolut without intervention from a third party.
Time to switch?
Wise seems to be getting more unattractive by the day.
Plaid are one of the earlier and most successful of the new breed of fintech businesses. They are so successful they were going to be bought by Visa last year which would have made it one of my only fintech investments to date that has actually paid out and not sunk without a trace, but sadly the deal was scuppered, but theyāre one of the firms powering modern payments across the globe using banking tech.
I canāt say for sure but from what youāve said Iād imagine you would be using using open banking. Plaid are effectively āsuckingā the cash out of your account without having to pay card transaction fees or for you to do a manual transfer, so the transaction can then be sent. They ask your permission to do this as they are a not the one you have the direct connection with, theyāre a third party who does it on your, and Wiseās behalf, so they let you know and ask your permission.
I, and perhaps @graham although perhaps not, have my Revolut set up to do the same. I can see the balances of my Nationwide Flexaccount , Starling Gbp, Starling Euro, and others direct in my Revolut app, and if I want to exchange some money I just say how much and select the starling account and it does it via open banking. This is all via a Plaid connection just like I imagine youāre being asked. There are a few companies who do it, Plaid, Stripe and Yodlee are the big US players and in the U.K. Truelayer and GoCardless are among the big names.
2 Likes
correct - no perhaps about it, not something I would be entirely comfortable with 
I like a simple lifeā¦ if I trust a product, Iāll stick with it and will view 3rd Party interventions with suspicion unless itās an absolute no brainer. Revolut does it for meā¦ the more links in the chain, the more chance of it being screwed up at some stage - then who do you blame as they argue the toss with each other rather than deal with your issue from the offā¦
I adopt the same principle with, say Orange Telecom Franceā¦ I prefer by experience to deal with them directly rather than through one of the many telcoās who rent lines from them where customer care is less of a priority. May cost marginally more but does provide peace of mind.
Graham, does one need a smartphone to use Revolut?
Yes, AFAIK although you can also use an internet browser to access your account for some limited aspects.
There is a topic on this in the Revolut Community:
1 Like
Thank you for the info
The Revolut smartphone app controls much of the verification and there is not very much you can do without it except for paying with the card at a till contactless or with a PIN.
To be able to access Revolut through a web browser you need to give your phone number and passcode and then you need to log into the phone app complete the verification. But the web browser version has very little functionality compared to those available in the app.
With many online purchasing transactions there is a two-step verification. Some banks use a code sent in a text message you can enter then on a web page. For Revolut you need to log in to the app to verify.
Ah - thanks for this Elsie. Iāve been using Wise (Transferwise) for years, but was wondering about Revolut (although personally Iāve had no problems at all with Wise - it has always worked really well for me). But I simply donāt do banking on my mobile - too easily lost, and I know too many techies to believe the security is crack-proof once they have the phone - so Revolut is out for me.
Weāve had this discussion before on here but at this point no one should be doing this (although I appreciate many slowcoaches still are) under the PSD2. Itās not secure. SIM swap as part of card fraud is an ever growing problem. Iām surprised Wise do it. I used Wise recently and exactly the same I had in app verification, something I presumably switched on if they still do SMS verification too but itās very poor security practice. The most recent thing is if for some reason a code is required, be it for ID verification or purchase verification, itās contained in app, and rotates to a new number every 10 seconds or so, therefore the number used can only be the current one. Thankfully things are getting much better security-wise. People just need to be encouraged to use it since no one should ever be receiving text messages for this stuff, even if itās a practical solution for some.
I donāt use Revolut for day-to-day banking. I have other UK and French bank accounts. However I do use Revolut for to transfer funds between those banks as it is convenient, quick, gives a good exchange rate.
Revolut also has free single use disposable virtual cards which I find useful for some online transactions (any refunds, etc are returned to the main account).
I used Wise recently for euro to AUD payments with no issues, authorisation via app faceid. Iāll also use their card for transactions when Iām in Oz next month to avoid Visa/Mastercard rip-off rates and transactions fees. Iāve no issues with Revolut either.
Some success story 
1 Like
@Sandi_Booth do you have a US dollar account within your Wise setup?
I just added a dollar account today because I needed to pay for a smartphone lens adapter from a US company - I was able to pay the exact dollar amount (having first converted some pounds to dollars within Wise of course, at a cheaper rate than using a UKP or Euro credit or debit card) to the US suppiler.
Since you get a complete set of US bank account details once youāve added a USD holding within Wise, I wonder if you could then use those details to transfer money from a US account into Wise? A US$4.14 fee for accepting a wire transfer is mentioned (much cheaper than most normal banks charge) but I would assume that a transfer from a US checking account wouldnāt even cost that much?
Details here: How do I use my USD account details? | Wise Help Centre
Worth investigating maybe?
I have US account details in Wise and did not have to fund it to get them. Quite a few currencies have details you can choose to have
I have had a USD savings and credit card account with Capital One for 10+ years and never had a problem transferring money, itās not large amounts and itās not on a regular basis. We are US/FR tax payers. I eventually clicked the button to allow Plaid access and then get the response that the bank is ACH, have googled that and am non the wiser
Thatās true - I put money in because I wanted to spend it!! 
Hi Karen, I have had this bank account for 10+years, savings and credit card with Capital One and never had a problem. Itās something about an ACH but have no idea what that means and non the wiser after Googling
Sandi i think āACHā means āAutomated Clearing Houseā which is the same system as the UKās āBACSā - itās a method of transferring money between banks.
So I think you need to initiate an ACH transfer from your US account - thereās a bit more info about that in the link I posted above.
Iām working by analogy with what happens in the UK so you may need advice from another American who knows more about the US system!!
ACH is just American Clearing House I think. Itās longstanding, I think a client once paid me in the UK from their account in the US using it. Got an idea it works a bit like BACS.