Wise - Transferring funds UK to Aus

[Atlas]

Hi there,
 

My husband and I are looking to transfer our UK savings to AUD as we need the funds to buy a house here. From reading reviews and looking at the various companies, it looked like Wise was a good option for us.

We tried to do an initial transfer of £40k and after getting the money to Wise, we have just received an email from them stating that the transfer has been cancelled and the money is being refunded. 

Our guess is that it’s something to do with them needing identity and proof of funds verification, but we never received an email from them requesting this information and I can’t see anywhere on the account where I could upload this information either.

Whilst we have sent an email in to them to understand why it’s been cancelled etc., please could someone advise how the transfer process normally works? 
 

We are under a bit of time pressure to get the funds exchanged, so it’s a bit annoying to get a vague cancellation email like this. 
 

Thanks in advance!

 

[rammygirl]

Give them a call? I have in the past and they are really helpful.  
Once you have registered with them and completed ID check then it should be straightforward. Who was the beneficiary of the funds? We usually transfer into our bank account in Australia, maybe if the transfer was to a third party that may cause issues.

[Wanderer Returns]

10 hours ago, Atlas said:

Hi there,
 

My husband and I are looking to transfer our UK savings to AUD as we need the funds to buy a house here. From reading reviews and looking at the various companies, it looked like Wise was a good option for us.

We tried to do an initial transfer of £40k and after getting the money to Wise, we have just received an email from them stating that the transfer has been cancelled and the money is being refunded. 

Our guess is that it’s something to do with them needing identity and proof of funds verification, but we never received an email from them requesting this information and I can’t see anywhere on the account where I could upload this information either.

Whilst we have sent an email in to them to understand why it’s been cancelled etc., please could someone advise how the transfer process normally works? 
 

We are under a bit of time pressure to get the funds exchanged, so it’s a bit annoying to get a vague cancellation email like this. 
 

Thanks in advance!

 

I use Wise (TransferWise) regularly without any issues. If you have only recently opened an account, I recall it takes them a few days to authenticate your identity. Whilst the process is done online, I imagine there's a human in the chain somewhere that needs to check the documents you've uploaded. If you haven't done this yet then it will be the most likely reason why your transfer failed.

[le petit roi]

I needed to provide evidence on 'proof of funds' due to money laundering regulations. Standard practice I am led to believe for large transfers.

Admittedly it isn't always obvious what to do from the web pages but the help and assistance the support desk offered me during the process was very good.

[rammygirl]

11 hours ago, le petit roi said:

I needed to provide evidence on 'proof of funds' due to money laundering regulations. Standard practice I am led to believe for large transfers.

Admittedly it isn't always obvious what to do from the web pages but the help and assistance the support desk offered me during the process was very good.

Really, just transferred 40k and it went through no problem. Never been asked for proof of funds. 

[le petit roi]

On 17/05/2021 at 09:23, rammygirl said:

Really, just transferred 40k and it went through no problem. Never been asked for proof of funds. 

Perhaps one reason is that after the sale of my UK property with additional savings included, I had significantly more than 40k. The request did give me some additional inconvenience i didn't need or expect but thankfully, once the transfer was approved, the rest went through without a hitch in time to settle on an Oz property.

[palaceboy1]

What sort of margins do you expect if you have £100k to convert to AUs$ . The current rate is 1.83 what rate can you expect?

 

[Ken]

1 hour ago, palaceboy1 said:

What sort of margins do you expect if you have £100k to convert to AUs$ . The current rate is 1.83 what rate can you expect?

 

Right at this moment, if you transferred £100k with Wise you would receive $182,418.04. This is based on a rate of 1.83057 and a 0.35% fee of £349.05

I then wondered what would happen if you transferred the money back.

If you then transferred $182,418.04 back in to sterling you would receive £99,204.00. This is based on a rate of 0.546277 and a 0.45% fee of $817.86

So a round trip cost of £796.00

[Island]

I've used transferwise/ wise many times and have been very happy - have set up with an app, easy to use etc. they did check where funds were coming from due to money laundering..

[mxh]

Any idea why Moneycorp is offering such a low rate at the moment? I've used them before and they seemed competitive, but I've got £10k to bring over and they're offering me $17,695. 

I've checked XE and they're offering $18,250 which seems a bit more reasonable. Is this just a case of Moneycorp trying to apply a 'lazy tax' on me, or have they become uncompetitive recently (it's been a while since I last did a transfer)?

[Ken]

41 minutes ago, mxh said:

Any idea why Moneycorp is offering such a low rate at the moment? I've used them before and they seemed competitive, but I've got £10k to bring over and they're offering me $17,695. 

I've checked XE and they're offering $18,250 which seems a bit more reasonable. Is this just a case of Moneycorp trying to apply a 'lazy tax' on me, or have they become uncompetitive recently (it's been a while since I last did a transfer)?

Wise are offering $18,295 (some 36 minutes after your post so your rates may have changed in the meantime), so yes that Moneycorp rate does look way off the mark - especially as Wise are only claiming to save you GBP 262.46 vs the banks.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Ken

[palaceboy1]

12 minutes ago, Ken said:

Wise are offering $18,295 (some 36 minutes after your post so your rates may have changed in the meantime), so yes that Moneycorp rate does look way off the mark - especially as Wise are only claiming to save you GBP 262.46 vs the banks.

I found that when I had a UK account Moneycorp  offered a better rate . Now I am in Australia they are giving pretty poor rates last week the bank rate was approx 1.83 and I got offered 1.81 on £100k that’s AUS $ 2k charge . I had to complete the transaction but I will be looking elsewhere for future transactions. 

[Chocci]

We compared Wise, OFX and Revolut recently and found Wise came up on top. 

[BMUKOZ]

Hi Atlas, Wise can be very difficult to use and are not always the most user friendly. I work for a company that provides personal service from start to finish of each transaction. Happy to help if you still require it. 

[Erudite]

Hi, I’m not Atlas but I desperately need some advice please. I have used Moneycorp for 7 yrs now, but something govermental that I don’t understand, has caused Moneycorp to cease transferring money from my bank in the UK to Australia. They never charged a fee, though I suspect they got the fee from my currency exchange.

So if you can give me some advice, I’d be extremely grateful. I’m in Perth, WA.

Thanks again,

Sue (erudite60)

[Marisawright]

59 minutes ago, Erudite said:

Hi, I’m not Atlas but I desperately need some advice please. I have used Moneycorp for 7 yrs now, but something govermental that I don’t understand, has caused Moneycorp to cease transferring money from my bank in the UK to Australia. They never charged a fee, though I suspect they got the fee from my currency exchange.

So if you can give me some advice, I’d be extremely grateful. I’m in Perth, WA.

Thanks again,

Sue (erudite60)

I believe they’ve stopped providing that service 

[Amber Snowball]

6 hours ago, Erudite said:

Hi, I’m not Atlas but I desperately need some advice please. I have used Moneycorp for 7 yrs now, but something govermental that I don’t understand, has caused Moneycorp to cease transferring money from my bank in the UK to Australia. They never charged a fee, though I suspect they got the fee from my currency exchange.

So if you can give me some advice, I’d be extremely grateful. I’m in Perth, WA.

Thanks again,

Sue (erudite60)

Yes moneycorp sent me an email to say they no longer operate in Australia some time ago. 
They would have got their money from the rate of exchange they gave you. I have used Wise, who did charge a fee but offered a better rate which worked out better. 

Edited December 20, 2021 by Amber Snowball
Add info

[Parley]

You could check out this new mob. 

 

[rammygirl]

Always check the actual amount you end up with. Wise charge a fee but for me have worked out better than companies who don’t. I am registered with a few companies but wise give me more money in the end. I have never had an issue with large or small transfers with them. 

[Cup Final 1973]

I used Send to transfer all our funds in April and was impressed with the speed of transfer and the rate offered.

[ramot]

We have used Wise to transfer money monthly for years and years, as all our income comes from UK. We can’t fault the service, never had a problem, and money usually in our Australian bank account the next day. 

Edited December 21, 2021 by ramot