Recently, I changed the address.
TransferWise then KYCed, and requires;
1. A bank statement.
2. A utility bill.
There are no other bank accounts, and it's a one-man company; there's no rental, no phone bill, no water bill - there is a server bill, for the server the company web-site is on, and this TransferWise have refused.
To date, TransferWise stated in their communications that if I could not prove the address, the account would become emit-only; I could not pay money in.
I have just received a message from TransferWise that in two days, all funds in the account will be refunded.
This is wholly different to what was said before, and I'm not clear about what it means : refunded? to whom? me? to those who paid in the funds?
This message from TransferWise has come Friday evening. It seems to me if I now move funds out of the account to other bank accounts, this will not occur over the weekend, and so not until Monday morning.
The deadline issued by TransferWise expires Sunday evening and I have no idea what then will happen.
As it is, I have a personal TransferWise account and transfers to there are immediate, so fortunately I have an emergency escape route.
I note that the address I had on file for the last some years also could not be proved, for exactly the same reasons.
I will now write to TransferWise customer support. I know from experience this is futile - there was an earlier occasion, some years ago, when the account was almost closed, because document upload on the TransferWise site was for me at least broken - but I will do so anyway. I will update the thread here with events.
User here. Yes, every system is broken once you fall off the happy path and nobody cares.
The OP is only guilty of complaining of minor issues (ie: In AirBnB, it's the currency or something). In his defense, I had issues with all of the services mentioned above; and it's a very common experience across the internet.
From the first person;
1. TW cannot confirm or deny if standing payments on the account will go through.
2. It is clear I cannot directly or easily produce a suitable document to prove address. The only route I can see is is to contact the accountant, get him to change the trading address with Companyies House (the State registrar), and get that document from him. (I don't normally do this, because digital nomad - I'd be doing it every three months, if I did.)
As it is, I may have a better solution - I have reverted the address to the original address.
Interestingly, this has removed the warning that documentation is needed. I am curious to see what comes next.
From the second person;
1. The message fro TW that "if we don’t hear from you in the next 2 days, we’ll need to refund any money you’ve paid in" in fact means that you will no longer be able to make payments from your account, and any payments you do make will bounce back to you two days afterwards.
It turns out "paid in" means "payments you make to other people".
I would have written "you will not be able to make payments".
I'm not completely convinced about what's actually going on here, because of the strange co-incidence between TW saying "if we don't hear from you in two days" and the Support guy saying "payments come back in two days".
In any event Support here have asserted that payments from the account (to AWS, for example) are expected to stop working as of Sunday evening.
This also means the subject of this post is exactly wrong; it reflects my misunderstanding of TW's meaning.
2. TW cannot confirm or deny if payments into the account will still work.
I guess the downside is, well, this, specially having thought it is a good idea to rely on Wise as first and only option for business banking, with their reputation...
I'd picked up a contract in the UK and relocated to the client and created a company for the contract.
I then tried to get a business bank account with a normal bank, and failed.
Metro bank took forever and tons of info and then said no.
(I issued a GDPR data access to see if I could find out anything. After a while, they sent me the same letter twice, arriving on the same day, telling me they had performed the data deletion I had requested.)
HSBC seemed to lose the application - it disappeared. It had been challenging to make in the first place, the application process was confused and confusing (and that was in the bank with help). I didn't try again (and there wasn't really time to try again - the client was already having to hold off paying me, which is awkward for them).
I looked at some others, Lloyds and Barclays, and it's been a while so I can't remember why but they didn't pan out.
TransferWise was my final choice.
When the contract was done, I left the UK, so no opportunity to open further bank accounts in UK for the business.
Indeed for obvious business reasons, there are databases based on the benefits of identifying individuals who habitually engage with customer service services in ways that do so.
The days when raising hell was a way of winning with customer support are long gone.
So you probably blew through that the minute your account triggered elevated kyc.
Personally I’d just edit any existing real utility bill, but I understand why most people might not be willing to do that.
OTOH, depending on your utility provider you might also just be able to go to your account settings and change the information on your bills to match that which you wish to provide Wise with.
If a bank makes vague threats, move your money to a competing bank.
Good luck~
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45766253
- It is simple to construct/figure out the direct HN link if the site ever fails to work.
- I find the linked site easier to read. (Especially on mobile and/or dark mode.)
Based on username I suspect you are a little biased :)