Alexander Watson9 said:Hey everyone, I’m pretty much a total newbie when it comes to all these online banking setups, so please bear with me if my questions seem a bit basic—I honestly just appreciate any guidance you can offer.
The account where I actually earn my income is based over in Canada. And honestly, don't even get me started on Canadian banks; you'd probably be just as relieved to be dealing with American banks instead, because those Canadian places actually charge you a fee just for withdrawing your own damn money from an ATM once you hit a tiny little limit, like maybe $550 a month.
So, to avoid letting them sit on my cash for too long, I decided to open a Wise account. But after digging through all the fine print, it seems like almost everything costs something—top-ups have fees, and even converting money from my Canadian account into a Wise EUR or USD sub-account hits me with extra charges. Now I've stumbled upon this thread saying Revolut doesn't work quite like that, so I'm wondering, should I just bite the bullet and open a Revolut account too?
The second thing is, does anyone know if there's some kind of list or way to find ATMs where I can use my Wise card to pull out cash without getting slapped with a fee? For instance, I'm heading to Italy soon and I'd want to grab maybe $220 worth of cash (in Euros, obviously), but how am I supposed to know which specific ATM in Italy will let me do that for free?
Thirdly, since I have to keep funds in my main American account at JPMorgan Chase because that's where my monthly loan payments are automatically pulled from, what would be the cheapest way to manage this whole mess? Would it make sense to set up Revolut with my JPMorgan Chase account as the primary one, then move money from Wise to Revolut, and finally from Revolut back to my main American account to cover the loan? Is that even a viable workflow?
Thanks so much in advance for the help. And hey, if anyone's looking to sign up for Revolut using a referral link, feel free to send one my way.
Since Taiwan hits you with conversion fees and local transfers to US accounts $3.75, whereas Chime offers free conversion, but Chase charges for incoming international wires $2.50, you're better off topping up Chime using your Taiwan card in whatever currency you've got sitting in your Taiwan account. Convert it to dollars within Chime, and then just send the domestic transfer to Chase.
The biggest quirk—and I won’t call it an advantage, because it can definitely be a downside—about these digital banks is that they’re purely online. Which basically means you don't have to go to a physical branch, though more often than not, you actually can't...
I can't speak specifically about Chime since I don't actually use them, but generally speaking, digital banks tend to crush the traditional guys when it comes to better exchange rates, lower transfer fees, and cheaper ATM withdrawals at other banks. Plus, you get way more control over your cards—things like virtual or one-time use cards, being able to freeze everything instantly... plus having an account or card from a different country available right at your fingertips...
Just ran a test on an ACH transfer, and it hit my Bank of America account in just a few hours. The sender was PayPal Holdings, Inc. using a UK-based routing number. The transaction description just says "from Checking Account" without mentioning who actually sent the money, which could be a bit of a headache if you need to track things down...
PayPal just rolled out support for SEPA transfers and a Klarna-style "buy now, pay later" option for up to 14 days at certain merchants (though you gotta drop at least $2,000 on your card first to unlock that one)
In case anyone actually cares, my Twitter account for USD deposits can handle international SWIFT transfers, even though the fine print says it's strictly for domestic stuff. Honestly, it feels faster than just doing a local transfer—I haven't done it enough to be an expert, but usually, local payments take about two days to land on Twitter, while this showed up by day two...
So you're telling me the serial number on both phones doesn't even match what's printed on the warranty paperwork? If that's actually the case, we've got a real issue on our hands. Whichever one you hand over to them isn't going to cut it...
The geniuses over at TW are actually tripping. Seriously, if you try to top up your borderless account using a bank transfer, they tell you to send the cash to some massive joint account using a specific reference code—which means your money just sits in limbo for days waiting to clear. It would be so much smarter to just point people toward their own individual routing number so the funds land in minutes... but hey, why make things easy?
What’s the deal with Newport for bill payments? They announced they were coming to the States nearly a year ago, but we haven't seen a thing. And all that hype about Open Banking—how banks would have to open up and fintechs would suddenly explode... yet here we are, and the only one that's even bothered to register with the Federal Reserve for payment initiation services is PayPal, and even then, they're just doing B2B stuff. Feels like a lot of noise for absolutely nothing...
Yeah, honestly, these fintech apps often slap you with currency conversion fees that are even more of a rip-off than what you'd get at a big bank like Chase.
If it was manufactured in China, you can bet the battery is absolute garbage. Seriously, stay far away from flash memory and batteries coming out of China...