Warren Buffett

ironcyclist58 said:And you better make sure the bank account you're using actually matches your name, otherwise they’ll just bounce the whole thing...

Understood. Thank you all for the helpful answers!

TW is switching from a German to a Belgian IBAN for Euro transactions. The real kicker is that the Belgian one actually supports direct debits now.

I'm wondering if I can link their debit card to an American PlayStation Network account? Since you can't use a European card on the American PlayStation Network anymore.

Besides, even a Chase card is European... 🤷

Can I link a Transferwise debit card to my PayPal account to pay using PayPal

Should be doable.

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.

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.

You can actually find the list of fee-free ATMs for Revolut right here: http://bit.ly/thefreeATMlist

As for your other question, you might want to check with someone who has more hands-on experience managing both JP Morgan Chase and Revolut...
Since Revolut tends to offer much better conversion rates, you really have to sit down and crunch the numbers to see if it makes more sense to transfer the funds to Revolut first, convert them there, and then move them over to JP Morgan Chase...

Jeffrey Moore6 said:You can actually find the list of fee-free ATMs for Revolut right here: http://bit.ly/thefreeATMlist

As for your other question, you might want to check with someone who has more hands-on experience managing both JP Morgan Chase and Revolut...
Since Revolut tends to offer much better conversion rates, you really have to sit down and crunch the numbers to see if it makes more sense to transfer the funds to Revolut first, convert them there, and then move them over to JP Morgan Chase...

Awesome, thanks a ton—now if I could just track down a similar list for Chase before I go ahead and order my PayPal card.

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.

Ugh... I’ve actually had to read that out loud twice just to make sure I was processing everything correctly 😁
I get it now, thanks
In that case, it’s definitely smarter to just handle all of this through Chime.
Actually, maybe the best move is to just open a Chime account right away that’s linked directly to that Canadian account and then follow the rest of your plan step-by-step.
There's really no point in me sending money from TW to Chime first, because I'll probably just end up losing a chunk of change on the exchange rate anyway, right?

So yeah, I'm definitely going to set up Chime, but I'm honestly stuck on whether I should link it to my Canadian account or my American one—is that even something I need to worry about?

What do you mean by "connect"? Chime doesn't exactly link up with your existing accounts like that. What you actually get is a single GBP IBAN where you can receive just about any currency via SWIFT, plus you get EUR through ACH, and even a dedicated GBP account for local transfers. To top it all off, you can load money into Chime using credit or debit cards in any currency... though if they're issued within the EU and aren't business cards, Chime won't hit you with fees—but lately, some of the banks on the other end have started charging their own bites for topping up with credit cards.

That’s exactly why I was questioning if this is even necessary, since someone actually told me that once you set up a Chime account, you have to "link" some traditional bank account to it.
Clearly, I was given bad information.

Anyway, I'm just going to go ahead and open it, then I'll finally be able to see what the actual fees look like for certain services. Honestly, it wouldn't even surprise me if my local Chase branch hit me with some ridiculous fee just for topping up my Chime balance.
Thanks for all the help, 🙂

Hey there,
Has anyone else run into a weird glitch where their Chase card shows a zero balance at an ATM, even though the money is definitely sitting right there in the account?

From what I've seen, checking your balance with foreign cards usually just hits a wall at our local ATMs.

Once I finished registering, they asked for a deposit of roughly $20. For every single payment method—credit, debit, wire transfer, or ACH—they specify that the funds must come from an account held in my own name.

The whole thing is completely nonsensical... I’m trying to set up a Wise account because I don't have, nor do I want, any other type of account—but apparently, I need another account just to open Wise. I have the money ready to go, yet I am physically unable to deposit it.

Has anyone actually managed to bypass this absurdity?

Don't tell me you're flying without a card?
If you are, just open a free checking account somewhere—like a basic one at Chase—or grab a prepaid card. It's not rocket science...

It’s honestly such a headache trying to get cash onto those fintech apps... sometimes it feels nearly impossible.
I’ve been using Chime as my secondary account, which works out pretty well for me. I just loaded about $20 using my Chime card, and from there, everything else just flows through T-Mobile via standard transfers or by simply using the T-Mobile card for daily spending.

ironcyclist58 said:Don't tell me you're flying without a card?
If you are, just open a free checking account somewhere—like a basic one at Chase—or grab a prepaid card. It's not rocket science...

I don't have one. One of the main reasons I'm looking into Wise is because they offer a free debit card without those annoying monthly fees. I'm aware of the basic accounts over at Chase, but I don't need a standard US bank account right now, and it makes zero sense to go through the hassle of opening and closing one just for this single transfer. Besides, the setup isn't nearly as seamless as they claim—even after you talk to someone and sign everything via the app, you still have to transfer funds from an existing account or physically walk into a branch to get it activated. Again, it’s just way too much unnecessary nonsense for a single Wise transfer.

Jeffrey Moore6 said:It’s honestly such a headache trying to get cash onto those fintech apps... sometimes it feels nearly impossible.
I’ve been using Chime as my secondary account, which works out pretty well for me. I just loaded about $20 using my Chime card, and from there, everything else just flows through T-Mobile via standard transfers or by simply using the T-Mobile card for daily spending.

That sounds like a solid plan, especially if it works with a virtual card, but how would you actually fund the Chime account? Don't they require the deposit to come from an existing account held under the same name?

amberheron22 said:I don't have one. One of the main reasons I'm looking into Wise is because they offer a free debit card without those annoying monthly fees. I'm aware of the basic accounts over at Chase, but I don't need a standard US bank account right now, and it makes zero sense to go through the hassle of opening and closing one just for this single transfer. Besides, the setup isn't nearly as seamless as they claim—even after you talk to someone and sign everything via the app, you still have to transfer funds from an existing account or physically walk into a branch to get it activated. Again, it’s just way too much unnecessary nonsense for a single Wise transfer.

That sounds like a solid plan, especially if it works with a virtual card, but how would you actually fund the Chime account? Don't they require the deposit to come from an existing account held under the same name?

Of course they do, 😁 but there are actually several workarounds:
1. You could have someone else who uses Chime send you a transfer. (Works with any currency)
2. Someone else could send you a wire transfer (USD via domestic or international transfer)
3. You could head down to a local bank and request a wire transfer (ACH) or try to deposit cash manually. (I haven't personally tested this one though)

They only insist on the PayPal card being in your name, so once that's settled, you can eventually swap in a TW card for the TopUp process.

I've experimented with all of these myself... and honestly, the only way that consistently worked for me was using Apple Pay for the TopUp, which then lets me use TW and a few other options.

My whole goal is really just to distance myself from all the traditional local banks... 😛 But it certainly isn't easy. 🙄
So, feel free to try and piece together a combination that works for you.

Edit: I just remembered a few more details, so I've added them here.
I couldn't manage to move my USD via standard online banking because their system doesn't recognize the Chime Routing Number for those types of transfers...