Warren Buffett

Look, we’ve all been there—getting absolutely fleeced by big US banks with those ridiculous service fees and all those sneaky little costs hidden in the fine print whenever you try to move money in or out of a foreign currency.

Honestly, Wise is way cheaper than any of our mainstream American banks. You can save a massive chunk of change if you're converting anything back to dollars or just trying to send some cash to family living overseas.

It’s super easy too—you can set up a personal or business account in like two minutes right from your phone or laptop. You can pay into a bank account in basically any currency, and when you pay the recipient, you're actually using the real exchange rate.

https://transferwise.com

According to data from the Federal Reserve, there are about 400 different types of weird, annoying bank fees floating around out there.

While Jeremiah’s bank charged him a fee of $23 just for a foreign currency transfer to send five bucks to an account within the US, things got even more ridiculous with JPMorgan Chase. They hit the recipient with a $17 charge on that tiny five-dollar inflow, which meant the Credit Union ended up sitting in the red by $1.61 because there wasn't even enough money in the account to cover the fee itself.

Anyone here actually used this company or something similar? What was your experience like?

So there's this topic.

ironcyclist58 said:So there's this topic.

The subject matter isn't actually identical... from what I can gather, this discussion focuses specifically on Wise, whereas the other one covers general methods for transferring funds

I’ve always relied on Wise to move money from my PayPal account, and honestly, they’ve been fantastic. But yesterday, after receiving my free Mastercard—which is a really sleek green design featuring the "Hello World" 😍 logo—I decided to take it out for a spin and see how it handles actual shopping. My first trip to Walmart this morning went perfectly fine, though I was a bit puzzled by the POS terminal. Before I even entered my PIN, it was offering me a choice between USD and British Pounds. It felt a little strange since my account is strictly in Dollars, and I have zero connection to pounds, other than the fact that the issuing bank is British and the card's registered location shows the United Kingdom. I assume that's why it's happening?

I also headed out to try an ATM withdrawal. The transaction went through $33 without any extra fees at either a JPMorgan Chase or a JP Morgan ATM, but again, the machine kept pushing me to withdraw in USD or convert directly $33 into British Pounds. Since I don't hold any pounds in my account, I have no idea where the funds would even come from if I had selected that option 🤔. Is there actually a way to just withdraw from my Dollar account, or am I stuck with these USD and Pound prompts?



All things considered, this is such a great setup, especially for withdrawing cash using a credit card. You can essentially pull $33 from your credit card for just the standard $0.13 Wise fee and then withdraw it for free using the Wise card at any ATM here in the States. Most ATMs seem to be totally free to use—I think only Euronet machines charge a small fee, but let's be honest, nobody uses those anyway—plus you avoid those massive cash advance fees from the credit card companies. Both the Wise account and the card itself are completely free.

Yeah, they’re offering DCC in pounds because the card is issued in the UK.
Just a heads-up, you can pull out up to about $250 worth of cash every month without any fees, but once you hit that limit, they’ll slap a 2% commission on you.

Sure, I’m aware there are limits, but since we're talking about a free account, it’s more than enough for what most people need. Plus, you can use that card pretty much anywhere just like any standard American debit card, so you won't really be hunting for cash. But if you do find yourself needing some, the amount they provide without any extra fees is perfectly reasonable.

Can anyone give me a hand with linking PayPal and TransferWise? I’ve got a business account over on PayPal, but my TransferWise is just a personal one, and I'm using a debit card. I really need to move some Euros from PayPal over to TransferWise, but PayPal is being stubborn—it's only giving me the option to link a US bank account, which I don't have. It won't recognize the TransferWise card I already added. Any ideas?

You can actually grab a US bank account through PayPal for incoming wires (haven't personally tested it out yet though)...

I’ve already given that a shot, but honestly? It just isn't working for me.

Well, looks like you're completely out of options then. For American Venmo accounts, you've only got two ways to pull your cash: straight to a Visa card or via a US bank account.

Here’s a simple workaround: open a German PayPal account and link it to that US Dollar account you set up through Wise using your German IBAN. Once that's linked, just transfer the funds from your American PayPal to your German one, then pull the money straight into your Wise account. It's that easy! Just keep in mind it usually takes about two or three days for the funds to actually show up in your Wise account.

👎Well, it didn't work out. Not even having a German address and a German cell number saved me. When I tried linking my German bank account, Visa partially froze my account and started asking for more paperwork. I sent over everything I could, but they wouldn't accept it because they're demanding official German documents—like utility bills or tax returns—that perfectly match the name on my German Visa account. So now, I'm right back to square one. 🙏 Thanks for the heads-up, though! I never would have even thought about trying to link a German Visa account. But hey, my son is living in Germany, so maybe we can cook up a plan. 😁

It’s actually pretty strange. I have both German and American PayPal accounts, and everything works perfectly fine even though I don't have any local documentation for them. The only verification I had to go through was a quick SMS code sent to my phone, and that was really it. 🤷

I’ve got a hunch these audits are totally random, or they're running some secret algorithm that nobody's privy to. Some people get hit early, others later, and some folks just fly under the radar forever. They actually flagged me for ID verification on my Venmo account, mostly because I moved a chunk of change all at once...

Anyone ever tried paying bills at the Associated Press (or maybe Walmart) using a Transferwise's Visa?

I don't see why paying a bill wouldn't work, provided you actually have enough funds in your account, right? 🤷

Mainly because JPMorgan Chase isn't exactly being vocal about any of this.
Here’s what I’m wondering:
1. Does it even work with foreign cards?
2. Are we talking a standard transaction here, or is it a cash advance?
3. Is it compatible with all account types (like those where things like Apple Pay might fail—say, an American Express card)?
4. Will it try to hit you with DCC in GBP, forcing you to make sure you decline it?

JPMorgan Chase should really just act as their local partner for support; I highly doubt they’d restrict everything strictly to their own Mastercard. It reminds me of how a shop in Beverly Hills might run ads everywhere promoting Mastercard payments, only to display a Bank of America logo right next to it—maybe even offering some kind of sweepstakes. In those cases, you can swipe a Chime card, use Twitter, or even a Revolut card, and the terminal just spits out the receipt for the contest perfectly fine. 😁

It ought to be a standard transaction, and honestly, you should always decline Dynamic Currency Conversion if you're entering your PIN.

Wait, so USPS doesn't work for American Express? That’s strange—I actually just used my American Express via USPS about 15 minutes ago using Maestro 🤔

Kevin Morris12 said:JPMorgan Chase should really just act as their local partner for support; I highly doubt they’d restrict everything strictly to their own Mastercard. It reminds me of how a shop in Beverly Hills might run ads everywhere promoting Mastercard payments, only to display a Bank of America logo right next to it—maybe even offering some kind of sweepstakes. In those cases, you can swipe a Chime card, use Twitter, or even a Revolut card, and the terminal just spits out the receipt for the contest perfectly fine. 😁

It ought to be a standard transaction, and honestly, you should always decline Dynamic Currency Conversion if you're entering your PIN.

Wait, so USPS doesn't work for American Express? That’s strange—I actually just used my American Express via USPS about 15 minutes ago using Maestro 🤔

Maybe give Visa or Chime a shot, or just stick to a standard credit card... 😉

I tried it myself just now, and the credit card isn't working. It keeps saying you can only pay with debit cards. From what I can tell, this seems to be the rule for all accounts now—it wasn't specified that this restriction applied only to that specific American Express account. 🤷

I was actually thinking about giving Revolut a shot, but I really didn't want to deal with the hassle of moving money around just to top up the balance. Why would USPS reject a Revolut Mastercard? If they are, I’m guessing it might be because their cards don't support D Secure...