EUR account at Currenxie

[Sean Restling]

If I request a EUR account at Currenxie (non Amazon seller), do you know which IBAN I'll be given? IE, GB, BE.. Thanks.

 

[diatessaron]

I have a GB IBAN.

 

[ilke]

You choose that in the dropdown. The default dedicated IBAN is through the British Citibank, which is a GB IBAN. I am pretty sure the EU one varies somewhat. At some point, I had a dedicated one through LHV Estonia; then it got changed to one with a "Currenxie -" prefix at EU Citibank. Now, it might be possible to request dedicated ones without that again.

 

[Forester]

You choose that in the dropdown. The default dedicated IBAN is through the British Citibank, which is a GB IBAN.

Exactly, Citi UK.

I am pretty sure the EU one varies somewhat. At some point, I had a dedicated one through LHV Estonia; then it got changed to one with a "Currenxie -" prefix at EU Citibank.

TBMK, Currenxie ended their EUR relationship with LHV and switched to Citi, as it is for their Global accounts.

Now, it might be possible to request dedicated ones without that again.

Might be – I do not know. But beware: EUR collection accounts are not available for companies registered in the EU (if nothing has changed in last months).

 

[kashmoney]

Do they accept UK LTD with None UK Resident Director/ UBO ( Ukrainian) ? Legitimate Online Business
Would be great to have some Input

 

[Forester]

Do they accept UK LTD with None UK Resident Director/ UBO ( Ukrainian) ? Legitimate Online Business
Would be great to have some Input

If director/ UBO has a Ukrainian passport but another residence then may be; on condition that the business has no UA ties. With a UA residence it is a no-go, Currenxie has UA on the prohibited regions list as of a high-risk.
(Of course, you can ask Currenxie directly; the staff there is friendly.)

 

[dgullo]

If director/ UBO has a Ukrainian passport but another residence then may be; on condition that the business has no UA ties. With a UA residence it is a no-go, Currenxie has UA on the prohibited regions list as of a high-risk.
(Of course, you can ask Currenxie directly; the staff there is friendly.)

Hi Forester,

Do you know if there is a phone number for each location of Currenxie? I tried calling an employee using the number from his email but calls are not picked up and on the website I can only see a webform but no phone numbers?

 

[cyprusbanker]

Do you know if there is a phone number for each location of Currenxie? I tried calling an employee using the number from his email but calls are not picked up and on the website I can only see a webform but no phone numbers?

bad sign, please keep us informed... did you consider the time zone, they are hong kong based?

 

[dgullo]

bad sign, please keep us informed... did you consider the time zone, they are hong kong based?

I have considered timezones, I do not see any opening time info or other numbers from the website, so not feeling good about it. Maybe I will try again tomorrow. Sometimes onboarding with EMIs is kind of dark. No straight answer or no body to talk to during the process.
FYI, payset does not answer emails usually and have lots of other problems.
AirWallex, they just rejected the application with no reason when tried to join their HK based account.

I will call HK tomorrow again but if this is the customer service then it will be a no go fo me...

 

[churumbelo]

Do they accept UK LTD with None UK Resident Director/ UBO ( Ukrainian) ? Legitimate Online Business
Would be great to have some Input

About the first part, they do (unless they have changed something). Regarding the Ukrainian UBO, that I do not know.

 

[SoNewToAllShit]

I can only see a webform but no phone numbers?

also no reply to your inquiry by webform? I got response in 3 business days from them a few months ago.

 

[Forester]

Hi Forester,

Do you know if there is a phone number for each location of Currenxie?

TBMK, Currenxie has only one location with offices: 29/F, Cambridge House, Taikoo Place; 979 King's Road, Quarry Bay; Hong Kong. From what I recall, different clerks have different phone numbers (differing by extensions, I guess); but all should be located at the same place.

I tried calling an employee using the number from his email but calls are not picked up and on the website I can only see a webform but no phone numbers?

Yes, I also do not recall to see any phone number to be shared publicly at the web. They share it only within an e-mail correspondence with customers. To be honest, I do not recall when I called them as I definitely have not needed it for a very long time; all of a very few issues that I needed to solve were better to handle by e-mail as it all concerned some particular transactions with numbers etc. (I am their customer for years.)

I have considered timezones, I do not see any opening time info

From what I recall (no guarantee), customer support is working on weekdays I think 9 AM – 5 PM HK time; it was published somewhere at webpages, IIRC. (Do not confuse this with support for FX transactions that works from the morning to I guess 9 PM; this is published for sure.)

Maybe I will try again tomorrow.

If you share the result here, it will be appreciated. You are currently in the onboarding process, do I understand correctly?

Sometimes onboarding with EMIs is kind of dark. No straight answer or no body to talk to during the process.

Yes, unfortunately However, as per my experience it was not valid for Currenxie, I have never heard complaints...

AirWallex, they just rejected the application with no reason when tried to join their HK based account.

It's OT here so just as a side-note: Airwallex HK, unfortunately, began to suck ~2 years ago; Airwallex NL sucks for a long time. But Airwallex US is OK and Airwallex LT, reportedly, too.

 

[dgullo]

hi Forester

Just a quick update. I have eventually managed to sign up to currenxie and dropped Payset.io. Payset has continous problem and several limitation. Currenxie is ok but as my entity is not in HK I do not get a card and have to pay several fees. This ok and it just means i have to use a separate account just for costs, maybe i ll try if i can use paypal and transfer funds from Currenxie to it.

Anyhow I just wanted to share this for the benefit of any reader,

 

[Forester]

hi Forester

Just a quick update. I have eventually managed to sign up to currenxie and dropped Payset.io. Payset has continous problem and several limitation.

Thanks for sharing.

Currenxie is ok

I agree – nice to hear

but as my entity is not in HK I do not get a card

Yes, Currenxie issues cards to HK customers only. If you need cards, you can check Wallester or Soldo (if the latter is still active).

and have to pay several fees.

What fees do you have in mind? There are no maintenance fees with Currenxie, TBMK; and fees for transactions are IMO very reasonable....

This ok and it just means i have to use a separate account just for costs,

Sorry, I somehow do not understand...

maybe i ll try if i can use paypal and transfer funds from Currenxie to it.

In my deep opinion, using paypal costs much more that using Currenxie.

Anyhow I just wanted to share this for the benefit of any reader,

A praiseworthy intention

 

[catpower]

I have considered timezones, I do not see any opening time info or other numbers from the website, so not feeling good about it. Maybe I will try again tomorrow. Sometimes onboarding with EMIs is kind of dark. No straight answer or no body to talk to during the process.
FYI, payset does not answer emails usually and have lots of other problems.
AirWallex, they just rejected the application with no reason when tried to join their HK based account.

I will call HK tomorrow again but if this is the customer service then it will be a no go fo me...

I contacted them by email and got replies after few minutes 3 times yesterday and today

 

[dgullo]

hi @Alfred, it is quite fast for support. I only opened one today and indeed received an email soon. However, onboarding could be better.

They have a streamlined page to do onboarding and I was asked some documents that are not issued by default to the entity I used to sign up. At this stage I would have liked to talk or chat with someone to have direct and immediate acknowledgment of what to do and something to act on. In the end they accepted my documents but initially I had the feeling the application was going to fail like it did with Airwallex HK where there is no direct talking to anyone too during onboarding. Whilst you need to be more patient during onboarding, and I am glad it worked, talking or chatting directly online would have helped.

@Forester about costs and fees, today I paid a 400EUR bill, I hold USD so I had to convert and send the transfer. I paid 8 USD fees and 1.79 USD for FX and this is a wire transfer. Also the other party did not receive the full amount so sending from Currenxie to this particular route ended up being charged again in the middle. The FX rate is also worse that what i would get elsewhere like XE.com or Wise.

For several other costs I still use a UK entity with Wise (I cannot get Wise in the other entity jurisdiction) where I have virtual/credit cards and Wise is a lot cheaper. Without credit cards it gets a lot more complex to handle and set up payments but also in Currenxie I would probably end up paying a lot of fees,

In my experience for card/online payments also Paypal is quite cheap definitely cheaper than 9.79 USD over a 400 EUR payment. Thank you for sharing about Wallester and Soldo. I ll take a look.

 

[Forester]

@dgullo, thanks for sharing your experiences...

@Forester about costs and fees, today I paid a 400EUR bill, I hold USD so I had to convert and send the transfer. I paid 8 USD fees and 1.79 USD for FX and this is a wire transfer.

Well, as usually, all depends on the benchmark / the perspective. From my perspective, 8 USD fee for a SWIFT transfer is pretty cheap. Be advised that e.g. 20-25 USD is absolutely normal elsewhere and it is not considered expensive at all... To be honest, I am actually not aware about cheaper SWIFT with no maintenance fees and no minimal account deposit...

Also the other party did not receive the full amount so sending from Currenxie to this particular route ended up being charged again in the middle.

Sure. This is a feature of SWIFT transfers and you will encounter it with any provider. Correspondence banks take their pennies.

Just be advised that if you perform EUR payments and your counterpart has SEPA capable account (usually has, if accepting EUR) and your company is non-EU, you can open an EUR /SEPA account with Currenxie, in addition to the Global (multi-currency) account – for free. Then you can make EUR payments just for 3 USD (IIRC) omitting correspondence banks.

The FX rate is also worse that what i would get elsewhere like XE.com or Wise.

Yes, it's probably possible to get better FX rate with XE.com. Take into account that they are just currency exchange and remittance provider, they do not give you a current account. As for Wise, I consider them cheap AND not predictable / not reliable.
And generally, again, when comparing with some major banks, FX with Currenxie is nice.

Note: I am not associated with Currenxie in any way. Just using their services for years.

In my experience for card/online payments also Paypal is quite cheap definitely cheaper than 9.79 USD over a 400 EUR payment.

To be honest, I have not learned about paypal rates for a long time. It always used to be quite expensive, unless you were making really micro payments. Also payments used to be flawless between paypal users only. But it might have changed...

Thank you for sharing about Wallester and Soldo. I ll take a look.

You are welcome

 

[drphantom]

Hi Forester,

Do you know if there is a phone number for each location of Currenxie? I tried calling an employee using the number from his email but calls are not picked up and on the website I can only see a webform but no phone numbers?

same issue I had when I tried that. You never reach anyone on phone at this operation.

 

[Houdini]

Hi Forester,

Do you know if there is a phone number for each location of Currenxie? I tried calling an employee using the number from his email but calls are not picked up and on the website I can only see a webform but no phone numbers?

they don't pick up the phone.

 

[Forester]

Sorry, I was on holidays since the beginning of September, including a complete digital detox...

same issue I had when I tried that. You never reach anyone on phone at this operation.

they don't pick up the phone.

Really sorry to hear this. It does not correspond to my experience but I admit that I even do not remember when I wanted to call them; as I simply have not needed it for a long time...

Not good, naturally.

UPDATE: Just now I recall that a few months ago someone from Currenxie called the accountant of a company having an account with them (an administrative issue). I presume that our accountant called back afterwards, as it was not solved immediately... but I am not sure. I'll ask, if I remember