Receive a 240k bank transfer on corporate Wise

[KScyprus]

Hey there!

I have a company in Cyprus that deals with e-commerce (dropshipping). We receive money from our customers via Stripe in dollars, so I need to convert it into euros.

Now I have to receive a Stripe payout of approximately $ 240k and I would like to send them to the corporate Wise account, in order to convert them into euros.

Given the large amount, do you think it is a prudent operation or will they close my corporate Wise account?

In the past, I have received $ 55k from Stripe without any problems on Wise.

If I were to receive 240k from any private person, I would already know the answer: my account would certainly be closed.

However, in this specific case I would get the money from Stripe and have all the supporting documents.

I would not want to split the wire transfers because next month I will have to collect other similar amounts and otherwise it would take me 2 years to transfer the money from Stripe to corporate accounts.

I ask for an opinion from someone who has ever had a similar experience.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sols]

As long as you can provide supporting documents and your business is within Wise's AUP, it shouldn't be an issue. You will be asked questions and the funds might be held for a couple of days while you go through the document review process.

I see similar and higher amounts flow through Wise.

 

[uplana]

Don't forget the most important part with Wise. Call them or go to their live chat and ask for someone ranking higher there and explain your business to them. Ask them for an email address to someone you can send your detailed business description including transaction flow so you will have this on record should something go wrong.

Doing this will protect you from a lot of nasty mess later on which potential could come to you.

 

[CaptK]

Wise have become very much like a commercial bank and if you provide the evidence and get the all clear they are fine. I sold a property and deposited £1.3M no issues and I have a paymaster account with them also that takes in 3rd party funds no issues.

Just be 100% honest

 

[KScyprus]

Thanks a lot to everyone. I'll let you know how it goes

 

[Martin Everson]

I have a company in Cyprus that deals with e-commerce (dropshipping). We receive money from our customers via Stripe in dollars, so I need to convert it into euros.

Now I have to receive a Stripe payout of approximately $ 240k and I would like to send them to the corporate Wise account, in order to convert them into euros.

Dollars????????

Let us know once they close your account.

 

[KScyprus]

Dollars????????

Let us know once they close your account.

Why are you so pessimistic? tell us your experience and if you want give me some advice.

 

[NicolasMaduro]

1. Stripe offers to convert your balance from USD to EUR. I can´t remember how much they charge for that. I think its a 1% or 2% fee. However that is a possibiltiy if you are worried.
2. Receiving payouts from Stripe to your Wise account shouldnt be an issue if you were honest when opening your Wise account(that you do eCommerce). I assume you might already have given Wise your eCommerce URL.
3. Wise seem to be more worried about USD than EUR is my experience.

 

[polonieth]

Wouldn't it make more sense to receive Stripe payouts more frequently? Mine are sent to a bank account almost instantly.

Have you built up $240k in your Stripe account? I didn't even know that was possible tbh. I wouldn't do it, why let them look after your cash.

 

[KScyprus]

1. Stripe offers to convert your balance from USD to EUR. I can´t remember how much they charge for that. I think its a 1% or 2% fee. However that is a possibiltiy if you are worried.
2. Receiving payouts from Stripe to your Wise account shouldnt be an issue if you were honest when opening your Wise account(that you do eCommerce). I assume you might already have given Wise your eCommerce URL.
3. Wise seem to be more worried about USD than EUR is my experience.

Stripe has a 2% currency exchange fee (very high for my taste).
Wise has a 0.42% currency exchange fee.
So I preferred to collect dollars directly from my clients and do the currency exchange on Wise.

Wouldn't it make more sense to receive Stripe payouts more frequently? Mine are sent to a bank account almost instantly.

Have you built up $240k in your Stripe account? I didn't even know that was possible tbh. I wouldn't do it, why let them look after your cash.

We were waiting for them to open the account at the Bank of Cyprus. We didn't have solid banks to deposit money into, so I preferred to set up manual wire transfers on Stripe and keep the money there rather than a small online bank.

I hope there are no problems because basically it is a payment received by Stripe for an e-commerce. Stripe is probably the best known payment gateway and does the KYC process correctly, so I hope the folks at Wise notice this too and don't get scared for such a large amount.

 

[PaulKruger]

You can't accept US$ into Wise account, but be EUR nor can you get a US account - at least it is so if you live in Europe!

 

[polonieth]

Stripe has a 2% currency exchange fee (very high for my taste).
Wise has a 0.42% currency exchange fee.
So I preferred to collect dollars directly from my clients and do the currency exchange on Wise.



We were waiting for them to open the account at the Bank of Cyprus. We didn't have solid banks to deposit money into, so I preferred to set up manual wire transfers on Stripe and keep the money there rather than a small online bank.

I hope there are no problems because basically it is a payment received by Stripe for an e-commerce. Stripe is probably the best known payment gateway and does the KYC process correctly, so I hope the folks at Wise notice this too and don't get scared for such a large amount.

Well, you won't have a problem then. If it's queried, you can show the individual transactions that combined to make the 240k total in Stripe.

 

[KScyprus]

You can't accept US$ into Wise account, but be EUR nor can you get a US account - at least it is so if you live in Europe!

Sorry I didn't understand your message. Of course I can get dollars into my Wise account. I use it for exactly this purpose.

 

[Martin Everson]

Why are you so pessimistic? tell us your experience and if you want give me some advice.

Wise aint dollar friendly especially with large payments. It comes down to risk appetite and money laundering and yes money laundering exists in e-commerce world too. If you plan on receiving similar dollar amounts each month paperwork won't save you.

I suppose you can try until it blows up then create a thread on here slamming Wise for closing account for no reason .

God luck

 

[JamesDonkey]

Dollars????????

Let us know once they close your account.

Does the fact that it's in dollars matter that much?

What if it had been in any other major currency? Would that have changed a chance to go through, with less scrutiny, drastically?

 

[4br]

Re-post:

I opened a Wise account with about 600,000 EUR. From and to the same company. But from a Caribbean piece of paper company from @Martin Everson 's favourite target bank.

It arrived the next day if I remember and they hit me with their document request.

I was surprised with how quickly I was able to get the money credited into the account. I just sent them some invoices and all my bank statements.

After they sent me an email to say that I should email: largetransfers [АТ] transferwise.com before further large transfers; I guess that is @wise.com now.

I really like the service so far. In terms of international transfers and not losing 3% on them, it is the best.

I suspect they are on a loose leash from the global cabal; and after their honeymoon growth period they will jack up their fees and their somewhat lax KYC will be replaced with rFID scanners.

 

[JamesDonkey]

and after their honeymoon growth period they will jack up their fees and their somewhat lax KYC will be replaced with rFID scanners.

but by that time, there'll be other EMIs created too; as a result, there'll be more choise.

 

[Sols]

Wise aint dollar friendly especially with large payments. It comes down to risk appetite and money laundering and yes money laundering exists in e-commerce world too. If you plan on receiving similar dollar amounts each month paperwork won't save you.

I'm surprised that this has been your experience with Wise and USD. They are definitely more alert when it comes to USD, but I have seen cases where paperwork has been fine for large sums of USD through Wise (larger than discussed here). For low-risk businesses with all documents in order, though.

I think it's important to understand why Wise is different from most other EMIs.

Most EMIs cater to the unbankable or the hard-to-bank: high-risk businesses, offshore companies, and other types of businesses which regulators have effectively forced out of credit institutions/banks. As such, these EMIs have high pricing and worse exchange rates than most banks. Other than a broader AUP, the likes of Bankera, Verifo, SatchelPay, AdvCash, and so on have no advantage over regular banks. Probably safe to guess that the vast majority of their high-risk clients would leave for a bank (in EU/UK/CH), if a bank (in EU/UK/CH) would accept them.

Wise built their business differently. They started as a money remittance company competing with Western Union, Xoom, and such. Combined with now offering accounts, they have built up enough volume to be profitable even with low fees and thin margins. This makes Wise attractive even to low-risk businesses, which is why Wise has a broader portfolio of clients and therefore better banking relationships than most other EMIs.

 

[Martin Everson]

Does the fact that it's in dollars matter that much?

100% it matters.

What if it had been in any other major currency? Would that have changed a chance to go through, with less scrutiny, drastically?

Yes but not necessarily with less scrutiny.

I opened a Wise account with about 600,000 EUR. From and to the same company. But from a Caribbean piece of paper company from @Martin Everson 's favourite target bank.

Was this before or after EPB lost their USD Fedwire account . I am talking dollars by the way and not euros.

I'm surprised that this has been your experience with Wise and USD. They are definitely more alert when it comes to USD, but I have seen cases where paperwork has been fine for large sums of USD through Wise (larger than discussed here). For low-risk businesses with all documents in order, though.

Wise is a UK Stock Exchange listed company now and I don't see them changing their dollar paranoia. Forgive me if I am wrong but they don't even allow Americans to send USD abroad. Personally I would think wisely about using them for regular dollar business.

 

[4br]

Was this before or after EPB lost their USD Fedwire account . I am talking dollars by the way and not euros.

When was that? I deposited at the end of November 2020. I think they sent me an email in February telling me their CAD account had been closed. How many currencies have they got running at the moment?