Question What kind of insurance is TBC Bank flogging to my mother in law?

[Sean Restling]

My mother in law lives in Georgia, she transferred a decent (legitimate, from a small property sale) sum of money to my wife's Wise account, they charged her 120USD for an insurance they said thanks to which my wife won'be debited any money when receiving it. I've never heard of such thing, I know that sometimes banks (especially traditional banks) charge money to the receiver even if the sender specified to pay all charges, but this insurance sale is a first to me, seems to me wasted money since Wise won't charge anything to the receiver anyway. She still has some money to send, still to Wise, can I tell her to politely refuse their "insurance"?

 

[Sols]

Is it an insurance or just a prepayment of fees?

120 USD is probably enough to cover fees in case the sender decides to split (SHA) or shift (BEN) the fees from Wise, or for other fees incurred on the way by other correspondents until it reaches TBC.

If you decline it, you're betting on correspondence fees being less than 120 USD, which they may or may not be.

 

[clemens]

She still has some money to send, still to Wise, can I tell her to politely refuse their "insurance"?

I would do so, for sure

 

[Martin Everson]

These banks never fail to amaze me with their insurance products. TBC site says you can pay an extra $20 to get full amount to arrive on recipient account. Maybe the $120 is for a year which might work out cheaper if doing lots of USD wires rather than $20 a time.

Anyway makes no sense in your case unless you are sending to Bank of Burundi or something.

 

[Sean Restling]

Well spotted about the mentioned 20USD fee on their website, I hand't noticed.

Wise reply on this:
"We don't charge money for receiving GBP into your account however other intermediary banks can receive the money when transferring it as this is a SWIFT transfer. The sender bank can foresee this and tell the sender about the fees so that they can pay for it upfront"