I changed my address, and TransferWise in two days will empty my account
I have a UK one-man company, through which I work as an IT contractor.
Recently, I changed the address.
TransferWise then KYCed, and requires;
1. A bank statement.
2. A utility bill.
There are no other bank accounts, and it's a one-man company; there's no rental, no phone bill, no water bill - there is a server bill, for the server the company web-site is on, and this TransferWise have refused.
To date, TransferWise stated in their communications that if I could not prove the address, the account would become emit-only; I could not pay money in.
I have just received a message from TransferWise that in two days, all funds in the account will be refunded.
This is wholly different to what was said before, and I'm not clear about what it means : refunded? to whom? me? to those who paid in the funds?
This message from TransferWise has come Friday evening. It seems to me if I now move funds out of the account to other bank accounts, this will not occur over the weekend, and so not until Monday morning.
The deadline issued by TransferWise expires Sunday evening and I have no idea what then will happen.
As it is, I have a personal TransferWise account and transfers to there are immediate, so fortunately I have an emergency escape route.
I note that the address I had on file for the last some years also could not be proved, for exactly the same reasons.
I will now write to TransferWise customer support. I know from experience this is futile - there was an earlier occasion, some years ago, when the account was almost closed, because document upload on the TransferWise site was for me at least broken - but I will do so anyway. I will update the thread here with events.
After AWS (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34387346), Reddit (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35529137), AirBnB (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38524186), Instagram (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44465796), Gnosispay (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44766260), Hetzner (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46050904), and now TransferWise are problematic for you - are you sure it's all these services, and not something done with your account?
I may be wrong, but it seems to me it may be this happens quite a bit to quite a few people, but I am different in that I get annoyed and write about it. Other people get over it :-)
I am a big fan of not ad-hominem-ing people and instead reading into the problem they have, individually. In this case, with Transferwise, it seems that the problem is legitimate.
> are you sure it's all these services
User here. Yes, every system is broken once you fall off the happy path and nobody cares.
All I can say is in personal and business I use more than one bank. Systems go down, things like this happen, they raise fees.
I read the T&Cs so I know things like "you need an actual address" before committing my money. YMMV.
Just issue your own bill from casenmgreen utilities & power?
Can you describe a scenario where you wait for a bank to mess with your funds in a way that you aren’t clear about and your response is “I’m glad I didn’t move my money while I still had full control of the account”?
If a bank makes vague threats, move your money to a competing bank.
BTW for people considering this it definitely means making sure you have a secondary account that you can transfer to before you get that first email.
There was a very similar story about a month ago: https://hw.leftium.com/#/item/45766253
Good luck~
A direct HN link would be better.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45766253
- There is a direct HN link at the top of the linked page.
- It is simple to construct/figure out the direct HN link if the site ever fails to work.
- I find the linked site easier to read. (Especially on mobile and/or dark mode.)
Sure but linkrot is a thing. Linking with HN avouds this.
Based on username I suspect you are a little biased :)