Travelopnik: Has anyone used Transferwise?

"Tapas" (tapas)
12/20/2018 at 16:15 • Filed to: None

So Transferwise debits money from your current back account, converts the currency to any foreign currency, and deposits it into that country’s local account.

The fees are much lower than banks because they have no physical locations as an overhead.

But I don’t know if its a poor service or a scam. I’ve seen articles online saying it’s a great service, but all of them seem sponsored by transfer wise. A google search does not mention this being a scam either.

Let me know if you’ve had any experience with this!

Updates: It is Transferwise. Also, I can’t justify getting a card with no foreign transaction fees, because those cards are about CAD $120 a year. I'd have to use thousands of dollars abroad to make it worth it.

DISCUSSION (27)

WilliamsSW > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:22

If you can, I would recommend getting a credit card that doesn’t charge forex fees (some do, some don’t - have to check fine print) , and use that as much as possible.

I haven’t heard of Travelwise, but it seems unnecessary to me.

404 - User No Longer Available > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:24

You mean TransferWise?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/transferwise/how-does-it-work-and-is-it-safe/

Generally for foreign transactions I just put everything on my credit card, my card has zero fees so it’s just the tiny spread Visa charges. You can also deposit money into the card and do a foreign cash advance for just the ATM fee, but personally I’ve never tried.

BeaterGT > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:27

Do you mean Transferwise? It’s been a while but I s hipped some old Camaro parts to a guy in Austria who was rebuilding his and he sent payment through Transferwise . No issues that I can recall, customer service was helpful when I reached out.

Tapas > 404 - User No Longer Available
12/20/2018 at 16:29

Yes! I’ve updated the post.

I dont have a credit card with no foreign transaction fees. Those cards costs ~CAD $120 and I’d have to use a few grand abroad to compensate for the monthly fee.

404 - User No Longer Available > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:33

There are actually two such cards with no fees :

https://www.hometrust.ca/credit-cards/preferred-visa-card/
https://www.rogersbank.com/en

First one is 1% cashback flat with no fee, second one is 3-4% cashback but with 2.5% fee, effectively netting 0.5-1%. I have the first one, even comes with free roadside assistance.

Tapas > 404 - User No Longer Available
12/20/2018 at 16:34

Oh I didn't know about these. That works!

Tapas > 404 - User No Longer Available
12/20/2018 at 16:38

Oh cool.

Ill look into those cards with no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:38

I’d highly recommend Charles Schwab bank specifically for this purpose. They offer checking accounts with zero foreign transaction fees and ATM fee refunds. Meaning if you get charged an ATM fee anywhere in the world, they will refund it to you and never charge a fee themselves either. Then the easiest thing to do is just go to a local ATM and withdraw the local currency. But if you dont want to deal in cash, they give excellent rates on currency conversion anyways. I have just found that in a lot of international locations (especially older places) that cash is the only way you can pay for things. Plus it’s kind of fun to play with funny colored money for a couple weeks anyways lol.

And after I got that account just for that purpose, I realized how great Schwab is in general. Customer service is top notch and I even earn interest on my checking account with zero minimum balance. Have been with them for about 5 or 6 years now and gotten rid of all of my physical bank accounts since then.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:38

BeaterGT > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 16:39

Don’t know if there any Canadian banks that offer them, but there are checking accounts without foreign transaction fees too if you don’t feel like opening a credit card. Might be worth checking out.

Tapas > BeaterGT
12/20/2018 at 16:39

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback

BeaterGT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/20/2018 at 16:41

Can second this. Whenever I can’t use a credit card abroad, I hit the ATM with my Schwab account.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > BeaterGT
12/20/2018 at 16:44

To add to this, I also have a credit card with no foreign transaction fee. It is a no fee credit card through USAA. I generally just use cash but i f I am going to use a card at a point of sale, it is more likely my credit card just for the protection of credit vs debit.

404 - User No Longer Available > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/20/2018 at 16:47

Don’t think we have Charles Schwab in Canada.

PS: I think we’re hit with the latest Kinja - disappearing comments. Tapas replied to me twice, you posted yours twice, lol.

BeaterGT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/20/2018 at 16:54

Yep, same here except I use a Chase Sapphire . Otherwise it’d be a fee-free card. Between the credit/debit setup and Google Fi, traveling abroad got a lot less complicated.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 17:20

Western Union some money to yourself, but in the destination country. When you arrive you can pick up the cash there. There’s a small fee but the exchange rate is gonna be better than, say, the kiosk at the airport.

How well this works may vary with the destination country. If their currency is stronger than the Canadian dollar you may pay a higher fee.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 17:24

My Capital One card has no FTFs and it costs no money.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > 404 - User No Longer Available
12/20/2018 at 18:13

Charles schwab is an online bank so as long as they dont ban canadians, I dont see why you couldnt use them. I have never been to one of their physical branches. The only downside of that is of course you cannot deposit cash in any meaningfully safe way but I dont ever come across large sums of cash that I can’t just spend eventually instead. There are branches around but I dont see why I would bother.

And yeah kinja is just gone stupid as always. Nothing new really. Unless it decides to delete everyone’s profiles, I will not have much to complain about.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > BeaterGT
12/20/2018 at 18:17

How does Google Fi work abroad, just over wifi or do they have some sick deals with wireless carriers in Europe or something? I bought a mobile hotspot with two sim slots and can just put in local sims purchased over there. This is nice because then both my girlfriend and I can continue using our phones like usual. This is especially helpful since she has a not unlocked iphone so swapping sim cards is impossible there. The hotspot is just super convenient since we can have multiple devices and get cheap internet wherever. I use google voice already so calling/texting over wifi is simple as can be.

David Baker > Tapas
12/20/2018 at 18:34

I read that as Transferwife, much different service. Lol

404 - User No Longer Available > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/20/2018 at 20:04

That's fine but I think he's trying to convert Canadian to US. Not sure about the buy rates.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > 404 - User No Longer Available
12/20/2018 at 20:14

You are just talking exchange rate that the bank gets? I’ve done CAD, EUR, and GBP from my USD using Schwab and haven’t had any issues and the rates matched what Google said the rate was . I assume it works the same way in the other direction.

404 - User No Longer Available > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/20/2018 at 22:31

Generally banks have a buy and sell rate where they take a spread. Banks don’t work for free.

Tapas > David Baker
12/21/2018 at 00:06

LOL

BeaterGT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/22/2018 at 11:31

Sorry, with the Kinja notifications all messed up I’m just seeing this. On Google Fi, you’ll want to use it over Wifi as much as you can since you only pay for the data you use ($10/gb) plus a flat $20. So if you use 500mb in a month, bill is only $25. No roaming/international charges.

I haven’t used it as a hotspot yet, so I can’t really say how well that works. But coming into Asia or Europe, it automatically connected to the best network it found and that was that . The hotspot you use does sound pretty awesome. I used to SIM-swap my phone before I switched to GoogleFi and I don’t believe there is anything keeping me from doing a SIM-swap should GoogleFi not work.

Only hiccup I’ve had so far was in Hungary getting connected once I made it to my lodging. Customer service was able to fix it and then it was fine for the rest of the trip. Everywhere else I have been to, I turn off airplane mode once landed and am connected before I’m off the plane.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > BeaterGT
12/24/2018 at 12:58

Ohhhh I didn't realize it was pay per gb and not just choose a package. That's really neat! I seem to often have very varied data usage, going from most months using right around 2gb but then randomly I'll use 5+ if I do a bunch of traveling or something. Right now I just pay for 2gb (plus Unlimited talk/text) for $35 and then it's $5 per gb beyond that. This is on Straight talk, which is a pretty decent deal. But I don't get any international stuff out of that. So it might be worth doing if I end up out of the country more often.

BeaterGT > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
12/24/2018 at 14:19

Yeah, it’s really nice if you don’t use a lot of data, always have wifi, or some combination of both. My bill is typically around $30, but it’s nice to know I can get that lower by simply not using my phone as much or being smarter about how I use it .

If you do decide to look into it, search for a deal either by referral or sign- up first . They seem to always be offering something. Just recently the deal was a travel (airbnb) gift card for the purchase price of a new Pixel 3 when you signed up with Google Fi .