I thought this was a coincidence, but since then I've read or heard a bunch of reports and maybe it is not in fact a coincidence.
- Changed US bank details at short notice, caused operational chaos for anyone using them for incoming payments as all incoming payments to the "old" details bounced: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37936076
- Deactivated all US debit cards on 2 working days' notice, making a very fun weekend for anyone who had a wise card loaded into 100+ SaaS services I assume https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38046293
- Not limited to US as there are accounts of them blocking Europe-based businesses (mine above and also e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38047863)
- Reports on places like https://www.facebook.com/groups/transferwisevictims/ of people taking 3.5 months to get their funds returned
- I randomly mentioned Wise problems to a friend and she immediately said "Oh wow I closed my account in the US and used them to transfer all the funds to Europe. They just 'lost' the transfer as it's now gone from my US account and is not credited to my Europe account and they will not help me find it'
Maybe a coincidence as I am aware of frequency illusions etc, but I wondered if anyone knows of any wider potential liquidity or solvency issues that they might be having, (linked to having to move away from Community Federal Savings Bank at short notice maybe?) which means they are playing these games with delaying tactics?
I was just told that they need an extension for "reasons beyond their control" and will add 35 *working* days to the normal 14 calendar days response time for complaints.
OFX is boring but has good spreads, always been able to reach a human and always worked for me for international transfers.
I was shocked at how they handled my case, but have seen many more horror stories since.
My account has been flagged several times for "speculative currency trading", even though that's not what I'm doing, and my usage patterns haven't really changed much since I started using the platform.
If you set up a transfer and don't fund it immediately, or you cancel it and set up another transfer within a narrow time window where the exchange rate has changed to your benefit, the system thinks you're speculating. This never happened to prior to the last 12 months or so, and recently it seems they're flagging transfers this way much more often. Seems like it's probably due to overall volatility in certain currencies being higher over the last year or so.
The "penalty" they apply is just that you can't "lock" an exchange rate for international transfers anymore. Usually, your exchange rate is locked at the market rate at the time the transfer is initiated, and then you have a time limit to fund the transfer at the rate you locked.
But now, when you initiate a transfer they add a 3% "buffer" on top of the funds required to fund the transfer, and they apply the market rate at the time they receive the funds, and then refund you whatever the difference is.
Something has gone badly wrong in there and the only answer is to close the accounts and move away asap. That's what I'm almost finished doing for my 4 companies and shortly my personal account.
Their UI is excellent and I've just noted that they have a double-sided reward for new clients such that if you register with amnis using a referral code (e.g. mine: 08e57b) and make your first transaction, they will pay you CHF 200.
You can sign up directly here https://app.amnistreasury.com/create-an-account.
My guess is they either got a stern warning from regulators or are being proactive at try to eliminate the fraud. And not in a "this is our 2024 goal" but a "we better do this now or risk getting shut down". So massive changes to account validation are happening and customer service isn't prepared.
That depends where in Europe
Also, here in EU they were happily paying interest on current balance due to recent interest rate hike, but suddenly a while back this interest generation has to be claimed by moving money from current to "Jar" thing and accept some terms, which is a bit dramatic IMO.