Transferwise - Bad Experience

[N00bster]

If you do not fit the most common case (especially no internet banking) then your hurdles may take more time to solve, sadly.

I notice that you are blaming Transferwise all the way but there is also the possibility that your (local?) bank is in the wrong here. If Transferwise has never heard of your transfer, that may be because they never received anything. I don't seem to find any reference to the date of your transfer attempt, maybe some more time is needed on one of the ends? (either Transferwise or your bank)

If you have more luck with their competitors, just stick to that. I have had only good experiences with their services, but I tick all the boxes of the "normal" customer.

[AustinJapan]

Update.

Finally I got an email from Transferwise this morning.
They have confirmed that they have no record of my transfer.
So as I write this, the money is lost. They asked me to send Furikomi details and the rep said she feels sure the Payment Team will find it.

I have sent my Furikomi details

Off to my local bank now to try my luck over the counter. God knows what I will tell them or how I will explain the situation. I suspect it might be a Katakana name that is attached to my account somewhere (The book says Romaji) that attached itself to the Furikomi, that didn't match with the Roman name in my Transferwise account.

Folks, all I can say is fingers crossed. It's a decent amount that I have needed to transfer for many months but stopped in my tracks when the 'My Number' thing locked me out of the usual method (Go-Remit-super easy) Route.

Meanwhile on the beautiful Transferwise Webpage - it does look nice, I'll give them that - it happliy shows me, 'Your money is on it's way' on a nice vertical flow chart! lol

[OkiBum]

I hate to say it, but by the looks of it, the problem is from your local bank and not transferwise.

These Japanese banks are pain in the ass to be honest, especially with their full width half width characters and issues with transfers.

I have had enough bad experiences with the local banks that I am willing to give Transferwise the benefit of the doubt.

I hope you are able to sort out this issue soon!

[AustinJapan]

Thx Oki,
I just know that my previous method, using GoRemit, never had any problems like this. In fact the GoRemit workflow was as follows, 1) send them Furikomi (either internet or ATM), 2) Check recipient account. That’s it. No need to log on to a website and push buttons. I have no idea what the GoRemit website looks like, or even if it has one!

I just can’t understand how Transferwise is easier as it is recommended here for ‘ease of use’ despite its terrible reputation online. I can only think of two reasons, 1) the narrative of a guy from Estonia who goes to London, appalled at the ripoff banks FX racket,creates his own service and charges a fraction of what the banks do. (It’s a pretty nice story and as far as I know it is true 2) second reason is that some folks here may have gotten or get some remuneration for recommending it. I fail to see how it easier than GoRemit but I don’t doubt it is cheaper- it had better be!

I’m still waiting for a mail. Down at my local branch before and they seem powerless too. Transferwise staff said (after I sent a pic of my futikomi) that they will, “will look into it and get back to me” I mean what else can they say really. Just trying to chill a bit now! Thx man

[AustinJapan]

Update #2

No email or call from support but...

On Transferwise website, it says on 'My Activity' page,

"We should’ve received your money by now. Please check with your bank — they’ll know what’s holding things up"

They'll know...!!
Sure, they'll know.

I've already been down there and they don't know.

[ricardo]

If Go Remit worked for you, why did you change to a service you viewed as crap?

Why didn’t you send a small, non-critical, transfer to test the service first?

[AustinJapan]

ricardo,

I knew someone would have to say that!! lol

When the My Number requirement came up, I thought that it would be a good time to reassess which services are out there.

I had read about the glowing reports of Transferwise here, and I was kindly advised they were the best on this website. Knowing that banks are a rip-off generally, I thought I should make the jump to Transferwise?

GoRemit use Shinsei bank, so you are effectively involving three banks, where as with Transferwise, you cut out the middle-bank! Sounds good, right?

Well, I suspect like a budget airline, they have a thin tolerance for anything minor and a pretty poor service just because of the way they are set up.

What I didn't appreciate is that by going through Shinsei - A Japanese bank - the process from my local Japanese bank would be smooth. Transferwise, which is set up for global stuff must have a different set up.

Anyway, I still hope it will work with Transferwise. I hadn't seen any of the online reviews. I only checked yesterday! They are scary, but fingers crossed we'll all sort it out. I like the basic idea of Transferwise, and dislike the banks and their huge margins of course, but when things fall apart....wow.

[doofus]

Hey AustinJapan, thanks for the info and link to the reviews. I didn't realise so many people were unhappy with Transferwise.

I submitted a transfer with them yesterday before seeing your posts. This is the fifth transfer I've done with them since I started using them last November. I've only ever transferred from Oz to Japan, and always between my own accounts. So far, I've had no problems. So far, anyway. But reading some of those reviews now makes me a bit anxious about them.

[AustinJapan]

Doofus,

Yeah, no worries.

re. ratings, the first lot of 78 reviews was 1.5/5 the second - the one that came up on iOS Safari was 335 reviews for 1.6/5.

It's a complete contrast to what comes up among readers here and for the guy running Cheapo Tokyo - which of course, lest we forget, is a revenue earning business website, not the local church. And then there are commercail websites, that consistently give Transferwise good marks on account of fair currency. A complete contrast to consumer sites, where real people - who to be fair are probably jilted for one reason or another - have come to vent their spleen.

Anyway, most of the reviews say, as long as it goes smoothly, you can enjoy the fact that they don't mess with the exchange rates, so that is a good thing. I might stick with them, despite this, but I am wary of 'snow-blowing promotions'. If anything is amiss, good luck according to these reviews.
All i can say is it was awful, start to ...dare I say,,touch wood.. fi.....

Anyway, I got news again. At two minutes to five (help line closes at five)...

Hint#1 if you want to speak English folks, press *1 for Japanese, not *2 for English (the latter sends you to a recorded message where a sunny voice suggests you call their UK office, after wasting three minutes.) The Japanese folks the will just speak English to you!

So I get a call and they say, Oh..it's all good and your money is its way. It should be deposited in Aust in two days! I ask what went wrong...no answer, no apology, (I suppose it is not their fault? My local bank's fault, Japan's fault. I beg her to tell me how I can make sure this doesn't happen again. I ask her about my Katakana name on the Furikomi slip, was that causing a problem? vague answers.

Hint #2 Support staff said always add the P number...the number you get on your transaction from Transferwise and add this number to the little comments section on the furikomi to aid them. Sounds pretty iffy, but I'll try it. At least they have made a connection between the guy who sent the money from a regional city in Japan to them, to an Aussie who wants his money sent to Aust!

We'll see how it goes.

[RetireJapan]

Just for future reference, here is how Transferwise works:

You log in and set up the transfer. You then have a choice of sending them the money by bank transfer (cheaper but will take more time -as long as it takes for your bank to send it) or using a credit card (more expensive but happens instantly).

You then make the transfer. You need to include the identifier number or they will have to waste time trying to find out where the bank transfer was supposed to go (particularly if the names on your bank account and Transferwise account are different, ie one is in katakana and the other in romaji).

Once they receive your bank transfer they put it through.

It seems this time you didn't include the identifier so it took longer than it should have.

Not sure where all these bad reviews are coming from. The lifeinjapan forum on Reddit mentions Transferwise a lot, and some people don't like it because they claim to have options with better rates, but I haven't seen any service issues mentioned.

Hopefully if you use it again it will go more smoothly.