Transferwise - withholding customer's money

born_again

mark10525 said:

It's not quite sorted.

While the money had been put back into the Transferwise account I can't transfer any money out of it (e.g. back to myself) until I am "verified".

Original transfer instruction was 21st February.

Money returned to TW account on 4th March.

Received an email about "verification" on 8th March. Supplied ID same day.

And here we are on 10th March, day 17 since the failed transfer, with absolutely no sign of progress whatsoever.

I put in a formal complaint which apparently will receive a "final response" on the 15th March.

So Day 2 since the verification was supplied. Yet you said ID was supplied on the 3rd March, or was the different ID.
I have known where a passport of such is used & has expired they require new ID to be supplied. Or simply require ID on a regular basis. In line with "Know your Customer"

mark10525

When on the 4th March I instructed the transfer to return the money to my own personal account - that being the original source of funds - I received a message that "verification could take at least 3 business days".

I was not asked to provide anything until the 8th March (there is no "upload screen", this is - I guess - done manually) and replied by return.

In fact I did supply the ID previously, but it would not have been forwarded to their bank, since they were not going to proceed with the payment, so this is the second time I have sent the ID.

I have since received a formal response to my complaint, the gist of which is that no guarantees are made about timescales, and therefore the complaint is baseless. Transferwise do not agree that there are grounds for complaint.

They have credited an amount to be offset against the cost of future transfers, but I shall not be using them again.

19 days after the original transfer instruction the funds remain stuck at Transferwise.

I thought to look at the Trustpilot reviews of the company and they were previously excellent however there is a recent spate of dissatisfied customer reviews some of which are from people who have had the same or a similar experience.

It might be a little cheaper than using a bank, but the cautionary tale of this and those experiences is that it is not a substitute for a bank and should never be entrusted with making essential payments within any particular timescale.

Had any of the transfers in to Transferwise been made by direct debit I'd have had the bank void them by now so as to forcibly claw back the money but since they weren't, all I can do is wait for an indefinite period for that refund.

mark10525

The refund to my personal bank account has just been received.

All resolved.