Foreign currency account

JohnBravo

Hi All
I am looking for a USD account to be able to receive money in that currency.

I was looking into Wise but was rejected with no explanation given.
I do have a Revolut with USD account attached to it but not sure how is this going to play out e.g. if I receive $40k to it. Should I let them know in advance that a bigger sum is coming so they don't block it or something?
Or should I look for alternative providers?
Please advise

PRAISETHESUN

Wise is my usual recommendation, but obviously won't help if they've refused to offer you an account. The HSBC global money account I believe is another one that gets talked on here about a fair bit.

Personally I'd steer well clear of Revolut. They have a well known history of poor customer service and you will regret using them if you have any issues that requires you to try to get in touch with them.

If you're expecting a large sum, then I'd make sure you have all the documentation to hand in case they ask for it. No point telling them about it in advance as they won't be able to do anything, but if you have it all to hand it will speed up any investigations if it gets frozen.

JohnBravo

Eventually I have opened an account with Wise but they don't provide USD account details and they ask to send to GBP account which can cause further problems.

However more importantly I cannot even get the GBP account details as this service provider is a never-ending string of verifications.
I paid £20 to the account with my card and I still cannot get the account details. I think I did the transaction twice already and going in circles. What a nuisance.

PRAISETHESUN

Your default account will be in GBP. You need to then separately from within the website/app open accounts for each foreign currency balance you want to hold. See here: https://wise.com/help/articles/2897234/how-do-i-open-a-balance

Once you've opened the foreign balance account, the balance for all your currencies balance should appear on your dashboard and when you click on it it should provide account details for your USD account that you can provide to others so you can receive direct USD payments.

JohnBravo

PRAISETHESUN said:

Your default account will be in GBP. You need to then separately from within the website/app open accounts for each foreign currency balance you want to hold. See here: https://wise.com/help/articles/2897234/how-do-i-open-a-balance

Once you've opened the foreign balance account, the balance for all your currencies balance should appear on your dashboard and when you click on it it should provide account details for your USD account that you can provide to others so you can receive direct USD payments.

It is the same in Wise as in Revolut. IBAN account number is the same for all the currencies.
https://wise.com/help/articles/2935927/how-do-i-use-my-gbp-account-details

In Wise if I want the details for USD account I created over a week ago it says "Join account details waitlist" what I did but I reckon this is months before I get those details.

You’re on the waitlist

We’ll email you as soon as USD account details are available. In the meantime, you can receive USD using GBP account details.

JohnBravo

I think I use the GBP account for that just ask them to send in USD as I have no other option at the moment.

You mentioned to have some documentation ready. What kind of documentation do I need? Is it something specific or case by case?
Thank you

PRAISETHESUN

Interesting - just had a look at this myself. I've not had this issue with any other currencies I've used with Wise, so it might be a USD-specific thing. The issue with using your GBP account details is that you might be at the mercy of the senders bank to convert it. The sender will send x amount of USD, but you might only receive y amount of GBP, which is likely to be less than if you managed the conversion yourself. If you can, make sure you tell the sender to send the payment as USD, and not as the equivalent in GBP.

As for documentation, it will vary on a case by case basis and will be whatever Wise needs to satisfy themselves the transfer is legit. Usually it'll be sale records (eg. property/shares), bank records (eg. bank/pension statements), etc, to show where the money has come from.

JohnBravo

PRAISETHESUN said:

Interesting - just had a look at this myself. I've not had this issue with any other currencies I've used with Wise, so it might be a USD-specific thing. The issue with using your GBP account details is that you might be at the mercy of the senders bank to convert it. The sender will send x amount of USD, but you might only receive y amount of GBP, which is likely to be less than if you managed the conversion yourself. If you can, make sure you tell the sender to send the payment as USD, and not as the equivalent in GBP.

As for documentation, it will vary on a case by case basis and will be whatever Wise needs to satisfy themselves the transfer is legit. Usually it'll be sale records (eg. property/shares), bank records (eg. bank/pension statements), etc, to show where the money has come from.

Yes, this is what I did and put it in bold to transfer in USD not in GBP.

Thank you

sausage_time

Another issue - the sender may charge to send to an IBAN account as a wire.  The beauty of having US$ details is that it should be free to send US$ there.

I wonder why there is a waiting time to get the US$ details?  It was instant when I created my US$ "account" - but that was a few years ago.

DoboChopSueyBar

Maybe I've been extremely lucky so far but I've never had any issues with Revolut (Premium account). I've been using it for 3 years now to receive AED from UAE every month (around AED 25k each month) as I've saved a small fortune versus using Wise or HSBC Global Money. Revolut did once ask me for source of funds in UAE as part of their KYC checks, i just sent them my last 6 months salary slips and that seemed to satisfy them. No real issues, maybe they offer better support to Premium members i don't know. 

DoboChopSueyBar

I should add, that i no longer find Wise very competitive for certain currencies. Also their support is no where near as good as it used to be. There are far cheaper options available, such as as Zing and Revolut, especially the latter who don't charge anything to convert between currencies.