How Safe is WISE for holding large sums of money

Leodogger

How safe is it to send large sums of sterling to Wise and hold in euros ?   We are looking to pay for a house in Spain in the next few weeks and I am wondering if it would be a good idea to send the money in £25,000 lots (the max allowed in one transaction by Santander) to WISE and convert to euros?   Is it more expensive than holding them in a Currency Exchange such as Currencies Direct?   WISE seems to have a good mid-market exchange rate at the moment.

GDB2222

My son has been using them for years and seems happy enough. I don’t think you would be covered by the FSCS. 

Leodogger

GDB2222 said:

My son has been using them for years and seems happy enough. I don’t think you would be covered by the FSCS. 

Yes I did read that on google.    I am just wondering if it would be more expensive to send a large amount through them than using a foreign exchange agent like Currencies Direct.   

eddddy

Have you checked-out the practicalities of using Wise in this way?

(I've bought/sold in a couple of European countries - but not Spain - and things can be very different from the UK.)

For example...

• Do you have to sign the property purchase contract and transfer the money to the recipient on the same day? If so, will Wise accept a telephone instruction to "Transfer the money to <account number> now, please"?

• (It may not be sensible to schedule the payment the in advance, in case the contract signing is delayed - or the signing doesn't happen.)

• Who do you have to transfer the payment to? Your lawyer, the Notary, the buyer? Will they accept a payment from an account in Wise's name (probably with Wise's payment reference)? 

• (Or will that be a problem for Anti-Money Laundering / Tax checks? And/or would they want their own payment reference, rather than Wise's choice of payment reference?)

Bigphil1474

I used Wise to share out an estate as Executor as one of the beneficiaries was overseas. No problems, but it was only for about £45k to that beneficiary.

Bookworm105

Leodogger said:

   Is it more expensive than holding them in a Currency Exchange such as Currencies Direct? 

what part of the comparison calculation do you need help with?

Leodogger

We decided not to buy the house we were looking at buying and withdrew our offer but will need to be able to transfer the money when we find another house.   I am hoping the Spanish Gestoria who will be doing the paperwork will be able to advise on what info we need to give the owner to transfer the money and how to do it, or whether the money has to go through her account first.   I am thinking of Wise now to do the currency exchange as most people seem to think they are competitive.