Payments through Wise

[Rubens Alarcon]

I’m in Canada and I’m looking at using Wise to receive Alamy payments.

 

PayPal works fine, but I find their exchange rates insulting. I did a test run last month and it seems that at the end of the process Wise’s advantage is insignificant. My net gain was +0.16% over PayPal.

 

I set it up to have Alamy payments deposited in GBP in my Wise UK account instead of USD in my Wise USD account because Wise would charge a fee for USD deposits made outside of the USA.

 

Does anyone from Canada or the USA use Wise to receive Alamy payments? If so, is there a better setup than the above? What is your personal experience so far?

 

Thanks.

[mwakeling]

The only time that I have tried to use Wise was for a large transfer to a USA Wise account. It bounced several times due to the fact that Wise does not have their own banks. It confused the bank system as it looked fraudulent. We have pretty strict rules in Canada regarding money laundering, so any foreign transfer will be converted at your bank; they don't give very good rates on incoming funds, as they treat it like a cash sell. I have a USD account, and cannot transfer USD into it from outside Canada. I have another agency that transfers directly to my bank account in Canadian funds using OFX. So, unfortunately, I have not found a better option.

[sooth]

5 hours ago, mwakeling said:

The only time that I have tried to use Wise was for a large transfer to a USA Wise account. It bounced several times due to the fact that Wise does not have their own banks. It confused the bank system as it looked fraudulent. We have pretty strict rules in Canada regarding money laundering, so any foreign transfer will be converted at your bank; they don't give very good rates on incoming funds, as they treat it like a cash sell. I have a USD account, and cannot transfer USD into it from outside Canada. I have another agency that transfers directly to my bank account in Canadian funds using OFX. So, unfortunately, I have not found a better option.

 

canadians can open a cross border bank account with a bank that has bank branches in both canada and the usa, usually a big bank like td bank, rbc...  some canadian businesses that need a us payment option might use this route, as well as travelers who visit the usa on a frequent basis, or people just need an option to process us payments.  

 

however, if you're just trying to receive a small payment every couple of months, then it's likely not worth it due to fees and such.

Edited January 31 by sooth

[Rubens Alarcon]

6 hours ago, mwakeling said:

The only time that I have tried to use Wise was for a large transfer to a USA Wise account. It bounced several times due to the fact that Wise does not have their own banks. It confused the bank system as it looked fraudulent. We have pretty strict rules in Canada regarding money laundering, so any foreign transfer will be converted at your bank; they don't give very good rates on incoming funds, as they treat it like a cash sell. I have a USD account, and cannot transfer USD into it from outside Canada. I have another agency that transfers directly to my bank account in Canadian funds using OFX. So, unfortunately, I have not found a better option.

Unrelated to my photography business, I have a business USD account at a local Canadian credit union. I do receive payments in USD from USA based clients directly into this account. The funds are deposited in USD. The only issue is that the bank is now charging USD17.50 for each transfer. I gave my clients my Wise USD account number instead and I have been receiving payments in USD through Wise with no problems, no conversions, and no fees.

[Rubens Alarcon]

1 hour ago, sooth said:

 

canadians can open a cross border bank account with a bank that has bank branches in both canada and the usa, usually a big bank like td bank, rbc...  some canadian businesses that need a us payment option might use this route, as well as travelers who visit the usa on a frequent basis, or people just need an option to process us payments.  

 

however, if you're just trying to receive a small payment every couple of months, then it's likely not worth it due to fees and such.

Thank you for the feedback. I'm aware of this. I find that the fees charged by the banks are too high. I'm just trying to find out if I would be better off changing my Alamy payment account to Wise instead of using PayPal.