Wire Transfer vs Transferwise

Your bank was correct about wire transfers.

Wise is safe to use, and they'll tell you the exact fee and exchange rate and how much you will get on their home page calculator. It's slightly different for each source and destination currency and method of payment, so you'll have to check on your individual transaction.

mattnew wrote: ↑ 2. How secure is Wise for large sums, as compared to regular wire transfer?

Depending how large, I wouldn't trust them with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. They wouldn't steal it on purpose but computer glitches happen and if you are the lucky guy, I don't think there's much recourse as you would have with a Canadian bank.

NuclearBlast wrote: ↑ Depending how large, I wouldn't trust them with tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. They wouldn't steal it on purpose but computer glitches happen and if you are the lucky guy, I don't think there's much recourse as you would have with a Canadian bank.

What makes you think a wire transfer is better? I've had wire transfers hung up in limbo somewhere for more than a week with no answers on the Canadian side, and wire transfers that arrived with hefty fees deducted by unknown intermediaries.

Scote64 wrote: ↑ What makes you think a wire transfer is better?

The fact that Canadian banks are highly regulated unlike an entity like TransferWise that's not bound by Canadian laws. If they lose the money, what are you gonna do, go to UK and sue them? Look what happened with some fairly big crypto exchanges, did anyone recover their money? What if they go bankrupt tomorrow and the money from the last 2-3 days of transfers disappears?
I'm just saying, saving 40-50 bucks is not worth the risk on 50-100K transfer for me personally.

Even with Wise it is possible a Wire transfer could be part of the transaction at some point. Hard to tell without knowing the source and destination in advance. Wise will generally have an option for Wire/SWIFT transfers to lock-in the fees; so, no "surprises" with the end amount received.

NuclearBlast wrote: ↑ The fact that Canadian banks are highly regulated unlike an entity like TransferWise that's not bound by Canadian laws. If they lose the money, what are you gonna do, go to UK and sue them? Look what happened with some fairly big crypto exchanges, did anyone recover their money? What if they go bankrupt tomorrow and the money from the last 2-3 days of transfers disappears?
I'm just saying, saving 40-50 bucks is not worth the risk on 50-100K transfer for me personally.

I don't have the confidence that you do. The reaction of Canadian banks when there's a money-lost-in-transit problem is "we'll investigate and get back to you within 4-6 weeks". When it's international, make that 4-6 months. And the answer is usually, "we sent the money, that's all we know, our responsibility ends there, good luck with that". If it's international, follow-up is nearly impossible.

Bank of America is usually the intermediary for international wire transfers. A long time ago they charged $20+ per transaction. It wasn't material for large transactions.
In my experience it was the receiving bank who converted the currency.

To have most control over transfer and fx fees try asking the bank in the foreign country about their bank accounts in Canada.
Foreign banks usually have bank accounts with one of the big 5 banks in Canada.
Than deposit the money here in CAD.
For large amounts you might be able to negotiate fx rate.

Scote64 wrote: ↑ I don't have the confidence that you do. The reaction of Canadian banks when there's a money-lost-in-transit problem is "we'll investigate and get back to you within 4-6 weeks". When it's international, make that 4-6 months. And the answer is usually, "we sent the money, that's all we know, our responsibility ends there, good luck with that". If it's international, follow-up is nearly impossible.

I find that part "our responsibility ends there, good luck with that" troubling, if that's what the Canadian bank said.
On the other hand, would you have more confidence in a foreign entity if you had to transfer half a million to purchase real estate in Europe or Asia, for example?

NuclearBlast wrote: ↑ The fact that Canadian banks are highly regulated unlike an entity like TransferWise that's not bound by Canadian laws. If they lose the money, what are you gonna do, go to UK and sue them? Look what happened with some fairly big crypto exchanges, did anyone recover their money? What if they go bankrupt tomorrow and the money from the last 2-3 days of transfers disappears?
I'm just saying, saving 40-50 bucks is not worth the risk on 50-100K transfer for me personally.

No, you have to sue them in Ontario. From the Terms of Use:
Law and Jurisdiction
The provision of the Services and any dispute or claim arising out of the provision of the Services is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with the Service, this Customer Agreement, or use of the Website will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of Ontario.

It is true that they are not a bank.

If they go bankrupt, the money doesn't disappear. The money is held separately from their operating funds in bank accounts and government bonds. https://wise.com/help/articles/2949821/ ... se-account
"Safeguarding means that, by law, we have to keep all of your money in accounts that are completely separate from the ones we use to run our business. ... Safeguarded funds are inaccessible to our creditors, our banks or any other third parties. ... The protections afforded by safeguarding stay in place even in the unlikely event that Wise were to become insolvent."

bubak wrote: ↑ "Safeguarding means that, by law, we have to keep all of your money in accounts that are completely separate from the ones we use to run our business. ... Safeguarded funds are inaccessible to our creditors, our banks or any other third parties. ... The protections afforded by safeguarding stay in place even in the unlikely event that Wise were to become insolvent."

Why do you invest safeguarded funds?

The amount we decide to invest is driven by cost and risk, and can go up or down over time. Regardless of the method used to safeguard your money, Wise will always be able to return all your funds upon request — unless we were to become insolvent.

Regarding suing in Ontario - yes, you can but seeing as they have no actual presence here, how are you going to collect even if you win?

I agree in principle that Wise is not overly risky, however every person decides for themselves who to trust with their money, especially when we talk about thousands of dollars.

I think choosing between Wise and Wire comes down to ... do you need currency conversion.?

IF (Yes) THEN UseWise()
I don't think banks will offer a competing exchange rate like Wise does.

IF (Not) THEN itDependsOnSum()
I believe Wire transfer is a fixed fee regardless of the sum. Is Wise doing fixed fee or still percentage?

NuclearBlast wrote: ↑ Regarding suing in Ontario - yes, you can but seeing as they have no actual presence here, how are you going to collect even if you win?

I agree in principle that Wise is not overly risky, however every person decides for themselves who to trust with their money, especially when we talk about thousands of dollars.

They are incorporated in Canada and have a published corporate address, which means they can be served:

Wise Payments Canada Inc.
Address:
99 Bank Street, Suite 1420, Ottawa, ON K1P 1H4
Wise Payments Canada Inc. (Corporation# 9330500) is a federal corporation entity registered with Corporations Canada. The incorporation date is June 11, 2015.
This is actually Dentons Canada LLP (law firm), who presumably is their registered corporate agent in Canada.

Use Transferwise. They have better tracking abilities than bank wire transfer. Sent 5 figure amounts with them multiple times. Best rates

Thank you all, a lot of good advices here