Wise Now Paying Interest on CAD USD EUR and GBP | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

What are the extra/hidden fees for these accounts?

JohnnyCash said
Effective today, if you have a Wise multi-currency account that holds funds in CAD, USD, EUR, GBP, you can now opt-in to earn interest on your balances.

https://newsroom.wise.com/en-N.....anada/  

Why is there even an option not to collect interest? Who, especially in this community would NOT opt in and choose to forego interest?

Financial institutions can have provisions for those who cannot or do not wish to receive interest for religious or other reasons.

Meet Wise Interest explains how the optional plan works. Those who opt into the plan will have their Wise account balance funds swept into interest-bearing bank accounts in Wise Payments Canada Inc.'s name. Interest earned will help fund the interest Wise pays on the Wise account balances.

Currently, the interest-bearing bank account is with the Bank of Montreal.

Details are in the Wise Balance+ Account Program Agreement.

According to their web page, Wise is paying 2.22 percent on Cad funds, which is about the same as Scotiabank Series F ISA. I would highly advise people NOT to store any more money on Wise than you need at the time, as they ARE NOT REGULATED in Canada except in their reporting of transactions to Fintrac. If you trigger their AML algorithm, they will debank you and take a long time to return your money. Your only recourse lies with the UK Ombudsman, there is no institution that regulates them in Canada to lodge a complaint.

doug said

Yeah, I wouldn't say they're not regulated, but they're regulated more lightly than banks and federal credit unions. Even provincial credit unions do not regulate from a consumer protection standpoint, which is why I prefer federal credit unions.

In B.C., you may have limited recourse through Consumer Protection BC. Most recently, the B.C. government expanded the Civil Resolution Tribunal significantly, so you may be able to sue (cheaply!) Wise in the Civil Resolution Tribunal and never need to go to a courtroom (it's online).

More regulation is coming, when FINTRAC gets added regulatory powers.  

There's still basically zero consumer protection in Canada. I don't live in BC, and even if i did, from a quick look at the Civil Resolution Tribunal website I gathered that you would only be able to claim up to a max of 5000.00, which wouldnt be much help if you had a lot of money sitting in Wise when you got debanked, or if a large money transfer transaction went missing.

From Wise's own complaint resolution webpage:

In Canada, no regulatory body is currently available for consumers to submit complaints against payments companies or Payment Service Providers such as Wise. We encourage you to reach out to your local regulator to support the addition of Complaints against Payment Service Providers under the remit of the Canadian government.

If we can't provide you a final response in 15 calendar days, we'll extend the deadline to 56 calendar days from the day you complained.