TransferWise Online Bank Account (Personal): An Internation based company

I’ve been looking for a better option where I can use to receive funds from my employer. I have tried different options to see which one could I possibly save more in terms of their currency conversion, until I saw this post from a group giving a calculation for different payment channels including TransferWise. I heard a lot about TransferWise but I never attempt to register and see it for myself as I was thinking it could be the same due to fees I may charge for after the transaction.

I did a little bit of research first before coming to registration. I won’t lose anything anyway and there I started creating an account.

What is TransferWise?

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TransferWise is a British online money transfer service founded in January 2011 by Estonians Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus and is based in London. The company supports more than 750 currency routes across the world including GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, and CAD, and provides multi-currency accounts. (source: Wikipedia)

It is an international company which has bank accounts in most parts of the world, so they are using peer-to-peer technique in providing very low fees for currencies conversion.

A borderless account is their newest service introduced this year that allows you to open a bank account quickly online in order to have money deposited on it. This makes it great to be used by freelancers, business owners, ex-pats, and whoever has the need for international transactions.

How does it work?

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Now that you have a good idea of how TransferWise started, let’s talk about how it actually works.

You can deposit money on it in euros, US dollars, British pounds (GBP), and 13 more currencies which ensures easy and cheap payments to be made in currency of your choice. Each currency gets assigned with its very own local bank account details so that the transaction can be conducted as it would for a national bank account.
If you would deposit GBP to your bank account, you would obtain a sort code and account number, which are used to receive local GBP payments made via the Faster Payments scheme.

With US routing and account number, you can receive both ACH and domestic wire payments sent from within the United States.

For euros, you are assigned with your own SWIFT/BIC and IBAN details.

This simplifies international collaboration for non-residents and for foreigners who are freelancers or business partners with companies located in the USA, GB, and many other countries. If you are one of them, I definitely suggest opening a Borderless account as a solution for the usual challenges that you are faced with.

What are the fees?

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Many banks and other money transfer services will often hide a fee in their currency exchange fee rate. These fees can vary anywhere from .3% up to 20%, depending on the service you select. Most banks and transfer services will charge a hidden fee when you are transferring money between currencies, and some companies bank on the fact that you won’t check the currency rates or look into the fee. Many banks and wire transfer companies aren’t transparent about charging the fee. Hence, it’s a hidden fee.

For example, on XE.com, the current exchange rate of 1 USD to a Euro is 0.84385, but on TravelEx, the exchange is listed as 1 USD to a Euro is 0.7681. The discrepancy is a hidden fee.
With TransferWise, you get the

How to open a Borderless account?

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This is not the typical way of opening a bank account. All you need to do is to create a TrasnferWise account online and activate Borderless account in your profile.

• for free
• with no credit check
• no loads of paperwork requested
• saving you precious time
• without visiting branch
• with no deposit
• no monthly maintenance fees requested from you

It will not cause you any concerns or problems if you have a bad credit history. Such inquiries are not being raised, so you can freely open an account.

You can use my referral link to Register.

https://transferwise.com/invite/u/ferdinandl40

After clicking the link, it will route you to their registration page. Registration is easy, all you gotta do is to fill in the needed information and make sure they are all correct to avoid any issues afterward.

After you register, you are now able to create your personal account. It will route you first to their “send money” transaction but you don’t really need to finish it, you may simply click the exit button on the upper right corner of the page.

You’ll be redirected to the Welcome page. Click on the “Get started” button to complete your personal account registration.

Personal Account	Business account
This is for individuals using TransferWise for their own money.	This is for freelancers, sole-traders, business and charities.

Just fill in the needed information and make sure to provide the correct address as it will also be needed for verification of your account.

As part of your personal information, TransferWise needs to secure your account by getting your phone number validated on their system. It’s an extra layer of protection for your account.

The next window is solely for selected countries only. You can just click contnue to proceed with other steps.

The last two steps are Adding money to your Balance and Verification. You won’t be reaching that stage through the steps above. After you click continue it will just route you to Completion page.

To verify your account, you must add at least $20 to your USD balance in order to reveal your bank account details. Some of you may think that this is the fee for opening your account, again as I said earlier, opening a borderless account is free of charge.

Just click “Get bank details” to get routed to adding funds window.

There are different ways to add the initial funds to your balance. I chose to add via debit card because it is the easiest and fast way to add funds to your balance. The transaction fee depends on the option you will be choosing.

After processing the payment, you’ll now be required to confirm your identity.

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How does verification work at TransferWise?

Go to transferwise.com for more information

When you open a bank account, you usually need to take some ID into the bank branch. TransferWise is no different. We’re a financial institution, so we need to know who’s using our service. It helps us combat money laundering, and keep everyone’s money safe. 

So depending on where you’re sending money from, and how much you send, they’ll ask for you to verify your identity. This helps them keep your money safe.

What types of documents does TransferWise accept?

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Everything on the document you share should match the information on your TransferWise account. Make sure the photo isn’t blurry or covered, so they can see all the info. If there’s information on the back of your document, they’ll need to see that, too. Make sure the document isn’t in Arabic, Aramaic, Azerbaijani, Hebrew or Urdu text — we don’t have the resources to support these. 

A valid ID document can be:

• Passport (photo page only)
• National ID card
• Photo driver’s licence (except New Zealand residents sending NZD)

Congratulations! You are now all set to receive money on your account. Please advise that when you receive the fund and that you will withdraw it, TransferWise may need to do another set of verification.