If you have an account with Wise in the U.S., does one also get the equivalent of a Euro account in Europe? For example, can a relative living in Spain send you Euros to your TransferWise account in Spain or elsewhere in Europe? And from there, can one do an “ACH-like” transfer to one’s U.S. TransferWise account?
If so, are there any other continents besides Europe where one can receive funds to a personal account, and from there, inexpensively move the funds to the U.S.? Does TransferWise exist anywhere in Latin America?
Wise has a list of all the countries/continents where they operate. The dollarized economies of Ecuador, Panama and El Salvador in Latin America aren’t listed. But Mexico, Chile and Argentina are. So if an American opened a Wise account in the U.S., but had residency in Argentina, could they remit funds from Argentina by sending the money from their Argentine bank to Wise in Argentina, and then do an “internal”, international transfer from Wise Argentina to Wise U.S. (for a personal account)?
Wise does not allow you to have TWO (personal) accounts…e.g. one in the USA and one in Europe. If you’ve managed to open both, they make you choose one (if caught - and they often catch you when you’re trying to perform a money transfer).
That said, having experienced both USA and Germany (EU) version (due to me moving country), there are small differences between US and EU version.
a) EU Wise give you Visa Debit (they recently switched from Mastercard to Visa), US Wise still gives you Mastercard Debit (for now). Both cards seem to work on many European websites (that insists on EU-issued cards), even if your Mastercard Debit is issued by a US bank, aka Community Federal Bank I think. You still get the same sets of currencies and borderless accounts, so it’s not like the EU version has advantage over the US version, or vice versa.
b) However, EU (and UK) version of Wise gives you early preview to new features than US (due to US regulation perhaps). For example, UK version allows investment (this is relatively new) and EU version gives you “kickback” from owning Wise stock (this was a promo that ended last month I think). Just from the nature of Wise being HQ’ed in the UK/EU, they’d rather release and try new things close to their backyard, if you know what I mean.
c) I cannot speak for Wise customers based in other countries (Singapore, NZ, Australia, etc) - please chime in here if you are one of them.
Yes, your relative in Spain can send Euro to your Wise’s EU account (because you get a Belgian-based IBAN with Wise). Tell them your IBAN number, let them transfer, then keep the money there as if it’s your bank account, send/transfer it to anyone in EU, or transfer it to someone in the US with Wise account (but ONLY if the recipient has enabled the borderless EU account in his Wise and therefore can send you their IBAN number).
Unfortunately though, AFAIK you cannot send ARS (that’s code for Argentinian Pesos) from an Argentinian bank to a Wise account (US/EU/UK, doesn’t matter) becauseWise does not provide you with an Argentinian borderless account detail. So the sender won’t even know how to send the ARS to you. Yes, you CAN hold ARS in your Wise account, and the only way to receive them is via exchange (from another currency in your Wise account, say EUR to ARS, USD to ARS, etc) and you “spend” them by either sending them to an Argentinian bank account, OR using their Mastercard/Visa when you’re in Argentina. The latter isn’t guaranteed (I tried using on Argentinian website such as mercadolibre.com.ar and card’s rejected).
Let me know if this helps or if I’m not answering your exact questions.