A question from a friend. She tried to transfer money from her bank account in Malaysia to a New Zealand bank account using Wise.
However, Wise informed her that she must be a resident of Malaysia to make the transfer.
(She hold Malaysia citizen and currently lives in New Zealand).
Is this a new policy from Wise, or is she doing something wrong during the transaction?
The funds were in her Malaysian bank account, and she wants to convert them to NZD to use here. She said previously she had no problem transferring MYR to NZD, but the recent attempt was denied.
Which country her wise account was opened? If nz, that will explain it. As wise doesn't know she is Malaysian citizen.
I don't know what rules are for Malaysian wise account, but if that allows for nz transfer she can open a new one there.
Based on what is on the Wise website, you have to be resident (whether a citizen or not) in Malaysia.
Yes, that's what Wise informed her
Her Wise account was opened here in NZ, and Wise thinks she now resides in NZ, so she is not considered a resident there, thus the denial. That’s what came to my mind as well. I’m not sure whether she can open an account 'from Malaysia,' and if that would look suspicious and cause the account to be banned.
I've transferred more money to Wise than needed for trip. Now I want to transfer the balance back to my account. Is there a way I can do that without incurring a fee?
Just spend it on your Wise credit card for normal purchases like food?
Quite a large amount. I usually use the credit card to get the rewards haha.
Slowly do cash withdraw within the free allowance?
@kingzzz: Yeah it's 2x 350 NZD per month and it's free. I wonder how much sunshinez have, like 5 grand???
@The Hound: I didn't know I can get 2 free withdrawals per month. I thought only 1 was free. Have used 1 withdrawal overseas in July. Btw, 2 is still not enough so I'll wear the fee as it's still less than the forgone after-tax interest income.
I'll wear the fee as it's still less than the forgone after-tax interest income
Wow! You transferred WAY too much over :-)
Not sure if you might have had a good reason in which case this won't apply, but what I sometimes do is transfer some over if I think the forex rate is 'good' (you never really know of course - its only a guess), so as to lock in the NZD cost of some portion of my expected expenses, but normally I aim for maybe 25% or so, and then just let Wise convert the remainder as I use the credit card overseas. Their forex rates are generally good anyway, and I avoid having to transfer funds back to NZD after.
Often I don't convert anything up front, and just let card charges hit my NZD funds.
Can't you just convert it back to NZD and withdraw it? https://wise.com/us/blog/how-to-withdraw-money-from-wise
It's still in NZD so no need to convert, but I didn't know I need to pay a fee to send it back to my bank account.
There are lots of anti money laundering laws at the moment, so it's not so simple. Also to prevent money mules from scams to easily transfer money between two different countries. Plus NZ IRD would very much like to tax any income coming from overseas sources.
I think this is what happened and they started implementing those policies. Can anyone recommend other currency transfer companies with good rates like Wise but without the same policies?
Can anyone recommend other currency transfer companies with good rates like Wise but without the same policies?
You'd have to be careful about your counter-party risk if you are using someone that is NOT implementing essentially the same rules as Wise.
It costs Wise time and money to implement those requirements, so you can reasonably assume they are doing it in order to comply with the regulations in Malaysia - not purely by their own choice.
She said she hasn't heard about these regulations before, so I'm trying to help her by asking here. Does this mean that even all the major banks in Malaysia won't conduct transfers or currency exchanges for Malaysians who are living overseas as residents?
She said she hasn't heard about these regulations before, so I'm trying to help her by asking here. Does this mean that even all the major banks in Malaysia won't conduct transfers or currency exchanges for Malaysians who are living overseas as residents?
I would have to guess so, but it shouldn't be too hard for her to investigate that for herself to be sure.
I imagine she could just contact any of the banks there and ask - I am assuming she speaks Malay or whatever language is common there.
It’s not worth the risk.
Wise rates are pretty good so as long as you only transfer what you need then you minimise how much you’re paying in fees.
Update: She transfered 20k Myr to a friend bank account in Malaysia and her friend send money from Wise to her Wise.
Might be me, but I'm not sure what your question means.
You say that she tried to transfer from her Malaysia Bank Account to her NZ Bank Account - where does Wise come into it?
Were the funds in Wise (in her Malaysian 'wallet'), and she tried to move it to her NZD wallet in Wise?
Or perhaps she tried to send from her Malaysian Bank Account to her Wise NZ Bank Account number? This seems more likely, but I am then surprised that it was Wise that told her - you would have expected her bank in Malaysia to be the one to stipulate that requirement? In any case, why would you do that, when you could move the funds from the Malaysian Bank Account to your Wise (Malaysian Wallet), then move it within Wise, or is that what she was trying to do?
Having said that, if it is a legal requirement to be resident in Malaysia to send money out of the country, and she isn't resident there, then that's the legal position, annoying though it may be. If so, I would certainly never send any funds INTO Malaysia, else they could easily get held there with no means to exfiltrate them.