Wise

What hackers pick instead

• Interac e-TransferCanadian banks' payment network that lets most people send money free, without Visa or Mastercard. Critics note low transaction limits and delays.11recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 87 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Even Wise, a cutting-edge neobank, does not require you to use its app. And its website accepts standard TOTP authenticator for 2FA.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “F-Droid Board of Directors nominations 2026”

2. International transfers settle in under a minute to Australian and European bank accounts in my experience.

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

3. it will almost always be much lower than what your bank charges for international transfers

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Gov.uk goes Dutch on payments as it dumps Stripe”

4. The only thing holding me back is the fact that money isn't government guaranteed

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Around a dozen banking apps began specifically permitting GrapheneOS”

5. Or a service like Wise which is cheap and takes a few minutes most of the time.

   Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

6. I skipped most the fees and got a good exchange rate with a Wise Card/account.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun”

7. modern web offering and does not even require that you install a native app

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Around a dozen banking apps began specifically permitting GrapheneOS”

8. To send $20 to GBP, you get 11.48 GBP with Xoom and 14.57 GBP with Wise.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “A few thoughts about PayPal, nearly 12 years after I left”

9. this is why Revolut and WISE cards are a god send when travelling

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ryanair fined €256M over ‘abusive strategy’ to limit ticket sales by OTAs”

10. Where Wise takes a huge cut is if you convert $10 at a time.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

11. Wise has changed travel for the better, and dramatically.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn”

12. their exchange rate that's 5-8% above services like Wise

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Stripe reportedly makes offer to acquire PayPal”

13. Fees are low/non existent and conversion rates good.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Kidnapped by Deutsche Bahn”

14. You can use it completely without a phone app.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Android May Soon Restrict On-Device ADB”

15. Wise card makes foreign payments much easier.

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16. have never once been forced to use their app

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “LineageOS 24”

17. fully administer-able from their website

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”

18. everything else goes contactless on Wise

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard”

19. Wise Business works but has limits.

    Mixed · Mar 2026 · in “Ask HN: Founders of estonian e-businesses – is it worth it?”

20. their fx rates are more than fair

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Europe's $24T Breakup with Visa and Mastercard Has Begun”

21. Transferring money across regions with the best 'normie' tools (eg Transferwise/wise.com) is multiple orders of magnitude more expensive

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Y Combinator will let founders receive funds in stablecoins”

22. If your Wise account is Brazilian. If you have a foreign account, base currency or whatever the name is for that concept, you cannot.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard”

23. got a bit wary of what would happen if they went bust. Government backed guarantee do not exist for Wise.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “Scammers are abusing an internal Microsoft account to send spam links”

24. It has been half a decade and nada. And I estimate that it has cost me north of $20k+ over that time.

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Why is Meta destroying its engineering organization?”

25. US to Poland for 1000 USD on Wise is still 0.46% which is multiple orders of magnitude more expensive

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Y Combinator will let founders receive funds in stablecoins”

26. they cannot receive money using WISE, they have to open a business account to receive money

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

27. this usually comes with some drawbacks such as higher chance of unexplained account closure

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Ledger confirms spy chip implant behind wallet crypto thefts”

28. Wise, like any other fintech is fun until it randomly closes your account and bans you.

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

29. Terrible system demanding a lot of my energy and time to get back access to MY MONEY.

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “I changed my address, and TransferWise in two days will empty my account”

30. they're more expensive than many regular retail banks for FX conversion

    Criticizes · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

31. other services like Wise take more commissions and have more delays

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Codeberg Bans Cryptocurrency Projects”

32. Wise seems to do it correctly. It works on rooted phones, even, just gives a scary warning and blocks some app functions.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Hardware Attestation as Monopoly Enabler”

33. Wise for international (both P2P or using local payment rails if possible, SEPA in Europe for example)

    Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?”

34. the wise app includes a security feature that displays the warning "You're not on a call with Wise..."

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “DeepMind and Singapore fine-tune an on-device Gemma model for scam detection”

35. Have used them in business and personally across a number of different accounts with no problems.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Brazil's Pix Payment System Faces Pressure from Visa and Mastercard”

36. an international bank account & card like you can obtain with Wise and other services

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Two-tier encryption in the UK”

37. There's no reason to pay extra for something as essential as card payments.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Visa and Mastercard near deal with merchants that would change rewards landscape”

38. they’re way way closer to zero-bullshit than any other neobanks I’ve tried

    Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”

39. Wise fees are sometimes big, but I find them fairly transparent about it.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”

40. We even managed travel between 3/4 countries without any. Wise is great.

    Recommends · Apr 2026 · in “Middle schooler finds coin from Troy in Berlin”