Singapore banks transfers still take ages

[abbby]

Am surprised why payments form one bank to another different bank still take days to complete...shouldnt it be within a day...since it's local transfers?

[PNGMK]

Paynow is fast but limited on amount. FAST is fast. MEPS sucks donkey ass. TT is stuck in the age of the telegraph. Transferwise (now "WISE") is super fast but costs a little.

Pick your poison Abby.

[sundaymorningstaple]

I love WISE' new superfast speeds. The last two times I used it (Jan and a couple of days ago, takes on 7 seconds from my US bank and it showing up in my local bank online account.

[PNGMK]

I love WISE' new superfast speeds. The last two times I used it (Jan and a couple of days ago, takes on 7 seconds from my US bank and it showing up in my local bank online account.

Wow. That is impressive.

[malcontent]

I just wish Wise would let me do a “limit order” so that once a certain exchange rate is reached, it will automatically create a transfer of the amount & accounts I specify. I have given them feedback on this... I would think it’s an easy thing to do and could help further set them apart from the competition.

[Max Headroom]

Wise hasn't turned out quite as bad as I initially believed, at least when it comes to what they say they can do: transfer money from A to B. I've used them a few times and they're definitely cheaper than most incumbents.

Where Wise drops the ball majorly is what I suspected all along would be their Achilles heel, i.e. their Support service, especially once something is amiss. So long as all goes according to script, there are no issues. But the moment there's a spanner in the works, forget about prompt and effective Support. It's a total nightmare.

I transferred an amount a few weeks back but it didn't arrive, in spite of all instructions having been followed and the Ref code being included. In fact, it was a standing order transfer, I'd done it several times before.

I called them to ask them where my money had gone, but their phone Support is hopeless, not only in terms of audio quality but in terms of actual Support provided also. "You're money isn't missing, we just need some time to find it".

Suffice to say that after a couple of days of this crap, I gave up on Support altogether and decided to just hope that the transfer would arrive eventually.

In the end it did - several days later.

I've suspended my Wise transfers for the moment, too sketchy.

They need to upgrade their Support. You can't have your customers stressing out over the transfer hitting an obstacle for fear of ending up in Support hell. We're not ordering a pizza here. This is money!

I also still believe they may be useful for now, but they since they still use legacy infrastructure (banks) they will fall by the wayside (along with many banks) once CBDC's come to town.

[PNGMK]

Which country to which country Max? I have seen slow transfers into India and they stopped covering Kenya recently.

I suspect in smaller locations they are not fully automated - i.e. a human being actually operates the system in say Kenya and this is where delays occur!

I still prefer them to banks for overseas transfers by far though.

[Max Headroom]

They were all from Singers to Malaysia, PNGMK. The first ones went smoothly, no issues. That most recent one was exactly the same, as I used the template from my Wise account, as before.

The dent in my confidence is also from the complete lack of post-issue clarification. No follow-up whatsoever. The funds eventually arrived and not a word was mentioned as to why it was missing. WLE.

BTW, the amounts were all the maximum permitted to Malaysia, as per regulations.




Edit: edit.

[PNGMK]

They were all from Singers to Malaysia, PNGMK. The first ones went smoothly, no issues. That most recent one was exactly the same, as I used the template from my Wise account, as before.

The dent in my confidence is also from the complete lack of post-issue clarification. No follow-up whatsoever. The funds eventually arrived and not a word was mentioned as to why it was missing. WLE.

BTW, the amounts were all the maximum permitted to Malaysia, as per regulations.




Edit: edit.

This correlates with rumours about quiet currency control going on in MY. I think you've not hit a Wise problem but a currency control issue. I agree Wise should have alerted you.

[Lisafuller]

When I do a local transfer, it is almost immediate. I’ve never had to wait days like OP mentions.

[malcontent]

As long as you select ‘FAST’ as the transfer method, local transfers are basically instant.

For Wise, I do frequent SGD to USD, last one was in Feb this year. Earliest to see the credit on the US side is the next business day, which is to be expected via ACH. I think the reason they can do it faster from USD to SGD is because of the FAST system here, and I believe they are using DBS to execute SGD transactions.

[Myasis Dragon]

They were all from Singers to Malaysia, PNGMK. The first ones went smoothly, no issues. That most recent one was exactly the same, as I used the template from my Wise account, as before.

The dent in my confidence is also from the complete lack of post-issue clarification. No follow-up whatsoever. The funds eventually arrived and not a word was mentioned as to why it was missing. WLE.

BTW, the amounts were all the maximum permitted to Malaysia, as per regulations.




Edit: edit.

This correlates with rumours about quiet currency control going on in MY. I think you've not hit a Wise problem but a currency control issue. I agree Wise should have alerted you.

I had to look this one up. Indeed, starting in 2016, Malaysia has made every attempt to prohibit its currency from being traded in NDF markets, both to curtail currency speculators and to discourage capital from flowing out of Malaysia (basically because you can't convert your Malaysian Ringgit investments to another currency and except with the government's permission). They have been mostly successful.

The Covid 19 pandemic has pretty much killed the Asian NDF market, and starting in 2019, Malaysia has allowed limited onshore currency hedging for companies to deal with currency exchange rate exposures. But, Malaysian Ringgit can still only be traded onshore, in Malaysia, in a market that is much narrower than international markets. I expect Wise is having to deal in this environment.

If I had to make a SWAG, anyone doing transactions in Ringgit is going to run into the same problem so long as Bank Negara is in the middle of things, attempting to control volatility of the Ringgit.

[PNGMK]

Yep. TF may try to get around this by acting as a treasury (which I suspect they do a lot to get around currency controls). They take in ringgit pay out ringgit from their own central internal treasury and probably run a surplus of different currencies on deposit in their local accounts. The problem Max ran into I think is that their treasury didn't have the specific currency funds on hand at the time of the transfer and had a deficit and could not execute on a timely manner.

Large MNCs and even smaller ones do this routinely. A company I was a part owner of in Australia did it with USD, GBP, Euro and AUD.


Right now TF is probably not taking in a lot of MYR inside Malaysia for transfer to outside Malaysia but taking a hell of a lot of requests to pay out MYR in Malaysia and have a serious forex imbalance.