Arbusers

(Disclaimer: I post this in the Newbie's questions because it seemed like the best fit but I am not exactly a newbie...)

For a long time, I have used Transferwise (now Wise) without any problems, even transferring large amounts of money. Recently, as I am starting to diversify my investments into different countries (and thus making more transfers to various countries), I started getting many questions from Wise regarding my source of income/source of funds. Basically, my main source of income, and the only one I use to fund my Wise account, is betting, which I do through Sportmarket these days. I explained this to Wise, but this did not satisfy them. I then added bank statements from my local bank account, but they said that these documents do not provide enough evidence of income (which makes sense because, as I said, betting is my main income and my profits are withdrawn directly to my Wise account).

I'm at a loss as to what will satisfy them. I asked Sportmarket to send me a document confirming the transfers, but I doubt that Wise will consider this as an acceptable source of income, given the tone of the recent email exchanges. Wise's acceptable use policy does not seem very betting-friendly either, although I had no problems until now. Obviously, I would like to keep my account with them but, if it is not possible, I hope that I can find a good alternative solution for international bank transfers. Therefore, I have two questions:
1) Anyone has experience with this type of situation, especially with online banks used for international transfers (such as Wise)?
2) Are there good alternative solutions? I already read the relevant posts on this forum, and it seems that Revolut is not betting-friendly. I will look more closely at N26 (I do not know them). I also read about OFX, which seems like a decent alternative - any experience with them?

Thanks in advance.

Tough situation here.

It is not clear to me what triggered WISE's SOW checks. I know Sportmarket holds a WISE corporate account and that tells me it is not your transactions with WISE that triggered the checks. You mentioned ''different countries'' in your post and that raises 2 questions:
1. What are these countries? You know that some countries, even within the EU, are enjoying a lower status level when it comes to banking, as there are burdens coming from their past.
2. Did you send that money to individuals? Or companies? In general, personal accounts come with greater risks and lower status in the eyes of every neobank. Maybe these individuals (or companies) are not OK in the eyes of WISE. Maybe they do something wrong and they created a landslide for you.

Gambling is not the best traffic these online banks are looking for, so I am guessing Revolut and N26 will be no better. In the case of Revolut there is also an additional problem, and this is their CS. Once you have a problem with them, it will take ages until resolved. Another approach would be to try these online banks too, hoping that nothing will go bad, but you know what they say about hope.
I have never heard of OFX before until today. It seems to me there are dozens of online banks offering similar to WISE and Revolut services these days. Maybe it worths searching a little bit and contact them directly, as you never know what comes out of it.

arbusers wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 07, 2023 7:09 am

Tough situation here.

It is not clear to me what triggered WISE's SOW checks. I know Sportmarket holds a WISE corporate account and that tells me it is not your transactions with WISE that triggered the checks. You mentioned ''different countries'' in your post and that raises 2 questions:

I think Sportmarket is no longer cooperate with Wise.

In fact, they told me to skip transactions with Wise as they had problems with them. That was about 1 year ago, don't know if anything changed since then.

Thanks to both of you for the replies.

To answer Arbusers' questions: The money was sent to both EU and non-EU countries (I prefer not to give specific details, but it is indeed possible that one of these countries is still considered as a "lower-status" country with respect to banking). The money was sent to reputable businesses (relatively large businesses operating in non-controversial fields, with a good online presence).
It could also simply be that once the amount of money transferred through Wise reaches a certain threshold, the verification gets more stringent (I am thinking this is the case because Wise did not ask questions regarding the recent transfers and did not delay them, however the questions about my source of income/source of funds started coming a few days after the last transfer was completed).

I have not yet gotten a reply from Wise since submitting Sportmarket's confirmation of the transfers. In the meantime, I have emptied my account just to be on the safe side. I will follow your advice and do more research (for your info: OFX is a direct competitor to Wise and offers very similar services. From what I read online, it seems that they run a very diligent KYC check when opening an account but tend to be more lenient than Wise once you have passed the initial checks, meaning that they rarely ask for extra documents once you are an established customer).

I think Sportmarket is no longer cooperate with Wise.

In fact, they told me to skip transactions with Wise as they had problems with them. That was about 1 year ago, don't know if anything changed since then.

In my case, Sportmarket knows for a long time that I use my Wise account for all my transfers with them, and never said anything, even when I got in touch with them recently regarding my situation with Wise.

We might need to define what a controversial field would be. Every year, I notice more industries in the list. This year, our company passed one of the toughest KYC we ever experienced. It was not from Wise or revolut, but this year we noticed that affiliate marketing was added in the list. Who knows really!

You are correct when you speak about certain thresholds, they usually ring bells. Another option you might want to consider is called Silverbird. I didn't try it my self, so I can't give a green or a red light. I don't know what their position on Gambling is. All I am saying is that it is an option.

And of course, let's hope the Wise process comes to an end peacefully. Keep us updated please.

Update on my situation:
Following another request for documents from Wise at the end of June, I submitted a document that listed not only my withdrawals but also my total profit at Sportmarket for the first four months of the year. The document was signed by Sportmarket's director. Although my Wise account had not been closed yet, I had not heard from Wise since submitting this document (3 weeks ago), so I emailed them today and received confirmation that my account was indeed successfully verified.

A huge thanks to Sportmarket for going the extra mile to help me get verified with Wise. Thanks also to Arbusers and the other posters on this thread. Needless to say, I will be a bit more careful with Wise in the future (it is probably not "wise" to park large amounts of money there for the long term) but I am happy that my situation could be resolved. My advice for others who find themselves in the same situation would be to be as transparent as possible and to obtain official documents, signed if possible, confirming both the withdrawals and the total P&L.

Congrats for the happy ending, and Kudos to Sportmarket for providing the document.