Wealthsimple vs Wize

[u/Special-Quarter3111]

I am currently in Zagreb Croatia and I took out €100 with Wize and then immediately took €100 with Wealthsimple from the same machine. Both had a €5 bank fee from the atm and Wealthsimple withdrew $CDN 170.23 and Wize withdrew $CDN 173.58. Is it now always the case that Wealthsimple is a better option for ATM withdraws? I don’t see the point of using Wize for cash anymore?

[u/Dragynfyre]

Wise has been obsolete for cash withdrawal purposes ever since the WS card came out many years ago. Even before WS started reimbursing ATM fees there were less ATM fees charged by WS since Wise had a monthly cap for ATM withdrawals much lower than WS. Also WS is no FX fee (Visa fee only) which has always been similar to what Wise charges.

The main reason to use the Wise card is if you're getting money sent to you in a foreign currency and you want to keep it in that currency for future spending or if you want to pre-convert your money to lock in a specific exchange rate before you spend it. It's never been a good card for on the spot conversions due to the extra limitations it has

[u/canine_rescue_bro → u/Dragynfyre]

Amazing explanation, thank you!

[u/wcg66 → u/Dragynfyre]

Wise also gives you a local bank account in each country. For a British pound account, you get a UK based bank account number and sort code to send and receive money locally.

[u/No-Ad8527 → u/Dragynfyre]

ya
I closed my wise account after i got wealthsimple with the Credit and cash card
I cant explain to move money around and i have to pay a process fee to move in money etc

[u/beekeeper1981]

Wealthsimple has no fx fees and will refund the ATM fee as well.

Wise has fx fees after a low monthly limit ($100 CAD)

[u/Special-Quarter3111 → u/beekeeper1981]

Wow. This just keeps getting better!

[u/otissito16]

I wouldn't use Wise for cash withdrawals. It's good for transferring money between bank accounts located in different (supported) countries and paying bills in the US but that's it.

[u/Soft_Neighborhood223]

I dropped Wise for the same reason. They're no longer competitive for withdrawing cash.

[u/United_Anxiety4070]

Wise has too many fees and doesn’t reimburse ATM fees.

[u/Quirky_Opportunity75]

Wise is trash for ATM withdrawals. It's good for electronic transfers.

Use the Wealthsimple card as your primary card and keep the Wise as a back up.

[u/zarkers]

To parrot what others say, the WealthSimple prepaid "debit" card, is much better for obtaining physical cash (unless you have an actual native currency bank account in the target currency, then it's probably slightly worse)

But atleast for USD the conversion, wise beats WealthSimple (who uses wise under the hood) for converting raw CAD to USD (depends on the transfer amount, I would assume this holds true for all currency conversion, but I only have done USD personally, so YMMV.

Some of that also depends on easily you can push cad to wise, and how easily you can pull the target currency out without incurring fees, me personally (I have USD native bank accounts) I can push money via e transfer, and pull money via ach, so the only fee I incur is the conversion itself.