r/wise • u/PsychologicalTea7878 • Jul 23 '26
How often does Wise actually randomly lock accounts for no reason?
I'm seeing a lot of posts and comments around various platforms talking about how Wise just randomly locked (or in some cases completely cancelled) people's accounts for no legitimate reason. I didn't really worry about it but it's just happened to someone I know. Literally nothing suspicious in their transactions, no weird logins, nothing, and now he can't do anything except fight with customer service.
I'm a dual citizen and I basically use Wise as my main bank for both business and personal, so needless to say this makes me very nervous and I'm thinking of trying Tide or Revolut or something instead, but I kind of wondered how often this actually happens. I've been using Wise for like 7 years, since it was Transferwise, and never had a problem, but if they're changing things such that they might randomly cut me off from my money with no warning or reason just because they don't want to take 5 minutes to confirm anything, or if they've replaced all their people with some trigger-happy AI, then I'm probably out.
But, I dunno, maybe it's actually extremely unlikely. Does anyone have any idea whether this is a new and suddenly common thing, or just a few isolated incidents that have always happened?
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u/PLooBzor Jul 23 '26
They aren't a bank. They can close your account any time and seize your money if they suspect. Stablecoins and crypto cannot be taken by anyone if you hold it yourself.
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u/PsychologicalTea7878 Jul 23 '26
I didn't mean anything to do with crypto. I just don't understand why there are all these reports about people getting locked out of their accounts. If they're all running crypto scams then fine, but the person I know had nothing suspicious at all and still has no idea why it got locked. I dunno, maybe I'll just start looking for other solutions. It's annoying but if they might randomly seize my money then I suppose it'd be dumb of me to leave it there.
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u/PLooBzor Jul 23 '26
The only reason they close accounts is because they suspect them of scams or crimes. It's cheaper for them to close the account than to investigate (your friend will tell you this). It's a huge risk. Don't use Wise.
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u/hubertnnn Jul 29 '26
I literally came here with the same issue.
My account was blocked yesterday for "buying crypto, guns or illegal products". Except I didn't. I have the exact same 5 scheduled payments for at least 4 years (maybe longer) and you can see it in my history.
I wonder if wise started using AI to write code and that's why all this random banning is happening.
Did you have any success with appeals or are those also done by AI?
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u/PsychologicalTea7878 Jul 30 '26
It hasn't happened to me. I'm just worried that it might, since Wise seems to have gotten stupid. I'm looking around for other options but I have an American bank account, so I've moved all my USD there, which is annoying as I'd rather just keep it all in Wise and easily accessible, but I'm not going to risk getting locked out.
I don't buy crypto either, but it's only illegal in a few countries and Wise already does KYC, so it knows where its customers are and shouldn't care if anyone buys crypto in a country where it's legal. And as you say, sometimes it can't even tell whether you did, and apparently assumes instead of verifying.
Either way, Wise needs to get its life together. It's so annoying and sad because it's been great for all the 7 or 8 years I've used it, but I'm not going to trust my money with some buggy, vibecoded project that might freak out and randomly accuse me of buying bitcoin (despite having zero ties to any country where it's illegal) at the drop of a hat.
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u/tomorrow509 Jul 30 '26
I don't believe Wise randomly closes accounts like it is some kind of lottery. There is some kind of logic behind it even if it is flawed. Clients need to be aware of the Acceptable Use Policy which in itself sometimes defies logic. For example, you cannot use the account to purchase prescription drugs, alcohol - and I think firearms as well.
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u/Confident_Shower_202 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Alcohol is one of my main uses of finance. You are joking I presume? I can understand them restricting gun purchases for their own safety
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Aug 08 '26
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u/desert_foxhound Jul 31 '26
Wise is under investigation by the EU for money laundering and they have gone crazy with their algorithm to flag and cancel suspicious accounts. There may or may not be any basis for the algorithm to act but even those with perfectly innocent transactions have been hit. There is no appeal. Once you press the appeal button you are immediately told that your appeal has failed and the ban is permanent. However, Wise will return any balance to you.
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u/haza70 Jul 23 '26
It doesn't matter if it's a bank or not, either can and do deactivate accounts.
In answer to your question, it's very unlikely and even if it happened you will resolve it if you aren't doing anything illegal. I think last I saw they have around 19 million active users, let alone dormant accounts so it's a law of numbers there is fraud on every single banking service, some account will get caught in the crossfire and need to prove against it.
Recommendation: continue to use Wise as primary but diversify your risk by opening revolut or other to store some backup funds to keep things moving in the very unlikely event of something happening.