wise.com (formerly transferwise): flaky service

 Wise.com (formerly Transferwise) promises a convenient payment card and accounts with them in multiple currencies.

On Feb 20, I received an email saying they "need [me] to verify [my] account before 1 March".  There was I, thinking the account was already "verified".  So really, this is from the playbook of financial services providers arbitrarily not providing their service any more to their customer.



I check my email every week or two.  So it would be pretty likely that the 9 day period they give for me to take this action, would not be enough, even if I was able to drop everything instantly to serve their whims.  And in any case, continuation of the service depends on email.  So much for "fintech".

Nonetheless, I did go to what they call "verify my account" today, by clicking on the link in their email, and I logged in.  I was presented with a list of the main way I use my account:



Notably absent was just plain paying for stuff with it as a payment card.  That's my main use of it at the moment.

Is this "paying for goods and services abroad"?  Maybe, but mainly in the same country where I'm resident and where my wise.com account is registered, so not really.  In the end I went with "general monthly living expenses".  Why monthly, I don't know.  "Daily living expenses" is more idiomatic.

How were my efforts rewarded?  With my account getting "blocked", of course


"We've temporarily blocked your Wise account, because we're missing important info from you", it says.  It seems to have become a completely normal part of day to day service interaction, for the service to get disabled.  Service providers seem to think this is acceptable.  Maybe it is acceptable.  It's not like I can go to competent card provider, because there are none.  All card providers disable all customers' accounts all the time, and think it's normal.  I can choose to go without a payment card, or put up with this kind of crap.  Those are the choices.  In that sense, and humiliatingly, I "accept" it.

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