this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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Privacy
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Wise isn't a bank, but it does appear to be the best option in EUR
Wise has a banking license in Belgium much like Revolut has one in Lithuania.
Wise is missing some cool things Revolut has like metal cards that require you to use an expensive plan, or the ability to buy stocks and crypto.
What Wise has instead, is the ability to have both a REAL American AND European bank account in the same app, which you can instantly transfer money between. Revolut doesn't give you an American bank account if you're in Europe, idk if they give you an European bank account if you're in the US. But Wise has both.
Why is this so important? Well let's say you're in Europe, you land a side gig doing a bit of work for a big US corporation you're connected to through your old job. You've got your rate negotiated, everything's sweet. And then they hit you with the question: "Are you able to take ACH payments?"
Now you have to google what an ACH payment is. Then you have to find out how to be able to receive them. Turns out these are internal to the US. Banks outside of the US just don't accept them, because they're not part of the system. But wait! Wise actually gives you an actual US bank account complete with routing numbers and everything. In your name, not in some proxy's name either.
Here's a list of currencies/banking systems you can get local payments in, without going international
Yes I sound like an advertisement at this point, but it's ridiculous how useful this gets if you need to move money internationally. I didn't get all the hype before I needed it, but when I did, it fit my use case like a glove.
I have wise accounts both as a US entity and a EU entity. They give you EU IBAN and US ACH accounts no matter which side of the Atlantic you're registering from.
They're the best bank ive found in the EU too, but I didn't think they were a bank. Its important because a US not-a-bank just collapsed and a lot of people lost their life savings. The not-a-bank assured customers that their money was safe because it was being stored in actual bank's bank accounts. This would have been true, but the not-a-bank misplaced almost all their funds and, turns out, they weren't in their partners' bank accounts. Whoops.
Turns out it's not an actual bank in the EU either, they just give you an IBAN number and everything.
However, funds in EU are still insured at 20k per account and since they're not a bank, they can't be giving out subprime mortgages using your money like banks do, they have to keep it as safe as possible.
Yeah but if they're not regulated like s bank then they could do the same thing and "misplace" funds so they're not stored in their partners banks, and you then have 0 insurance, right?