Hi Gary, slightly off topic question here… as you know, I’m doing quite the opposite of what you are doing, in my case, converting SGD to AUD via Wise, and to reduce shall we say, erm, administrative hassles, I convert less than SGD10,000 per transaction… but that sometimes nets me more than AUD10,000 at the receiving end.

Now I’ve not been flagged by the ATO or received a friendly call from NAB or CBA or HSBC (these are the 3 receiving banks Sydney side), but in your experience, do you think it’s better for me to be even more cautious and remit so that the amount in AUD is less than the mandatory AUD10,000 reporting threshold?

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Jun 4 2024, 05:24 PM

ATO watches incoming remittance very closely if you are on govt welfare. There are a lot of pensioners rorting the welfare payments with assets overseas but not declaring it (as this would enable them to get less pension).

If you are not on govt welfare, there is nothing to fear because my siblings (PRs) used to sent fairly huge amounts to Aust (since 80s) without ever being audited. I personally believe sending under A$10k will not make much difference because the ATO is fairly sophisticated in picking up 'suspicious' transactions.

Other than pensioners, the radar is also on money launderers (esp drug money).

From your posts, it doesn't appear you would fit in the category of either of these groups so you should have nothing to worry about.

Hope this helps.

Thanks mate. I will never qualify for a pension, and to me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Is buying eg Rupiah n topup in Wise balance for spending cheaper than using MYR balance to convert for transactions in Indonesia. Which is cheaper or are they almost the same fees?.

This post has been edited by gin&tonic: Jun 15 2024, 04:24 PM

THIS THREAD IS ABOUT USING THE WISE VISA CARD AS A CONVENIENT AND LOW COST PAYMENT METHOD DURING OVERSEAS TRAVELS.

Edit: moderators have decided to move my thread on using the Wise Visa card as travel money here and merged with the old Wise financial thread.

I think most people knows about this product. It provides a "cheap" way of exchange of funds. It also allows a way to have multiple accounts in different currencies and when tied to a wise visa card, allows spendings in countries using the local currencies you may have.

I discovered however, the user has no control over which currency it pays out from if you do not have funds in that currency.

Recently I went to Scandinavia, and each of these countries have their own currencies. I loaded some NOk. I also have MYR smd jpy. Paying in Norway, it was fine. Paying in the other nordic countries, it converted from NOK. The problem starts then the NOK account ran out. Instead of taking from MYR, it converted from jpy. I have no control over which currency it takes from.

The jpy is meant to lock in the low rate at the moment for future travels to Japan. I have no means of "ring fencing" the jpy account.

Also, after double conversion, the FX cost isn't that much better than Bigpay or even just using a cc.

My conclusion is. It's an ok system if you regularly travel to a particular country and worth maintaining a balance in that currency.

For the occasional travels to any country you are unlikely to visit again, it's probably not useful.

And they make money from the multiple FX conversions, even if the margins charged are low. Plus make money from monies lying dormant.

Anyone has a different experience?

This post has been edited by limeuu: Jun 18 2024, 01:50 PM

I believe it deducted alphabetically.

For example. I purchased something from eBay and only have funds for AUD and MYR. Wise deducted AUD first then MYR.

the trick is to put the currencies that you stored in Wise for future use in Jars instead of those live accounts, Jars are not touched.

Most people except you?

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4953197

Ah. Now I see that feature. Should have done that earlier!

There is jar? Untouched money? In wise?

Ah, that's where the wise thread is. I was looking for it under the CC/DC section.

just put every currencies u don't want to be auto-converted under Wise Jars

practically this means if you have 5 currencies

• myr
• usd
• sgd
• jpy
• aud

and you travel to australia, you'll be locking your USD+SGD+JPY into Wise Jars

Thanks for the info. That solves the problem of how to force wise to use a particular currency.

nice info on jars, will use it then

btw, for those noob like me, pls make sure your 1st transaction in MY for verification.

I used 1st time using ATM at Salzburg, was 5 Euro poorer just for transaction fee :|

Yea, I also didnt know about this Jar thing until Wise deducted my Baht and not my larger MYR amouny account while spending in Singapore.

This feature only accessible via webpage right? Cant find it in app.

Someone reported this thread as in the wrong section. I think it should be here, as a wise visa card payment topic, for those whio intend to use as "travel money".

Those looking at wise as a means of transferring money internationally can use the other thread.

In App too. I just "jar" up my jpy.

i think the original mega Wise thread should be moved here, and this new thread merged into that

"here" as in the CC forum, or general Finance Forum?

limeuu cc forum. Wise thread in general finance subforum is a bit out of place

This post has been edited by Medufsaid: Jun 18 2024, 05:56 PM