Consumer complaint received 2020-11-17
Company: TransferWise Ltd
State: CT
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: International money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX US {$9500.00} sent to Transferwise via international wire transfer as requested by Transferwise, for Transferwise to transfer funds to another account abroad. 

XX/XX/XXXX - Transferwise confirms they received funds, stating fund will be delivered by XX/XX/XXXX - Transferwise sent a second message confirming funds will be in the recipient 's bank account on XX/XX/XXXX - Transferwise sent a third message stating there was a problem in the recipient 's bank account : " It could be closed, holding a different currency, or blocked from receiving money completely. Because of that, your money was sent back to us. To fix your transfer, you can either : Change your recipients bank details and send your money to them again. You can try with the same details again. Cancel your transfer and get a refund ''. 

- Transferwise sent a fourth message stating : " funds bounced back after we sent it out. It appears that the recipient account is blocked. We sent you a self-service email asking you to fix the transfer. You can refer back to the email and provide us the correct recipient account details, or cancel and refund the transfer ''. 

I immediately reviewed the recipient 's account information, corrected any mistake it showed, and requested money to be deposited ASAP. 

XXXX - Transferwise sent a message stating : " your money is on its way. The money should be in the bank account by tomorrow, XX/XX/XXXX. 

- Transferwise sent a message stating : " Your recipients bank has returned your money to us again. So weve had to give you a refund ''. 

At this time recipient personally went to the bank for clarification, and the bant manager clearly explained that no funds were ever received or attempted to be delivered to the recipient 's account, that Transferwise was lying when stating the recipient 's bank returned funds to them. 

- Transferwise sent a new message stating : " Please add your USD bank details so we can give you a refund ''. 

I immediately provided XXXX XXXX details to get a refund. 

Transferwise sent a new message stating : " I checked your transfer and can see that it bounced back to us a few times because your recipient 's account is blocked. This means that your recipient 's account is closed or not able to receive the funds, that is why it bounced back to us. 

If transfers bounce back to us two times, our system will automatically cancel it and issue a refund. We are now requesting for you to complete the refund process by entering in your bank details. 

You can click on this transfer on your account or use this link here to complete the refund. 

We can not send the transfer again because it has already failed two times, unfortunately. As you sent the funds to us via bank transfer, your bank charged a fee from their side, which we can not refund. You would need to reach out to your bank regarding the fees they charged ''. 

This was the first time they addressed the issue around fees paid to bank abroad to transfer funds to Transferiwise account in the USA. They made it clear, and they do not take any responsibility for such fees. 

Once more, complete details for the original bank account from where funds were taken by Transferwise were provided, requesting Transferwise to immediately refund them. 

XXXX - Transferwise sent a message stating : " Your transfer has been canceled. 
So weve refunded XXXX USD back to your bank account. You should have it in the next 13 working days ''. 

After sending new messages to Transferwise, they stopped answering. It has been three weeks since Transferwise got my funds, lied about the recipient 's bank rejecting them, and continue to keep these {$9500.00} instead of refunding them to the sender 's account. I do not know what else to do, since it is unacceptable for this company to take and keep so much money so easily, lie about it, and refuse to refund it. Please help.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief