Consumer complaint received 2021-02-23
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Money was not available when promised — 
Company: TransferWise Ltd (DE)

I have a personal account with payment system Transferwise Inc. which is a remittance transfer provider licensed under US law ( please see : https : //transferwise.com/us/state-licenses ). 
On XXXX XX/XX/2021 I created a transfer in the Transferwise system for an international transfer of the amount of XXXX USD to my account with XXXX ( XXXX ) in XXXX. According to the information provided by Transferwise on the date of transfer, the money should have reached XXXX on XXXX XX/XX/2021. The funds were wired via Transferwise partner bank XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
On the following day, XXXX XXXX, I saw information in the Transferwise system that my transfer has been executed and money has been wired. 
On the XXXX XX/XX/2021 funds still had not reached my account with XXXX, therefore I contacted Transferwise customer support for the first time and requested update on the status of the remittance transfer. Transferwise customer support provided me with a SWIFT payment confirmation and told me to ask XXXX to search for the remittance transfer in their system. 
However, when I approached XXXX, they could not locate the remittance transfer specified in the payment order, because they had not received it. 
After noting that the SWIFT message contains another XXXX bank XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) as intermediary bank, I approached XXXX XXXX XXXX main office. They also checked the payment order in XXXX system, but they were not able to find my funds either. 
After that, on XXXX and XXXX XX/XX/2021 in several emails and phone calls I asked Transferwise customer support for more details about my remittance transfer, but they ignored my questions. One of the Transferwise customer support operators informed me that Transferwise would only start to look for my money after 21 days after the remittance transfer date have passed. 
Meanwhile, my bank - XXXX - advised me to check the payment reference number specified in the SWIFT message in the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX which is a publicly available database where anyone can check the status of their payments. 
In the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX shows that my remittance transfer was rejected by XXXX XXXX XXXX on XXXX XX/XX/2021, i.e. it never even left XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX! 
In addition, XXXX informed me that the banks specified as Intermediary banks in the SWIFT message - XXXX XXXX  XXXX and XXXX XXXX  XXXX - have no correspondent relations with XXXX. 
Thus, it appears that Transferwise payment order which they submitted to XXXX XXXX XXXX with regard to my remittance transfer was erroneous because it stated wrong correspondent banks, and it was rejected on the day of submission XXXX XX/XX/2021. 
On XXXX XX/XX/2021 I informed Transferwise about the fact that, according to the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, my payment had been declined on XXXX XX/XX/2021. 
Unfortunately, as of today, XXXX XXXX, despite several phone calls, Transferwise has not provided me with any substantial update regarding my matter! For more than a week, Transferwise customer service keeps telling me that they are still setting up trace with XXXX XXXX XXXX regarding my remittance transfer and that I have to be patient. 
Firstly, I believe that the above mentioned actions are either ( a ) an incident of gross negligence as regards dealing with customers ' funds by Transferwise and/or XXXX XXXX XXXX, or ( b ) may be an indication of illegal actions by Transferwise and/or XXXX XXXX XXXX with my funds. 
Secondly, it is totally unacceptable that my funds was never sent as requested, and Transferwise refuses to investigate this issue before the expiry of 21 business days. I know that under US federal law, if I used a remittance transfer provider to send money abroad ( which I did ), I have the right to have the company investigate errors and tell me about the findings. The refusal by Transferwise to start investigating my issue immediately contradicts the law.