Adding money to international banking services like WISE

Hey, I travel internationally quite a bit and have always used WISE (formerly Transferwise) to secure good conversion rates when paying for things overseas. However, I somehow cannot add money to my WISE account using my Neo cards. The error message I get says that this is " because your card doesn’t support purchases in categories like gambling, cryptocurrency, or cash transfers." I get that this policy is in place to protect against fraud and scams, but WISE is clearly a reputable business that I have used a lot. Is there a way to unlock this restriction?

Hey @kilian.krauss, thanks for reaching out and welcome to the community!

Totally understand why you’d use WISE while traveling as it keeps things simple abroad!

At the moment, our cards don’t support transactions like cash transfers, crypto purchases, or gambling. Since WISE is categorized that way by the card networks, those transactions end up being blocked automatically.

That said, we’re always looking for ways to improve, and I’ve shared your feedback with the team. It has sparked some great conversations, so thanks again for bringing it up! I’d also love to add you to our follow-up list so we can keep you in the loop if we decide to launch this. I’ll message you shortly to grab a few details :hugs:

The best way to add money to Wise is to “push” the funds to Wise via registering an e-mail address with your Wise CAD balance for Interac e-Transfer auto-deposit. Then, you initiate sending an e-Transfer to that e-mail address linked to Wise. Wise will add no fees when the money arrives there, and it will arrive either instantly or 30 minutes.

If you “pull” the funds from another account via Wise, they add fees, or in this case as you found Neo does not support linking for pulling funds with their debit card.

If you really want to link your Neo cash account (not your credit account) you may be able to find and link via your Neo Cash (aka Chequing) account details (ie Institution/Branch/Account numbers) on the Wise side. Pushing or pulling via this method (“EFT”) is better for larger amounts greater than the Interac limits (ie $3000 per day) but takes a few days and incurs a few dollars in fees.