Wise Account

[WyrleyD]

Anybody else got a wise account? We have one, set up pre-COVID when we were doing a lot of travelling so have GBP, Swiss Fr, Euro and NZ$ set up. Went to load up some Euros today for a forthcoming trip to Athens and have discovered someone has set up a gaming account with Microsoft in 2020 and have now cleaned out all the currency accounts. How they did this I do not know and can only think that it was skimmed at a petrol station in rural France which is the last time it was used in August 2020. Didn't notice it was happening until today as we have not had to use it as we have a French bank account which we normally use when travelling regularly over there, the French debit card wasn't used that day as my wife had the card and I was driving down from St Malo and only had the Wise card.

Anyway, been onto the account and frozen the card and also reported all the fraudulent Microsoft transactions ( 2 a month since August 2020). I wonder if we will get anything back as it's been going on a long time and not been challenged until now.

Of course I can't speak to anybody at Wise to see if the fraudulent transactions have been reported OK (no indication on the app or account) so will have to wait until tomorrow morning to check, the card does say "Frozen" on the account.

[egomeister]

I assume they've drained the balances through the payments auto converting remaining balances after the main one has been exhausted rather than having access to the Wise account itself?

[WyrleyD]

Yes, that's correct.

My wife is talking to Wise right now....

[egomeister]

Good luck. Keep us updated how they deal with this.

I've been a fan of the Wise product for a while so am interested how they respond. At least you have been able to get in touch (which I fear would be difficult with some of the other similar providers)

[WyrleyD]

Wife had already frozen the card, she spent about 30 mins on the 'phone with them and they said that it will be passed up to the higher level fraud team, they also sent a link to a page to dispute all the charges but when she accessed it every item already was already marked as being disputed. Went through all the usual questions about lending the card to a relative, are you sure you didn't mistakenly sign up to Xbox games sub (not at 75, err no) etc. The last valid use of the card was by me at a rural fuel station on my drive from St Malo to Limoges in August 2019 so I guess the card must have been skimmed somehow, the only other times that year were in ATMs in the bank in France. So, we will wait and see what the fraud team come up with. Not a huge amount lost but £200 is £200 and we'd rather get it back.

[WyrleyD]

Had a response from Wise this morning:

"Hello P,

Thanks for reporting these transactions to us.

We've started investigations with Visa by reporting the charges as ‘unauthorised card transactions’.

Meanwhile, we validated your dispute and refunded the charges to your Wise account.

To protect your account, we've blocked your card, as the details might be compromised. You may order a free replacement card on your Wise account.

Let us know if you have any questions. We're happy to help.

All the best,
Amy S."

[egomeister]

That's impressive for something so long ago! Well done!

[WyrleyD]

Yes, it is. Wasn't expecting such immediate action but all the payments in full are back in the account now and surprised as we didn't think we would get it all back.

[Whoozit]

Sorry to hear about it OP. Maybe it's my suspicious nature, but I insist on receiving paper statements wherever possible and notification of all payments for any services which don't do paper. For exactly the situation you ran into.