Bad experience with currency accounts provider and alternatives

#1

I have recently started to work with currency accounts, and having followed the orthodoxy I chose the former between the apparently only two options: Currencies Direct and World First.

However, my experience with CD has been abysmal. Being used to these type of services as an individual, I can confirm their exchange rate are a rip off compared to the likes of Revolut and Transferwise.
Consequently I’ve added a Revolut euro account as a beneficiary to a CD euro account in order to avoid the exchange rates. The very moment I’ve done that CD announced me that my fees have doubled. After making a complaint to them about this “coincidence”, they agreed to lower the fees, although not at the initial level. But surprise surprise, the payment to Revolut didn’t went though, because it is not a “real account”. This is the first time I’ve ever had any problems making payments to and from that account. What CD have done, is penalise me for not wanting to use their bloated exchange rate, then basically locked me into that exchange rate.

To give you an idea of CD’s exchange rate, it’s actually cheaper to pay the fee for a same currency transfer to a Transferwise account, and then pay Transferwsie’s exchange fees, than use CD’s exchange rate (which allegedly includes the same fee as the same-currency transfer). Not to mention that to make a same currency transfer costs 1-2% in CD, and just a fixed sum of 50p in Transferwise.

I’m really wondering, since there are alternatives to these two currency account providers (I don’t expect World First to be much different than Currencies Direct), are we sellers actually allowed to use them? Revolut has the best exchange rate I know of, while Transferwise’s fees are half or less than the minimum of those of CD, and they also offer native IBANs.

There are obviously much better alternatives that CD and WF, but for some reasons these two seems to have gotten under Amazon’s skin, and since sellers are so terrified of verification and suspension we’re stuck with them. I know one person here has previously asked about Revolut, but has anyone actually tried these alternatives? Or at least, are they safe to try?

#2

Well, it seems currency accounts is not the hottest topic of the day…

#3

I’ve just started using Transferwise, and no problems so far… one payment in from Amazon and the second expected tomorrow.

#4

That’s very good to hear! Did Transferwise give you any certification letter, or did Amazon ask you for one?

#5

Re outgoing payments, to date I have made 3 payments to my suppliers’ banks from Transferwise. All payments were received same day I transferred (I think within half an hour).

#6

No and no.
Transferwise gave me a bank account number and sort code, which I set up as my bank in my Amazon profile account info. Job done!
btw, 2nd payment came in yesterday. So far so good.

#7

I know from experience that Transferwise works like a charm, and the same goes for Revolut. But I think there are some limits to which established entities accept as “legit” these type of services that have the potential of being highly disruptive for them. For example, my bank doesn’t accept Revolut’s international IBANs (but others do…).

Anyway, my concern was if Amazon would accept them, so I can shake off the likes of Currencies Direct, which are no better than the banks. If you say it works, I’ll give it a shot myself pretty soon. Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

#8

I have a transferwise account linked to my amazon sellers account, amazon has come back to me requesting and bank statement or a letter from the bank to verify my account. What do I do? I sent them a screenshot of my account and they said it is not good enough.

How did you guys verify your transferwise bank account with amazons sellers account?

#9

I wasn’t asked for verification. Maybe because I’m based in the Republic of Ireland? Or maybe because I’d already supplied details of my Irish bank for Euro payments from the EU marketplaces? And I’d already supplied a credit card for paying Amazon invoices so they apply the test fee on that every month to verify the (Irish) account.
Have you tried contacting Transferwise to see if they can provide you with documentation? I had a couple of queries before creating my account with them and found them helpful.

#10

As it happens, I just asked Transferwise today if they provide a certificate letter, as in a document signed by a human being. Will post the reply as soon as I receive one, but I guess that’s the only way to go, ask them for one.

#11

Transferwise just answered with a signed letter confirming my account details. I noticed that the date is of the letter is May 2017, so you should check carefully every detail, and eventually ask for a re-issue before submitting it to Amazon. But from here on, there is no reason why it shouldn’t work.

#12

Did Amazon accept the signed letter from Transferwise as account verification?

#13

No idea, haven’t done this yet, will do it only after the holidays. You should ask PICKnCLICK. I’m curious myself.

#14

Did Amazon accept the signed letter from Transferwise as account verification?

#15

So sorry for the late reply, I didn’t receive any notifications stating someone had replied to my messages above.
Amazon accepted the letter from Transfer-wise and all is good, I suggest this service to anyone struggling to get a bank account in the UK for their amazon business.

Kind Regards,
PICKnCLICK

#16

I sent them the proof of ownership letter transferwise sent me and verification team sent me this:

Hello,

The document you previously provided as proof of bank account ownership was not sufficient to complete the verification process because it was not a bank statement or letter.

Please upload the document listed below in the Settings section of Seller Central (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/on-board/configuration/index.html). It is important that the document is easy to read.

– A scanned copy of a bank statement or bank letter for the account currently entered as a deposit method in Seller Central: account number ending in 88.

The document must be dated within the last 12 months and must show the bank account number, the bank logo and the account holder’s name. If you are operating as a business, the bank account must be in the name of the business.

Once we have received this document we will continue with your verification.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at any time (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/contact-us/contact-amazon-form.html).

Sincerely,

The Amazon Payments Team

Seriously??? What a joke!

#17

No idea, getting really annoyed with members of the verification team making things up as they go along. I appealed and got this response back.

Hello,

Thank you for your email. However the documents you have provided are not from a bank and so we cannot accept them.

The document you previously provided as proof of bank account ownership was not sufficient to complete the verification process because it was not a bank statement or letter.

Please upload the document listed below in the Settings section of Seller Central (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/on-board/configuration/index.html). It is important that the document is easy to read.

– A scanned copy of a bank statement or bank letter for the account currently entered as a deposit method in Seller Central: account number ending in 88.

The document must be dated within the last 12 months and must show the bank account number, the bank logo and the account holder’s name. If you are operating as a business, the bank account must be in the name of the business.

Once we have received this document we will continue with your verification.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at any time (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/gp/contact-us/contact-amazon-form.html).

Sincerely,

The Amazon Payments Team

What a load of dribble. You can say the same with Payoneer, and we know they are accepted on Amazon. I spoke to someone at seller support and they said that what I am sending is not a letter and is agreeing with them despite others being able to get Transferwise accepted.

Going to take this further to manager director email which is - managingdirector@amazon.co.uk

You may have to do the same.

#18

Payoneer is the same also and they have been confirmed allowed to be used.

#19

Hi!
Amazon is continuosly refusing my Transferwise proof of bank account ownership and not giving any specific insights what is wrong with it (it is signed, got logo, account holder name, address etc.) - Can you please share a screen how your document looks like? (of course without sensitive data) Amazon support is not helping us at all with that and we don`t know what to do :confused:

#20

got the same problem! Has Amazon explained you what exactly is wrong with the document?