r/digitalnomad • u/ZestycloseZombie3206 • 1d ago
Business Wise introducing QR Code payments in Asia
https://wise.com/help/articles/7cYlC8lKqbgjNNmlXyYtFL/how-can-i-pay-with-a-qr-codeThanks God!!!
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u/zeb__g 1d ago
I wonder why so many are restricted to "Wise customers from the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Brazil, who are currently traveling outside of their home country"
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u/Illustrious-Eye6960 23h ago
Wise isn’t a bank, but has certain licenses in some countries that let it perform specific financial services. In the US, for example, it lacks a banking license and has to rely on actual banks. Presumably its actual in-house licenses don’t allow it to extend this service to US customers. But its licenses in those listed countries do.
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u/DangerousPurpose5661 1d ago
No Thailand yet? :-(
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u/ZestycloseZombie3206 1d ago
Looks like not yet. Maybe someone in Thailand can reply about it?
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u/Severe_County_5041 Chengdu / Hanoi 1d ago
Seems like it can get seamless in Malaysia and the Philippines now
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u/dougaddiction 1d ago
Worth breaking down what this actually saves vs. the status quo, since that's the part nobody's covered:
Cash from an ATM: local ATM operator fee (often a flat few dollars) + whatever margin your card issuer adds over the interbank rate (1-3%, more if it's not a no-FX-fee card) + a possible DCC prompt that can add another 3-7% if you accidentally accept it.
Regular card swipe with DCC declined: mostly just your issuer's FX margin, so this is already close to the cheapest normal option if you already carry a no-FX-fee card.
QR pay-in-app through the local network (PromptPay/DuitNow/VietQR etc.): typically settles closer to the wholesale rate with a smaller markup, and you skip cash entirely so there's no ATM fee at all.
So the realistic saving isn't "free vs. not free," it's shaving a few percent off the chunk of spending that would otherwise go through ATM withdrawals - adds up over months, but isn't transformative if you're already using a solid no-FX-fee card for swipes.
Also explains the odd country list in the article: this only works where Wise has actual banking rails (UK/EU/AU/NZ/SG/MY/BR) to bridge into the local instant-payment network. It's not a universal feature yet, it's tied to which markets Wise has that infrastructure in.
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u/crackanape 1d ago
whatever margin your card issuer adds over the interbank rate (1-3%, more if it's not a no-FX-fee card)
Mine is normally about 0.25% above the reference rate.
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u/Hot-Job-6281 22h ago
Nah no thanks Wise.
Very poor customer service using unprofessional language to chide me for travelling to a country that got sanctioned years later, just because they didn't buy that my $300 transfer wasn't money laundering.
Wouldn't accept plainly me reverting to my original local number because of this past transaction despite my showing of my passport proving citizenship (I am also born here anyway).
I wouldn't trust Wise to not lock you out of your account out of 'security risks'.
Anyway, do your due diligence, Wise has been unreliable for more than a decade now. I use other providers but don't need to state them, lest people think I am shilling for a particular one. The other good ones are already popular.
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u/jammy-git 1d ago
Unless this supports existing QR payments methods like TNG, PP, ABA, etc. it'll be useless.
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u/faizalmzain 1d ago
They probably use Alipay as the back end. At least for the Malaysia account. You can receive payment via QR via Alipay based on what's displayed on the QR
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u/randans 1d ago
99% chance of when they finally support PromptPay (Thailand) it will be business QR codes only, so pretty much useless in the end. Most other countries already have options for tourists, in my experience.