Is the Wise Business Account a Bank Account?

The Wise Business account is an Electronic Money account and is different from a bank account. The main benefit of using your Wise Business account over traditional bank accounts is that you won’t be charged outrageous exchange rates or international transaction fees for receiving payments in foreign currencies. It’s also very convenient for those trying to open an account overseas as a non-resident.

It’s different to a traditional bank account as:

• You won’t be able to get an overdraft or loan
• You won’t earn interest on your account
• Although your bank details are unique, they don’t represent real bank accounts, but simply ‘addresses’ for your Electronic Money account, meaning you can receive payments much like a real bank account
• Your money is protected and safeguarded, but not guaranteed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) that you may get with a bank account. However they do hold your money in established financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase and Barclays. Where your money is depends on which country your Wise Business account address is in — if your account address is in the UK, for example, they keep your money in Barclays, or other financial institutions in the EEA. Because your money is always kept separately from the accounts they use to run Wise, it wouldn’t be affected if they were to become insolvent. They would return all of your money to you.