Last Updated on March 22, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev
Wirex shot to prominence over the years and the banking world was intrigued by the service they promised. The tide seems to have turned overnight though especially in recent months. There have been multiple complaints about intermittent service and in most cases non-existent service. This has raised a lot of eyebrows and people can’t seem to get how it all went wrong. We are going to be going in-depth on what is happening with Wirex. First, we have to explain what Wirex is and then get on to the problems.
Wirex
Wirex is a multicurrency transaction service that works with over 150 currencies and is useable in over 54 million locations. This is at least what they advertised it as. The services they promised were quite appealing especially the part about accepting cryptocurrency. There are very few Visa card services that had intentions to directly allow you to use cryptocurrency as part of their services. These promises were certainly good enough to woo people to their services.
The Problems of Wirex
Wirex has been receiving a lot of negativity, this is mainly due to poor services that users have been experiencing. This article is set to be a clear warning when it comes to dealing with Wirex. If you use the service chances are you are going to experience a lot of problems. We have created a list of the most common problems that Wirex users have been experiencing.
Withdrawal and Transaction Delays
This has been one of the most common problems that users of Wirex are facing. It has become quite difficult to withdraw money from your Wirex account and although the company has often claimed that it was just a temporary problem, it seems it has become the norm. Withdrawals that are supposed to be instant are taking over 5 hours to process and this might be a big problem for some users. This has been quite evident when it comes to transfers from the Wirex account to another bank account. This has been quite a big problem for users and when they queried the company for answers the answer seems to be pretty much the same. Wirex claims that the withdrawal delays are a result of unexpected maintenance.
The last thing you would want from your Visa card is purchase delays. This can causes inconveniences that may be very difficult to rectify and it’s far worse for a card that was said to work in foreign countries. Wirex users have been complaining that they have been experiencing delays when they make purchases and this has resulted in people having to seek other means to settle their bill. One complainant claims that they were left stranded in a foreign country after failing to pay for their hotel room using Wirex. This is terrible and if there is a situation that would need to be rectified as quickly as possible it has to be this but Wirex seems not to know this.
Inaccessible Accounts
Another big problem that is plaguing Wirex users is the failure to access their accounts. There have been several complaints from Wirex users that emanated from their failure to log into their Wirex account. These complaints are nearly the majority on the Bittrust page. Reviews on TrustPilot are not not very cheerful. The company (Wirex) in the past have blamed the problem on what they term DNS propagation delay. Initially, Wirex had promised that once the DNS records are updated things would revert to normalcy but that does not seem to be the case. Users continuously experience login issues on the site and some users on the review page claim they have not accessed their accounts in months.
Card Activation
The Card from Wirex is one of their premium products and one of the users’ favorites. The problem though is that getting to activate it might take a very long time and you might end up giving up. Once you get your card you have to activate it and this has to be done by Wirex. Most rival services allow you to automatically activate your card. In the worst instances, you might have to physically go to the Wirex offices to get your card activated.
Poor Customer Support
The only consolation for a service that is plagued by several operational problems is good customer support. This is not the case when it comes to Wirex. Of all the problems you will experience using Wirex, customer support will rank as the worst. If you post your complaint on their site’s review page it will take ages for the support to respond. The responses are rarely helpful. They are usually automated apology texts that are similar for everyone.
The best alternative though would be to email the company but they rarely respond to emails too. Once you email them you are most likely going to receive an automated apology and a flood of promotional emails supposedly about how “great” Wirex is. The call customer service is not any better. The calls are never answered. The poor customer service has been one of the biggest letdowns of using Wirex. The best way to fix this would be using a live chat feature to enable quick response and in the end better service.
Verdict
Using a multicurrency transaction service should be a seamless experience but that is not the case with Wirex. If you are looking for a multicurrency transaction platform there are dozens out there. If you do decide with Wirex chances are you will experience the listed problems and probably more. This should be a clear warning that Wirex is a no-go area and we recommend you take it very seriously.
Warning!
Wirex has promised to look into the problems that its users have been facing. The promise seems to be taking forever to be fulfilled and there are rumors that major companies that we’re partnering with the service are beginning to get cold feet. Using the service at present would be a very bad idea and you might risk losing your money. It is a very good idea to avoid the service until everything is in place. Be warned, use Wirex at your own risk.