So, I am expecting one of my relatives in Denmark to send some money to me.
Because I live in a bit of a backwater town in the USA and bank at a smaller regional bank, international money transfers are not that easy. Above all, don't ask any bank around here to handle a foreign currency because that would pretty much throw their entire world into chaos. And not only would there be chaos, but I would be charged exorbitant fees in order to handle a foreign transaction.
As such, I find it much easier to deal with an international money transfer service such as Wise.
That said, as part of their rebranding from MoneyWise earlier this year they now have additional KYC requirements for customers here in the USA.
As a "convenience" these are now all automated (which is actually not much of a convenience at all because the automation doesn't really work very well) to help make things move faster. Welcome to the brave new world of AI!
First step I needed to complete was to re-verify my local bank account which again tends to be a bit of a hassle because I deal with a smaller regional bank that isn't all up on the latest technology. But I like them, because they have been under the same ownership for 108 years, a remarkable achievement in comparison to the chaos of "bank soup" that are the major banks.
After some logging in here and logging out there and confirming this and confirming that I did eventually manage to get my bank account attached again.
But then I had to come "into compliance" with the usual KYC anti-terrorist, anti-moneylaundering situations.
Of course they don't let you do that from your computer, you have to do it from your smartphone, which is something I strongly dislike doing since I pretty much never use my phone for online stuff other than to look up directions and check the time.
Anyway, I then proceeded to my next step of confirming my identity, accomplished by having to take pictures of the front and back of my driver's license using their in-site app. Of course they don't tell you that unless you have a phone camera that automatically adjusts for macro/portrait photography, most of the time your attempt to photograph something close up like your driver's license is "too out of focus" for them to be able to accept the photo. So that took about 20 minutes of trying to work my way through different lighting and different backgrounds until I finally created a copy that they could accept.
Of course, then they wanted to compare the picture on my driver's license to an actual selfie again, all done via AI. That was a total nightmare!
Again it had to be done via a in-website app that only could be accessed from my phone so I could take a supposedly "high quality" selfie but that turned out to be almost impossible because evidently the way their image processing software works you need bright daylight or to be standing in something the equivalent of the operating theater in a hospital.
Alas, every time I actually got enough light on me to not look like I was sitting in darkness, the shadows of on my face were so strong that I kept getting the message "sorry, we can't use that particular selfie please try again."
I think it took me about 18 tries before I found the right combination of lighting and backgrounds for it to work, and what they also don't tell you is that you can't actually hold your hand steady enough for their photo app to work — you have to set your phone down in a suitable spot and attempt to get the selfie by moving your face into exactly the right position while your phone is stationary.
I'm sorry, but how the hell is that "helpful and convenient?" In particular, how is it helpful and convenient if it doesn't actually work? And how is it "convenient" if there aren't adequate and thorough instructions on how to get it to work?
This is different from the typical "make tech support impossible" scenario, in the sense that they are trying (presumably) to gain customers, rather that confuse and drive them away.
Ultimately, I did manage to get the initial account settings taken care of... so I just hope everything else works!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2025.12.17 14:05 PST
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