From 20 September 2023, we’re changing how we provide Wise Account services in the Philippines. We’re expanding our service in the Philippines so you can move and manage your money faster, and access new products and features in the future.
If you have a personal Wise account and your registered address is in the Philippines, your Customer Agreement will now be with Wise Pilipinas, Inc., instead of Wise Payments Ltd.
This means any time you use Wise to send, receive, or hold money, we’ll be regulated by Philippine law.
If you change your profile address to the Philippines, we will cancel any active Wise Debit card(s) that you are currently holding upon your confirmation of the address change due to regulatory restrictions.
Verifying your account
If your registered address is in the Philippines, you’ll need to verify your identity and send us a proof of your address (when applicable) when setting up your first transfer after 20 September 2023.
You’ll see in the transfer flow exactly what we need from you. We’ll also send you an email, and a notification in the Wise app, with details on how to submit your documents.
In some cases, we may ask you to take a photo of your ID, as well as a photo of yourself, to help with verification.
What types of documents do we accept?
ID
If your nationality is Filipino, we accept:
Philippines National ID (PhilID)
passport
driving license
postal ID
UMID
Your document should be issued in the Philippines.
If your nationality is not Filipino, we can only accept passports to verify your identity.
Proof of address
Utility bills within the past 3 months: gas, electric, or landline phone (no mobile phone bills)
A bank or credit card statement within the past 3 months (photo/scan of a physical letter or PDF of statement)
Vehicle registration or tax document
Photo driving licence showing your address and expiry date
Any other government or financial institution-issued document
Learn how we verify your address
How long does the verification process take?
The document verification may take 1-3 working days. We’ll notify you once it’s done or if we need anything else, so please keep an eye on your email.
What happens if I don’t verify?
You won’t be able to use your Wise account until you’ve completed the verification process — including submitting your verification documents. This helps us keep your account secure.
What if my verification fails?
There are lots of reasons your verification could fail, such as uploading an unclear image, an ID validation error, or because of missing or incorrect documents. If your verification fails, you can send the documents again through the Wise app.
New limits on your Wise Account
There’s no limit on how much you can hold in your Wise account.
You can send up to 480,000 PHP (or equivalent in any currency), per transfer set up from your Wise balance. This means the limit won’t apply if you’re sending money from bank transfers or other payment methods aside from your balance.
You can add or receive up to 400,000 PHP* (or equivalent in any currency) to your Wise balance monthly. This means your limit will refresh on the first of each calendar month.
We’ll send you a notification once you’ve hit the limit. If someone sends you an amount exceeding the monthly limit, we’ll refund the money to the sender. We’re working on improving the experience so that the limits are more visible to you.
We’re working to increase these limits soon.
* You'll need to provide proof of address if you want to receive up to 400,000 PHP per month. Otherwise, you can receive up to 100,000 PHP per month with the ID document verification.
Taxes on Wise fees
For each transaction on your Wise Account, our fees are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate (currently at 12%).
This includes:
adding money to your Wise Account
sending money from your Wise balances
converting money between balances
receiving into your Wise Account details where there are fees (e.g. receiving USD via Swift, receiving CAD via Wire)
You can see the VAT amount when making a transfer in your Wise app.
Example: you're sending 1,000 USD from your USD balance, with the calculated fee of 6.73 USD. We add 0.81 USD (12% of 6.73 USD fees) VAT, so the total fees you pay will be 7.54 USD.