Musings from an overworked translator

Transferring money with Wise (formerly Transferwise) March 18, 2022

There is a great alternative out there for translators and agencies to pay each other in foreign currencies without huge bank transaction fees – and no need for Paypal! I recently had almost $100 in fees deducted when one of my agencies switched to Paypal. I fired them. They had paid me up until then by check and it didn’t cost either of us anything. I’m sorry, but agencies who pay by Paypal are pushing the fees onto us – and we are the ones who are making the least amount of money in the transaction between them and their clients. Most agencies charge their clients double (if not triple) the “best rate” that they pay us, and we are performing the actual tangible work. The least they can do is pay any fees. Any money transfers aren’t that much better. Any time money moves into another currency, it’s still a maze of hidden exchange rate markups, high fees, delays, and small print. Well, with Wise, foreign payments are easy and affordable. Note: I do not work for Wise, nor am I being paid anything for this post. I just really like the service.

TransferWise was established years ago when Taavet and the Wise team set out to fix the inherent problems of international money transfers for all of us who’d been overcharged and underserved by banks. They chose the name ‘TransferWise’ because they knew their early customers were ‘wise’ to know their banks were charging hidden fees in exchange rate markups. Their business idea was to make money work without borders — to make money move instantly, transparently, conveniently, and — eventually — for free. They did this by establishing bank accounts in many different countries and utilizing them to move money for the customers in those countries.

In other words, I transfer money between Germany and the U.S. by setting up a transfer on the website. They calculate what I will be receiving, while stating what fees are involved. It is up to me to then accept or decline the transaction. They also use a very decent exchange rate. I compared the costs with several different transfer sites and Wise always gave me the most bang for my buck (or euro). I then transfer the money from my German bank account to Wise’s bank account in Frankfurt and have the money in my U.S. account on the date they quote in the offer.

It took a little bit of effort to sign up and get verified, but setting up a foreign bank account is almost impossible these days so this is a welcome option. I signed up using an email account, but you can also sign up with your Facebook or Google accounts. I prefer to keep my business out of the monoliths’ reaches, so I prefer using email. I had to prove I was who I was, which took a couple of days, and had to verify a couple small deposits in my bank account, but once the account was set up it runs smoothly every time.

Receive payments like a local in 10 currencies.

Get your own UK account number, Euro IBAN, US routing number, and more.

Convert and hold 54 currencies.

Holding multiple currencies is completely free

Wise is improving every day. They developed an app so you can access your account from anywhere using your smartphone. Get instant notifications for transactions. Freeze and unfreeze your card with a click. If you misplace it, you can use a virtual card instantly.

They have recently launched multi-currency accounts and an associated debit card that can be used in any currency. I first talked about their debit card during my ‘Contingency Planning and Crisis Management 101’ presentation at ATA58. They’ve improved on it since then. These new offerings could easily replace international banking for many of us. You can use the account as a normal bank account when you bill your clients. They pay you in their currency and you can withdraw it in your currency. Order a contactless debit card, and connect to Apple Pay or Google Pay right away. Or pay securely with your Wise digital card online. They are regulated in each country. For example, Wise US Inc. is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and renews its registration annually. It is licensed as a money transmitter in the states listed here, and supervised by regulatory authorities in each of those states.

By building this infrastructure, they have created a platform that more than a dozen banks use today. Wise bills itself as “a community of 10 million like-minded people and businesses managing money all over the world, saving billions and fighting as hard as ever against hidden fees.”

I have been a happy customer of Wise/TransferWise since 2017. What are you waiting for?

Change your Skype password November 10, 2016

I flew home from the ATA Conference on Monday and landed at 11:20 PM. Once I arrived at home I unpacked, put my suitcases away, showered and face-planted into bed. I woke up the next morning to 16 messages on Skype and a missed call in Skype and on my cell phone. I had been hacked, and all of my contacts were sent a link to a “baidu.com.” Luckily most of my contacts are savvy enough not to click on a link from me without any introductory text (hence the 16 messages asking if it was legit from me), but I had to go to https://web.skype.com to manually delete the message for every contact. Needless to say it was a pain.

My friend and colleague Roland Grefer was the one who had been trying to call me. In addition to being a great translator he is also a very competent IT support guy. He did a little research and discovered the following:

From what I’ve found, about a month ago, Microsoft started to merge their Live/Hotmail/Outlook/MSN/Xbox account systems into a new “Universality” account management system.

However, in the process, even if your Skype account was already linked to one of the above email accounts, they left Skype also accessible via the old Skype user name and password combination.

If the password for either account was one that was compromised in any of the recent hacks, the Bad Guys (TM) were then able to use the respective account to gain access to Skype and send spam etc. from the affected user’s Skype account.

But since M$ hadn’t made users aware of the parallel existence of the “new” and “old” Skype user name and password combos, they weren’t even aware of this “feature” as the culprit.

Once they logged into their account, and checked their “Activity” at

https://account.live.com/Activity

virtually all of them found successful logins from Asia or South America around the time the incident happened.

A sad state of affairs,
Roland

So change your Skype password or you too will be spamming your Skype contacts. And thanks to Roland for researching this!

Dropbox vs. Spideroak July 19, 2014

I share this with no commentary whatsoever, but it’s worth noting. I don’t ever keep client files on Dropbox or on a cloud-based server, but I know some people do. Whether you believe Snowden is full of crap or knows what he is talking about, it is still worth some consideration.

A remarkable moment from last night’s remarkable Snowden video from the Guardian.

In a discussion (around the 7:40 mark) of zero-knowledge systems whose operators can’t spy on you even if they want to, Snowden reminds us that Dropbox is an NSA surveillance target cited in the original Prism leaks, and that the company has since added Condoleeza Rice, “probably the most anti-privacy official we can imagine,” to its Board of Directors.

He contrasts Dropbox with its competitor, Spideroak, whose system is structured so that it can’t betray you, even if Condi Rice wanted it to.