Wise: account frozen or closed
Wise can hold balances and close accounts without giving the reason. Appeal or request a refund through the appeals page.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 100% of 33 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- deactivation email
- photo ID
- photo of you holding the ID
- reason for using Wise and purpose of transfers
- proof of address or source of funds if asked
Steps
Sign in and appeal the decision, or request a refund of the remaining balance to a bank account outside Wise.
If the appeals page does not work, reply to the account deactivation email.
Ask in writing when the money will be returned.
Complain to the CFPB if the funds are not returned.
Complain to your state money transmission regulator.
More contacts for this issue
Facts you can cite
- Policy
The US Customer Agreement lets Wise suspend or restrict an account and hold the balance if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability.
Source: wise.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
Wise says "We can't tell you specific reasons why we closed your account." Customer Support cannot see the reason either.
Source: wise.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
After Wise closes an account, refunds of pending transfers take 3-10 working days by card, 2-3 working days by bank or wire transfer, and up to 90 working days by bank debit or ACH while Wise does due diligence checks.
Source: wise.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
For US complaints Wise aims to give a final response within 15 calendar days. If it cannot, it extends the deadline to 35 calendar days from the complaint and emails you the reason.
Source: wise.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The US Customer Agreement requires arbitration administered by JAMS and waives class actions. Small claims court cases are excluded.
Source: wise.com, verified 2026-10-12
- Deadline
To reject arbitration, send a signed notice to Wise US Inc., Attn Legal Department, 30 W 26th Street, Floor 6, New York, NY 10010. It must be received within 21 days after the account is opened.
Source: wise.com, verified 2026-10-12
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Wise aims to give a final response within 15 calendar days, extended to 35 calendar days if it tells you why.
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s financial regulator. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).Wise lists each state regulator on its state licenses page.
Arbitration
JAMS arbitration under section 28 of the US Customer Agreement. You can reject it within 21 days after the account opens.
Watch out
- The Help Center contact options, scam report form, card dispute page and appeals page need sign-in to the Wise account.
- Appeals need a photo ID and a live photo of the account owner holding it. Only the person can supply them.
- Wise does not give the reason for an account closure, and Customer Support cannot see it.
- The phone lines need the account holder.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
Wise froze my account with [amount] in it. Use Escalate Anything to get my money released.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin