Remitly

Don't use Remitly! This company has been very fast but with my most current transaction. To modify takes freaking days instead of the promised few hours. I requested to cancel the transaction and it has been 5 days now and no updates. I did another transaction for home delivery and it has been 2 days now and their customer service is stating the system is down and there's a problem with their receiving bank. You paid them express fee but you have to wait for the crow to turn white for a result. The customer service sucks. Call agents from different countries and will say the same words and line of conversations. I asked just to cancel the second transaction and guess what " if you cancel it will take 10 business days " just to process. There is nobody that you can escalate the matter to. If you love the people you're sending money to. Don't use Remitly.

Tried to send money to friend overseas that I sent to before using same account. Remitly puts money on hold and tells me to call them. I call them and Remitly asked so many very personal questions that I thought were very inappropriate to verity account and transfer. Finally they send the money to my friend. I wake up the next morning not only to find out the money transfer was canceled but also my account locked. I called and they said that my account was closed but they cannot be specific as to the reason why it was closed. Never experienced any crap like this. This company definitaley will not be around long if they do business like this.

Have been using Remitly for a couple of years now. Sending money to Philippines. Money transfers have been quick and without complication.
My gripe with Remitly is that Remitly think they have the right to request months of bank statements. When you question them they state it is in their terms and conditions which you agreed to. And that it is their policy (as if their policies cannot be questioned by a mere customer). If you don't provide the statements they will suspend your account. A letter from the bank validating me as the account holder is not good enough - they want to examine all of my personal transactions...
I have my policies too Remitly and they are inconsistent with yours
Goodbye

Remitly sent through my first money transfer of $200usd to Mexico just fine. But when I tried a second transfer, it initially went through, but then Remitly sent me an email saying there was an issue, and I needed to log in and answer some questions. So I did that, mostly pertaining to the person receiving the money. But Remitly also wanted a photo copy of my bank statement! WTH! For a $250 transfer? I called my bank and they said don't do it. It was a 5day transfer straight from my bank to remitly they would have had plenty of time to get the money and send it on absolutely NO reason for them to request my bank statement. I had quite an online chat with one of their customer help agents what a joke. He gave some song and dance about Mexico wanting to make sure I wasn't laundering money ($250? Please!) and a bunch of other crap that made no sense. So I refused the demand, and they cancelled my transfer. People, this company is either getting hacked, or they are running an elaborate scam. Run, Forest, run!

I tried sending money via my debit card and kept saying that my bank denied the transaction. I contacted my bank and my bank stated that Remitly never received the request from Remitly. I decided to send the money from my bank account, this process would take longer but at this time I did not have any other option. 9 Days later the recipient has not received the funds. They keep making excuses and now they just cancel the transaction and are trying to tell me that I need to wait 10 business days to get refunded. Worse service, I kept asking for a Corporate number and they would not provide it. They had me on the phone for over 2 hours and numerous times they hung up on me.

I have read the other reviews here, and I can agree, that this is the most unreliable and untrustworthy transaction company I have ever dealt with!
Yes, i transferred money. Yes, my transaction was put on hold, yes my transaction was cancelled due to "suspicious circumstances", yes, Remitly debited my bank account ( which they said they hadn't)...
And, no - I cant activate my Remitly(App) account because they have locked me out, in order to retrieve my transaction.
I have tried to contact them by email:
This is the answer I keep getting:

We currently have limited customer service available as we protect our global team and align with public safety precautions for COVID-19. At this time, we are not able to offer email support and are unable to respond to any email message you send us.

We truly appreciate your understanding and patience and apologize for the inconvenience to you.

We encourage you to find easy answers to your questions on our Help Center, such as:

Track your transfer
Edit your transfer
Cancel your transfer
Why is my transfer on hold?
How sending limits work

If you need to reach out to us, you can find the latest information on what customer service options are available here.

As always, thank you for choosing Remitly.

The Remitly Team

Ha ha ha! Reach out? They keep redirecting me to sign into my (locked-out) Remitly account?
Just like you guys... I've been scammed

I sent just over 200 pounds urgently to my mother-in-law on Friday 05/06/20 and was given an estimated time of around 5 minutes for transfer to go through. But then the funds went on hold, hence l called customer services which was equally a waste of time. I was informed Remitly cannot do anything about it and that I have to give it about an hour. Fast forward to Saturday 06/06/20, I received a message from Remitly to say, they required further information from me before the transfer can go through. I was instructed to sign into my account to complete this. I logged into my account only to find a message saying, I should upload a screenshot of my bank account as security precaution. Now, my question is who requires your bank accounts for sending just over 200 pounds. Normal people ask for a passport or your driving license, not my full bank account details. This made me query the credibility of the company hence requested a refund. I received an email to say my refund will be in my accounts on the 06/06/20, but as I write this review today 07/06/20, the money has still not be refunded. Meaning a delay in re-transferring the money to my in-law. What a joke of a company. Stay away completely from them.

ZERO STAR for customer service. I requested to upgrade my limit for money transfer. After answered all requested questions from them and the last step was Remitly required to make a phone call to verify but that number they provided didn't work. Then, I had an online chat with online support team but they were unhelpful at all. I emailed them about the situation and after waiting for few days I finally got the answer that they are unable to upgrade my limit without a reason.
Luckily my friend introduced me TRANSFER WISE that service is perfect and I didn't have to pay any fee for the 1st time transfer referred by friend. Highly Recommended TRANSFER WISE to everybody.

I made a transfer 4 days ago, verified my identity and the transfer is still on hold. No one answers the customer service number. I waited 2 hours on a chat for help yesterday. All Remitly said was that someone from the security department was going to call later on, and of course no one did. The transfer is still on hold. I want to cancel but I don't know if it'll just make things worse by getting charged cancellation fees. I went on the chat today as well and it took about 2 hours and they said they need to verify everything again and answer questions. The transfer is still on hold while I have to submit an account statement. I'm done with this bs. UGGHH!

Don't EVER use this company. Remitly are a joke. I've been on the phone with customer service for HOURS this morning. I sent TWO payments yesterday to the same person. One went through and one did not. The bank came back and said that the name I provided doesn't match the account which is a bunch of crap because I've been paying this person for months with the same information and the same account. One person went back to the bank and said they corrected it but they did not so I called back for a FOURTH time. This person is just lazy and refuses to contact the bank and get the problem resolved. They also refuse to refund my money. Completely unbelievable. DO NOT USE EVER!

Incredibly slow. And the customer service which I contact almost every month doesn't seem to understand anything. I deposit my money within the hour but it takes very long to reflect on their account. So it ends up getting canceled. Then their customer service just really s*cks. I have been a remitly customer for nearly 3 years. This is my last straw. I'm so happy transferwise finally added the bank that i send to back home. They're faster and have better exchange rates. I'm deleting remitly forever as soon as I get my refund.
To remitly: please train your staff well with the most basic issues. Don't just teach them to apologise. It's so annoying

I'll start by saying that I usually write a review because I'm thoroughly disgusted at the actions of a particular company. And this time is no exception. I live in the USA. My fiancé/girlfriend lives in the Philippines with her family. Like many others nowadays we met online and fell in love. We've been together for a year and a half. I'm planning to go there and marry her so she can get a marriage visa to come to the USA. She grew up extremely poor. I don't want her to have to work for 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, for $50, which is common there. So I fully support her whole family. I pay their rent, utilities, buy all the food, etc. I send her money every week. I've used several different money transfer services. I hadn't used Remitly yet, but thought I'd give them a try since Remitly "appeared" to focus on the Philippine community. I figured that since they are a Philippines only transfer company they would have more concern and be more sympathetic to the Filipino people. But that is absolutely untrue! It's just the opposite. They don't give a damn about the Filipino people, consider them to be scammers, and could care less if they're starving to death. Just listen to this almost unbelievable first encounter I had with their company. My girlfriend's family had run out of food and had eaten nothing at all for 2 days due to a communication problem between us. Very mistakenly I decided to try Remitly to send her some money, only $50. I filled out the form and sent the money assuming it would get there in minutes like most other services. My girlfriend called back about an hour later to say there was no money available for that transaction number. She was weak from not eating and it was very hot and she had to ride her bike a long ways to pick up the money. In my email there was a letter from Remitly saying there would be a one hour delay while they double checked my information. I couldn't understand why they had to do that. I sent from my Visa debit card that I've used a hundred times before. All the info was correct, so what was the problem? After waiting and waiting for a few hours I suddenly get ANOTHER email from Remitly saying I need to send them a copy of a document that has my address on it. WHAT? I just wanted my girlfriend to get the money and finally have some food, so I quickly sent Remitly a government document with my name and address. Even though it was ridiculous to have to go through all that just to send $50. In all the years I've been using transfer services I've NEVER had anyone hold up my transaction and ask for proof of who I am. They acted as if I was a suspected terrorist or something. But hold on, it get's MUCH worse. So my gf rides all the way back again to pick up the money... but it's STILL not there. She has to ride all the way back to the café again to call me on the PC and tell me the bad news. She says she's getting very dizzy and feeling sick. About another hour after I send the document I get ANOTHER EMAIL AGAIN. This time Remitly is telling me that I need to call their customer service dept! So I call them and ask What is the problem NOW? The girl says Well sir, we need to ask you some questions to further verify your ID. I couldn't believe they actually still wanted more from me just to transfer a lousy 50 bucks. I asked What do you want to know? She then began asking me EXTREMELY personal questions that were none of her business. Who are you sending this money to? Are you related to them? How long have you known this person? I was getting VERY VERY pissed off at her intrusive line of questioning and wondering what in the hell did all this have to do with sending money. How is it ANY of Remitly's business who I want to send money to? I THINK I'm old enough to make that decision for myself! But I wanted this over and done with so my poor hot, weak, very tired and hungry girlfriend could finally go home and eat. I explained to her my gf and her family hadn't eaten going on 3 days. And I told her she was my fiancé who I've been with for a year and a half, etc., etc. After all that she had the nerve to ask me if I've ever met her in person! I said Of course not, I live in the USA and I'm planning to come there and marry her. But she keeps going on and says Well has she ever visited you? I had just told her I hadn't been able to be with her yet and she still asks me that. After her extremely rude Gestapo line of questioning was finally over she says I'll talk to my supervisor. She comes back after a very long wait and tells me Sir, based on the information you've given me I'm afraid Remitly will not be able to complete your money transfer. I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. I said You mean Remitly refuses to send a measly $50 just for the fact that I haven't yet personally met with my fiancé? You can't be serious. What is your reasoning behind all this ridiculous paranoia? She said A lot of people in the Philippines are known to scam people for their money. Since you haven't met her in person we don't know if she is just scamming you. I kept thinking This can't be real. I said to her So you're telling me that because of the very remote chance my fiancé has been scamming me for a whole year and a half Remitly refuses to send my money to her? I said, Who the hell is Remitly to dictate to me who I can and cannot send my own money to? I don't need Remitly to police my actions and make sure I don't make any mistakes! And even if I did choose to send money to a scammer that's NONE OF REMITLY'S BUSINESS! I can give my own money to whoever I damn well please! I'm not a little kid and Remitly is NOT my mother! She just said Well that's Remitly's policy sir, goodbye... and hung up. I just sat there numbed from what I had just been told. It was just unbelievable. How could any company be so incredibly callous and coldhearted? And actually dictate to me who I should or shouldn't send money to? How can any company make it their business to police your money? I have many Filipino friends here in the USA. I was telling one guy what happened. He said Oh I know all about it... they pulled that same exact crap on me last year, and I was only trying to send $25! That's why I will NEVER use Remitly and neither does anyone I know. Remitly suspects all Filipinos of being scammers. They totally SUCK. I told him I was in complete agreement. They treated me like I was a terrorist, then insinuated my fiancé was just a scammer. Overly suspicious isn't even the half of it. This company is straight up paranoid. In America we go by Innocent until proven guilty... But un American Remitly has made it clear they believe in just the opposite... Guilty until proven innocent. In effect, Remitly condemns the people of an entire country for the actions of a small minority. In my book, that's way too close to being prejudiced and a racist. There are plenty of other transfer services. And I most certainly will not use the one that goes against my rights as an American citizen. Anyone who supports this company is doing an injustice to their fellow Americans... and the people of the Philippines. Message to Remitly: If you intend to do business with Americans... then you'd better act like one.

Do not use this app. I sent money to a friend and then Remitly said that the bank at my friends country didn't receive it so I had to cancel it and they did refund me my money which was fine. But then, about two months later I see in my bank account that Remitly removed the same amount that I sent without my approval. I called customer service and they told me that they would return my money and that they don't know why that happened. They said to way 72 hrs to get the money back. I kept sending emails and calling after the 72hrs and I still haven't received anything and they won't answer my emails anymore. I basically got money taken from my account without my consent. Don't use this.

Remitly accept account applications, transfer requests and transfer limit increases from business customer even though they are not approved for business transactions.

They then take the money from your account and place it on hold and notify you to contact them to finally eventually cancel the transaction. What a waste of everyone's time and effort.

The entire process took more than an hour of my time (and theirs), and placed my money of hold so it couldn't be used at all until released.

It could all be fixed by adding a message on their website saying they cannot provide business transfers at this time, or when you select "business" during the application process, it could pop up and tell you they cannot do it and decline the application.

They CHOOSE not to fix this, which leads to them harvesting all of you personal information including government identity documents, proof of address papers, etc, and NOT discarding it upon cancellation of your account!

I'm a remitly customer for over 2 years. Remitly unceremoniously cancelled my account with no other information. Their privacy issues abound from asking for bank statements (which I had to anonymize myself), to their staff not knowing what they're doing in regards to financial transactions. I've also encountered rude staff. I mainly used them because of the rates - the speed and ease I could do business, and that I generally didn't have to interact with anyone. But nevermind putting up with them - they'll 'audit' your transactions and question you about them. The second audit, was the last one - they closed my account with no explanation - this is after spending thousands in fees to them over the years - sending to actual bank accounts.

DON'T USE THEM.

Hi
I have sent money twice, Remitly delivered it to my recipiant, not in minutes but in Hours, then now for the third time the hold my payment, and ask for recipiant ID, i have provided, still same on hold, then contacted them on costumer service, no phone, no email, and no chat available, after some time chat appeard, i waited til was my turn, chated to many different names wich i habe doubt that same persone with no specific answer, only said we will email to their partner to release my payment, 2 days gone same thing. Looks like a multi million dollar scam is remitly. Stay Away from them.
I am going to report them and advice to those who been affected by remitly to others, Do not Use these mo,,, th,,, r F... r, ssss.

Incredibly good experience with Remitly, support between June 7 and 11. I sent 800 euros to my wife in Saint Petersburg for surgery on June 11. A day later, after sending I received an email that the amount was on hold. It finally worked out that the bank requires middle name as I understand many not use this in Russia, anyway the Russian bank declined and ended up with stress money was blocked for some period. But Remitly US support was amazing, Remitly did all to correct it and even confirmed they will change the process a bit for customer to avoid next time issues to validate you must give the middle name as well. Very impressed by how they convert the stress we got with the Russian receivers bank to handle all and used other bank and got our money paid out. Big thanks to the support for this. Absolute amazing.

Very similar bad experience to the other recent reviewers. We made our first transfer 3 months ago without problems. We tried to make a second transfer 2 days ago and it's been a nightmare. First two attempts with credit card were cancelled without explanation, third attempt from bank account went through but then Remitly kept asking for ID documents (which we sent them) and to call a number. The number was constantly engaged for 24 hours so we tried to access them via the chat. We got into the phone queue, waited there for an hour and a half and were then told that our payment reason was invalid so they were going to cancel the account. I just made the transfer with TransferWise without problem and it was cheaper and better rates than Remitly. Don't use Remitly, their customer service is really bad.

I am writing these words to help the community being aware and avoid the lost I had during this nightmare.
I am giving here my personal experience story with this company (Remitly). Story started when I wanted to transfer funds to my suppliers in China and Morocco. I have done my research about new cost-effective solutions for transferring money quickly with an optimum exchange rate. After a Benchmark between many of them, Remitly cutches me by its good exchange rate spread and low transaction fee. The first transaction was done smoothly to a supplier in china which get his money same day on his Alipay account. My second transfer was made to a Moroccan supplier into his Moroccan bank (Attijari Wafabank). Transfer was made on the 5th of August 2020, Funds was supposed to be received by my supplier on the 12 August. Today is 24th and no funds was received. The supplier is someone who I have relationship with for decades, I know him very well. The amount is not to high (1400$) but still it is money. The problem is that the company have a ridiculous policy in the case funds are not received. Remitly asked me to ask the supplier (receiver) to provide his bank statement which is ridiculous. No company will accept that. Bank statement has confidential information and even me I will refuse to provide it to my customers to prove that funds are received. So, I keep trying to explain that and the only cold answer from the customer service was sorry we can do nothing. For my supplier to track the transfer his bank asked the transaction swift code (which is a conventional way to track transaction for banks). Guess what, Remitly don't have it even if they withdraw the funds from my Wells fargo bank and transfer it to an international bank. They keep giving me some Transaction ID which can't be accepted by my supplier's bank. I asked them to contact the Moroccan bank and ask for a prove that funds has been deposited into my supplier account so I can show it to him: they say no. I asked them to forward the email they told me they received from the receiver bank confirming that funds has been deposit: answer is NO. Any request I made answer was NO. They said sorry we can't help. Basta your money is lost, and we can't do nothing. It is a frustrating situation when you are powerless and all you have is chatting or call center in Asia answering like a machine repeating each time same words with no compassion neither human understanding of the situation.

Bottom line: this is a company that want to make profit based on transaction fees and exchange rate spread with no customer service to provide neither guarantee that your fund will reach destination. Till today have no clue what to do!

Im never using Remitly again!

Me and my mom used Remitly now to send money to my friend in Costa Rica. We did it yesterday and thought that the money was sent! But no, my mom wakes up today to an email from Remitly asking her to verify that it's actually her. So she answers the email, but ends up getting another email telling her that she needs to call them. So she calls and Remitly ask her all kinds of personal questions about herself and the person we are sending money to. My mom got really scared and she had to wait several minutes just to get asked to wait another hour until they would call her again. When they eventually calls they asked more questions and then asked her to wait an hour more. Then she gets an email saying the money is ready for pick up. This was a really bad experience, and I don't even know if my friend in Costa Rica is going to be able to receive the money because they said in the last email that she has to have a photo ID, and she doesn't have a passport. Almost no one does in Costa Rica because of the high cost of getting one. Next time I'm going to use another company that doesn't complicate things this much, and doesn't interrogate my poor mother on the phone 2 times! She said she felt like they thought she was a terrorist. NOT HAPPY AT ALL with Remitly's way of doing business