More Money Podcast - 373 Borderless Banking & How to Be Wise With Your Money - Brigit Carroll, Policy Lead at North America at Wise

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

I can't believe this is the last episode of Season 16! It's been an amazing season and I'm so happy to close it out with a great episode for all my summer travelers wanting to know how they can save money on converting their currency abroad. Or even if you aren't traveling this summer, if you aspire to be a digital nomad or frequently receive/send money to family or friends internationally, then you'll want to listen up. Brigit Carroll who joins me for this episode is the Policy Lead, North America at Wise, and she's sharing how Wise is changing the game for how we can send, receive and exchange money internationally and effectively normalize borderless banking. Brigit advocates for Wise’s mission of instant, convenient, transparent, and eventually free cross-border payments vis-a-vis policymakers in the U.S., Canada, and beyond. Based in Washington, D.C., Brigit joined Wise’s policy team in Brussels in 2019, focused on EU policy. Prior to joining Wise, Brigit gained 5+ years’ experience in public affairs and advocacy in Brussels, at global communications firm FleishmanHillard and the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU. In this episode, Brigit explains how Wise works, including how it keeps your money safe and makes international transactions easy with lower fees and better exchange rates. She also shares her own story of using Wise before she started working for the company while she lived in Europe and how they are constantly trying to improve and partner with financial institutions to make things easier and better. Thank you so much for listening to another season of the More Money Podcast and thank you to all the amazing guests that came on the show! I'm going to take a much-needed summer break, work on my book and visit my family in Vancouver. So with that, see you in September and enjoy your summer too! For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/373 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 373 and the final episode of season 16 of the show. This is your official, official, official season finale episode. And oh my gosh, I can't believe we're here already. But hey, you know, we got to take a little break for the summer. And I want to end things off kind of honestly talking about some of the things that I aspire to do this summer, like traveling, and just the financial aspects of that, quite honestly. And so that is why I have my guest, Bridget Carroll on the show. She is a policy lead for North America at WISE. And she advocates for WISE's mission of instant, convenient, transparent, and eventually free cross-border payments vis-a-vis policymakers

in the U.S., Canada, and beyond. And she is currently based in Washington, D.C., but Bridget joined WISE's policy team in Brussels in 2019 and also focused on EU policy. And prior to joining Wise, Bridget gained five plus years of experience in public affairs and advocacy in Brussels at global communications firm Fleischman Hillard, and the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU. So we are going to be dissecting and talking about, you know, just how to kind of open up the borders in terms of how we move our money around, which has typically been very difficult to do with our traditional banking system and how, you know, how you could use a platform like Wise to open up those borders, whether it's for your personal finances or your business finances. And the reason I'm, you know, having Bridget on the show is like, I was the one who discovered wise, maybe at the

beginning of this year, because my husband was looking for a solution for his business. He, well, he really wanted to figure out a way, how can I accept, you know, payments from my clients in the US and the UK and not pay crazy fees, not to mention the, you know payments from my uh clients in the u.s and the uk and not pay crazy fees not to mention the you know bad or inflated uh currency conversion rate that uh he was getting and so i started to look online because i i also wanted to know is there is a better solution out there and that's when i stumbled upon wise which is a uh platform that he now uses all the time for his international clients but then I also discovered this is actually a great platform for when you were you're living

internationally like as like a digital nomad or if you're traveling internationally and you're looking for a way to not just get gouged on all those you know foreign transaction fees and oh all the fees that you pay that you may not even be aware of that you're paying because you're probably paying them. So I thought this was fitting as you know, we are all kind of thinking about maybe our summer vacation plans. And maybe you're looking for a way to how can we kind of cut costs make you know, stretch this travel budget a little bit. This may be a tool that you want to have in your toolbox. So that is why I have Bridget on the show. So without further ado, let's get to that final interview of season 16 of the More Money Podcast.

Welcome, Bridget, to the More Money Podcast. I'm excited to have you on. Let's dive right in. So for all of my listeners who were like my husband, who wasn't familiar initially with Wise Now uses it all the time. Do you want to kind of share a little bit about what is Wise? How did I get started? What's his history? Sure. Thanks so much for having me, Jessica. So Wise used to be called TransferWise, if you knew about us before. We were founded about 12 years ago by two friends who realized that they were losing money transferring between the UK and Estonia on a hidden exchange rate markup. And so what they realized is there is a simpler and more transparent way to do that. And so they created TransferWise, now Wise. And today we have 16 million customers around the world,

consumers and businesses. And our mission really remains the same, instant, convenient, transparent, and eventually free cross-border payments. We think sending money should be as fast as sending an email. I'm curious, since you just mentioned eventually free, that's usually not in most businesses, business future business plans. easy as sending an email. And money really is just data in a way, right? So if it doesn't actually need to cross borders in a way, we can reduce a lot of those costs, a lot of those barriers, and make payments faster and cheaper for consumers. And when you can do that at scale, the price becomes lower, obviously, over time. So that's really a long-term sort of vision, but it does guide us, I would say, like in terms of our everyday, what we're trying to deliver for our customers. It is trying to

go faster, be cheaper, be more convenient and more transparent. And I guess kind of the benefit of doing that is to encourage more people to use the platform. I know you have 16 million users, which is a lot, but there's millions more people in the world that could probably use an account that is really a cross-border account that, again, when I was doing research, I couldn't find anything quite like it. So let's talk a little bit more specifically about how does WISE work? How does it function? What's involved in setting up an account? Absolutely. So the Wise account and Wise business are sort of our core offering. So as a consumer, you would have our Wise account. If you were a small business, you would use Wise business.

And so you can send, spend, receive, and convert money like a local with those accounts. So think about if you're sending money to a friend across borders or spending money abroad or making and receiving international payments. You can do all those things. And so getting that set up, everything is digital. So it just takes a few clicks. It's pretty simple. And then also to receive money on Wise, it's easy because you can have, um, account details in 10 different currencies. So for example, I can have Canadian account details. I can have, uh, account details

in Europe. So when I, you know, when a friend needs to pay me back in Euro, they can do that as if I were there. And so it really just removes some of these, um, not so fun barriers to kind of living an international life, which I did as well. And that's how I discovered WISE. Oh, do you want to kind of speak a little bit about your personal experience? That's so interesting. Yeah, absolutely.

So I'm from Minnesota originally, so almost Canada, but I moved abroad. I was studying abroad in Belgium and then I stayed after for several years and so had to do a lot of different international transactions. So paying tuition from the U.S. to Belgium, that was, I remember, and I was working on that with my parents as well, I think we paid $50 per transaction flat. So, you know, if you can't afford to send a huge lump sum, then you're going to lose out, right? So if you have to send 250, 500 at a time, that's really painful. And looking back, I didn't even realize there was a hidden margin in there that I wasn't even aware of, you know, unless you're able to do that complicated math. So I don't even want to think

about how much money that was lost during that very painful process. But then equally, you know, I have student loans, having to pay student loans while living abroad back home. And I don't know if this is actually the same in Canada, but in the U.S. you're forced to pay it from a domestic bank account. And so it sounds like it's similar. And that was actually a huge barrier for me because luckily I kept a US bank account, but it's expensive to keep an account open as well. So if you're truly living an international life, you're a Canadian studying abroad, and you need to pay money back home, that's one really key way that WISE can help as well. So there are so many, I mean,

I love talking to our customers about this too, because every time I talk to someone about WISE, everyone has sort of a different story to tell and like how it helped them. And I think having been a customer originally, that really kind of drove me to want to join the company. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Absolutely. So you mentioned that there's a lot of different account types. I'm assuming when WISE got started, it started as like a personal account, then they expanded it into kind of different types like business. Do you want to kind of talk a little bit more about the personal account? So, you know, for example, one thing that really drew me to Wise on the kind of personal side were all the benefits when it came to international travel. Like when I think about what I typically do is like you go to the bank, you exchange your

Canadian currency for foreign currency, which can be very expensive with the foreign exchange rate that they give you and any kind of fees, or you use your credit card. And unless you have a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees, it can be very expensive. And so you're paying, you know, an extra layer on top of a trip that's already going to be expensive. And so when I was, you know, kind of slowly planning our Europe trip for next, hopefully summer, something that we wanted to go in 2020, and then the world changed and put it on pause, and hopefully this will actually happen soon. I was starting to really look at Wise as a great solution. Do you want to kind of share a little bit more about what are some great uses for Wise's personal account?

Absolutely. I mean, I think that is one great example. So, you know, traveling, for example, a lot of friends that I talk to say, well, my bank or my card doesn't charge any international fees. And I would just encourage everyone to take a deeper look and really read the fine print there. So that's one. But that's exactly what I use Wise for. So I top up money onto my Wise account. I know I'm going to be in Europe next week. I already have that money sitting in Euro. So I know that then when I use my wise card, whether that's taking out cash, so saving on, you know, expensive ATM fees, or spending with my card, I'm spending at the mid market rate. So that's the rate you would see on Google or Reuters.

And if you're a nerd like me, you look that up. But it's, you know, it just gives you that peace of mind to know you're not losing that extra few percent. And that can really add up on a trip. And then also, you know, people studying abroad, actually, a lot of people are moving abroad to retire, as well, you know, just because of cost of living and things like that. That's a kind of a hot topic. And it just pains me when I see someone using their foreign card, you know, over several months in one place. And it's like, really think about using wise, because I think that's just such a great use case. And then you can with our within our app, you can hold money in different balances. So another example, I have to deal with paying taxes cross-border, which is very complex.

My tax advisor is based in Belgium, and he accepts money in euros. And he said most of his customers pay him via wise. So it's just, it's a funny one. So he has a business account, but I'm paying him from my personal account, right? Yeah, that makes a lot. I just even thinking about, you know, especially in Toronto, there's a lot of, you know, snowbirds that go to Florida for the winter and come back here. And I, yeah, I'm curious what they do.

But this would be like an obvious solution to have, you know, you're living or, you know, you know, there's lots of young people now taking sabbaticals or, you know, traveling the world and stuff like that. And thinking about how to set up your finances can be really tricky unless you have like there, again, your bank won't allow you to have a bank account in euros, you know, a Canadian bank. And so you have to figure out kind of how to set this up. So this could be a great way that you can prepare for that trip in advance. Because I guess the other question people may think is like, okay, let's say I'm Canadian, and I want to go to, you know, I don't know, France for three

months, it's, you know, dream, I want to write my big novel or something like that. What would be the process of doing that? Because it's like, I don't have, you know, euros, would I, you know, put money into my Canadian wise account, and then at a certain point decide to convert all of it? Or can I do it at different times? Yeah, absolutely. That's the great part, I think, is the flexibility. So let's say you have a Wise account.

You have Canadian dollars in there. You have some sitting in there. And then you can open a Euro balance. You can do that today or you can do that when you get there. And then you can open a Euro balance. You can do that today, or you can do that when you get there. And in reality, even if you haven't opened that Euro balance, if you're spending in Euro, we will pull it from your Canadian dollars, but that will always be at that real exchange rate. So even if you haven't had sort of the planning ahead, the thought to kind of say, okay, I'm going to hold those in Euro, we're doing that for you and you're not losing out on those fees. And it's really important,

I think too, like one of the tips that we share with people spending time abroad or traveling is, you know, when you're spending money at point of sale and it gives you like the two options, you always want to try to choose the local currency so that they're not sort of making a choice as to which exchange rate they're going to give you. And then that's great if you have a wise card that all works out seamlessly, right? You're saving money. It's convenient. It's great. Yeah. Well, speaking a little bit more about the wise card itself, it seems also like a great associate because I know a lot of people it's like, I want to use like my debit card or I don't want to use my credit card.

So this would be a great way for you to also like budget on your trip. You're like, this is our travel fund and you can see the balance in it and you're using it. It's, you know, like it is a debit card. You also have the option of like going to an ATM and withdrawing cash if that's something you want to do. There's lots of, do you want to kind of talk a little bit about how like the wise card works? How is it, you know, similar or different to a typical you know debit card yeah that exactly right i think what you were saying i actually use it to budget for my trips ahead of time so we have something called jars where you can sort of have buckets of money or we're about to get a golden

retriever puppy and i've been kind of putting the money that we're saving for the puppy in there and it makes it really easy to sort of budget across and you can have those in different currencies as well. So that's super cool. Because if you know, you know, again, like, you know, you're going to the UK, you know, you can have that jar in pound, then that's amazing, because you already have that budget. And I think it's just that really, that ease of use. I love seeing, you know, how close am I to, to what my goal is for that and keeping that money separate. It makes it really easy to budget. And I do think, again, in the current context, everyone's thinking a lot about that. So that's super important. And I feel like for me too, especially the reason why I usually gravitate towards using my credit

card on trips is so when I get back home, I can easily down those transactions, know exactly where every single dollar went. Whereas if I, if I pull out cash from an ATM, I am probably not going to keep every single receipt. And then I'll be like, how did I spend $500? Like, where did that money go? And so again, using the wise card, especially when you're using lots of different currencies, like at the beginning of your trip, you're using Canadian dollars at the airport. And then you're, maybe you're going to multiple countries on your trip, right? You're going to Europe, you're going to England, and you're going to be spending euros and pounds. It would be very difficult to try to, you know, organize all that information and also

really understand how much, you know, what is that conversion? But I think, yeah, that's the, for me, looking at, you know, competitors and other kind of options, really, I guess, for me is like the biggest benefit is like, you're getting the lowest fees, you're getting pretty much the best foreign exchange rate, not getting that, you know, inflated exchange rate, where most people, like you said, have no idea that they're paying any of this on top of what they're getting. And so that's just like a really important thing to keep in mind. But especially too, is, you know, not just for travel, but as you know, more and more younger people, especially are able to work remotely and like Costa Rica or whatever, this could be a great option.

Absolutely. And also, I mean, we were using, I think like Europe and the UK as examples, just because I think that's someplace that we all think about going on vacation too. But, you know, the card can be used to spend in different currencies like a local in 170 countries. So this is, you know, also thinking about all those other destinations, like let's not discount that. I think that's a huge plus in my mind. And also, you know, we think about, I think because summer is coming up, like all of our vacation, but you know, what about new Canadians and people who are sending money back home to different currencies, making sure that's fast, it's cheap. I think that's also a really big one. And I think Canada, we've seen that trend and, you know, especially with younger people, like digitally minded, right. It's just so convenient.

You can do it, you know, you forgot, you don't have to go to a branch to fill out paperwork to do something. It's just, it's, it's so easy to do from the comfort of your own home. Absolutely. I was just thinking of a client I used to work with a few years back, and he lived in Canada, but he was originally from Venezuela. And he really wanted to make sure that he always had room in his budget so he can send money back home to from Venezuela. And he really wanted to make sure that he always had room in his budget so he can send money back home to his family. And we were trying to find a solution. And again, this was a few years ago. And so he had this very, and he used to also live in the US.

It was kind of a complicated banking situation, but he was trying to figure out what is the cheapest way that I can send money to my family. So I should actually probably hit him up, just be like, I don't know if you know about Wise, but this may be better than, you know, he had to, he had his Canadian bank account that he sent money to his American bank account that also had, you know, fees just to hold. So he could then eventually send US dollars back home. And it was very complex. And yeah, there's lots of cases where, yeah, you want to send money back home, or you want to receive money from like your parents, if you're an international student, things like that. And doing it through the traditional banking system may not be very easy. One thing I do want

to just ask you and share as much as you can, just because I always get questions about this when there is like a new digital, you know, fintech platform is, is it safe? Can you kind of share a little bit more information about, you know, how is your your money? Where's your money kept? How is it kind of protected by wise? Absolutely. So that's, you know, how is your money? Where is your money kept? How is it kind of protected by WISE? Absolutely. So that's, you know, safety and security is obviously core to everything we do, right? We're in finance. So we need to make sure that our customers trust us and that we're doing everything we can to keep their money safe. So we're a payment company. So we're not a bank. Actually, from the policy side, there is a new sort of law coming into force in Canada that will sort of put regulation on payment companies called the RPAA. of the requirements that that introduces, WISE is already doing because we are regulated around

the world in many different jurisdictions. So that means that any money that you store at WISE is being what we call segregated or safeguarded, separated from the company money and making sure that that's safe at the end of every day. So that's really core to, I think, any financial product, like a payment company like Wise. And then, you know, of course, know your customer, AML, all of these things, we are required to comply with globally, and we do that already in Canada. So we're, one, we think it's good that sort of these new regulations are coming into force, but we're already doing most of these things. And in terms of, you know, sort of stability, and I know in Canada, there's a handful of banks who are sort of at the core of the industry. I actually think, you know, flipping that kind of on its head a little bit, it's really important that we have a diverse range of options for Canadians. So one bank or financial

institution wobbles, there are other options, right? And it's also worth noting that we rely on banks for access to payment rails, kind of the plumbing that all the payments go through. And so important for us too, that we should also have access to those rails. So, you know, as a consumer, you don't see all these things from the outside, but actually these things will make a really big change in people's lives when it comes to sort of updating the plumbing and making sure people can have access to faster, cheaper payment. Absolutely. I think, yeah, it's just a bigger, I mean, it's always been a concern when there's always a new product and people are like, oh, I don't know about it. Like, everyone's always just very suspicious.

But especially as we've seen this past year with some of the U.S. banks failing, a lot of people are even a little bit more kind of apprehensive. So it's good to know that there are lots of safeguards in place and that, yeah, you can feel safe. I know, and I read this on the Wise website as well, the big difference well to WISE compared to a bank is you do not lend out your money. And I think that's the biggest thing. That's kind of why lots of these banks failed. They either lent too much money or they did some risky investments that did not work out so well. And that's definitely things that WISE does not participate in. Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, we've been doing this for more than 10 years now.

So although FinTechs are new, you know, we've been doing this for a while. We are a public company now. We're regulated around the world by, you know, the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, going to be regulated by the Bank of Canada starting early next year. So, like, we're at a mature point. And it's always important to look at, you know, the products you're using, be aware, you know, read all the information you can, but it's also in our interest to keep our customers money safe. Absolutely. So just one last thing, then we'll kind of move on to discuss

business accounts, which is how I first discovered it. Can you kind of speak a little bit more to because you know, I've talked a little bit about how you know, wise is really at the forefront of making sure this not only transparency in terms of like what we're charging you, but also making sure those fees are low, you're getting the best foreign exchange rate, you kind of speak to what are those fees? How do they compare? Why are they lower than some of the competitors out there? Absolutely. So our average fee sits at less than 1%. I think it's about 0.6566% compared to if you look at the average cost of cross-border payments, for example, from Canada to send a remittance, that would sit around 6.5% according to the World Bank. Now, how do we lower these fees? Of course, financial technology. We use technology that helps us sort of fix a lot

of the, I think, obstacles and the things that make payments expensive. Going back a little bit, why are cross-border payments so expensive? Because the correspondent bank model, which is the way basically that you would, if you went to your bank and sent money abroad, you know, banks have relationships with each other. There's something called Swift, which is like this messaging service. And so what that means basically is you could have, you know, up to eight or 10 points, different banks that that payment is going through. And at every point, you're going to have costs added on, you're going to have time, it's going to slow the payment down. And so it's really just a matter of efficiency, and kind of bringing this up to speed. And so, you know, the way

essentially wise works is that we have one bank account in one country like the US, one bank account in another country, let's say Canada. And if I'm sending money via wise from US to Canada, that's going to go into the wise US account. And then we're going to net out through the wise Canada account. But really, if you think about it, that money isn't really technically crossing borders. It's just an exchange of data that lets us know, okay, you need to net that out, right? Now, of course, we still also rely a little bit on that traditional banking model for different currency routes, and that can impact the fees. But the ideal would be to remove all of these expensive and slow barriers. And so really, if you think about it, it does make sense. I think from the outside, people sometimes are like, wow,

how could it be so much cheaper? But I also think there is a certain status quo when it comes to high fees across the industry. And unfortunately, I do think some providers have seen that as long as consumers don't understand what they're paying, they can continue to charge high fees. And we just, one, don't agree with that. But two, important thing, and I think in Canada this is a big topic right now, is making sure consumers have broader choice and are able to make that choice, that they're not being tricked, that they understand how much they're paying before making the payment. And I think that's really core to what we do. But we'd love to see that across the industry. Yeah. I mean, I think a big parallel would be be and I talk about this on the show all the time is investment fees. Most people have no idea that they're paying high fees on their mutual funds

or their their, you know, portfolios. And it's like, yeah, you're if you're working with a financial firm, they're probably taking 1% of your assets under management. If you have a mutual fund, you're probably paying 2.5% on your assets under management. And most people, again, it's embedded, you don't know. And the exact same thing's happening here. And what we have seen in the financial sphere, the investment space is, you know, a lot more innovation in products to get those fees lower. So I'm sure we'll see this in this space as well. So moving a little bit more to the business account. So like I've kind of mentioned, I discovered wise when my husband asked me, is there a way that I can accept international payments? He had some clients in the

US, he had some in the UK, and it was getting so expensive using some other platforms to accept payments or to send payments. It was very frustrating, especially too. It's like he's a small business person. He, you know, is a freelancer. It was really cutting into his income ultimately. And so that's when I did some research and found Wise and he's been using it ever since. And he's literally told, this is not like, that's amazing. Yeah. He literally told me yesterday. He's like, oh man, I'm so glad I, you know, use this. It saved a ton of money in fees, which is great. Because then it also too motivates him to continue to work with international clients instead of feeling like I should just do domestic clients only because it's too expensive, the fees are. So with that, do you want to kind of share a little bit more about what is the difference between a business account versus a personal account? What are some of the other things that are involved, you know, think of your personal account, but basically built for sort of small businesses. So online, digital only, multi-currency account, you can make payments, you can get paid, you can spend money around the world, again, with that real exchange rate.

I think that's important, too, because you'll see with some other providers, they'll give different fees for consumers and businesses. And so you can use this account to pay invoices, buy inventory, and also handle payroll in 70 countries. And I think one of the things we're trying to do is solve more of those problems. I think the small businesses, especially in Canada in a trading economy where, you know, growing internationally and being able to compete and work with people around the world is really important. We're trying to solve some of these problems that small businesses face, help them organize their finances, you know, make it stress-free, really. We all know, I mean, as a consumer, you've gone and done a cross-border payment probably in person. And now

imagine having to do that all the time as a business. It's just super costly and there's no reason that it should be. No. And just even just thinking about some of the ways that I would use it or even my husband, me more specifically, because most of my business expenses in the form of subscriptions or programs, they get billed in USD. And I haven't had, I used to have a USD account years ago, but again, it's the cost really didn't make any sense for me to hold that account for the monthly fees and all that kind of stuff. And so this would be a great way to set up if you are going to earn some USD, you can then put that into your USD wise account, pay your USD business expenses, so you can get rid of that layer of, you know, money that you're

losing from trying to pay from Canadian and you know, with your credit card or what have you. So there's lots of, yeah, amazing use cases. But also, like, I think the big benefit, especially is this really does open up who could be your customer. I know a lot of people, especially in Canada are very, maybe resistant to opening up, you know, oh, I'll do US and Canada, but that's it. But this is a great way where it's like, yeah, there's so many different countries that you can open it up to and different currencies that you could potentially, you know, sell your products in, which is, I think, really amazing.

And the other kind of thing, too, is although this is for small businesses, I know there is like a different option for like bigger businesses. But when you think of expanding your business, hiring staff, employees and around the world, this is a great way to also maybe try to pay them in their home currency, which is pretty cool. Exactly. And I think that's one of the things, one of the key challenges that we hear is, you know, when you have employees abroad or vendors abroad, you know, when you go through sort of the traditional correspondent banking model, oftentimes you won't know how much actually ends up at the other end or you have like additional fees tacked on that you weren't foreseeing. And when a vendor needs to have the exact amount for the goods and services, that creates a lot of problems and a lot of headaches for small businesses. So just as simple as knowing I can send exactly this amount, you know, to Brazil or wherever that is. And I

know this is what they're going to receive. And I'm not going to have any issues with, because that breaks trust as well. Right. And it's a headache all around. So things like that, I think are just one aspect of the benefit of the business account. Yeah, no, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm sure I feel like there was actually in my inbox, but we were preparing for this interview, there was like some new new features that just launched that I was just allowed to finally talk about. Did you want to kind of share a little bit about, what is it, Interac e-transfer? What's this new feature involved with Interac e-transfer and WISE?

So we have launched our Interac e-transfer, which is an auto deposit feature. So it makes it easier to receive money into a Canadian WISE account. So there's different easier to receive money into a Canadian Wise account. So there's different ways to receive money on your Wise account, but this one just makes it easier for Canadians. And that's in collaboration with People's Trust. So personal account customers can now activate their Canadian dollar Wise balance to receive money from Interac. So check it out. Check your app and see how it works. Yeah, no, that's I think that's great. Because I mean, I think that's kind of the number

one in Canada way that we as Canadians send money to and from each other. So having that functionality, I think will help a lot of Canadians. Are there any other kind of things in the pipeline, anything that you can kind of share that people can maybe expect or just any, you know, bigger plans that Wise hopes to kind of continue to work on for customers to enjoy? Yeah, you mentioned what we call now Wise Platform, which is, you know, we have the customer, like consumer account, personal account, let's say, business account, like your husband uses. And then finally, something we call Wise Platform, which is where we're essentially

plugging our technology into other financial institutions, banks, etc., so that they can have international payments powered by Wise. And, you know, this is an ecosystem issue, you know, fixing international international payments making it cheaper for Canadians making it faster and so we're really hopeful that you know by working with others you know we're not just an island here we can really improve payments for Canadians and for people around the world you know we're living in a more globalized world. And I don't think people are going away from living cross border. I think if anything, we're seeing more of this. So excited to see how that impacts, you know, hopefully our reach around the world as well. Okay, so with that, actually, that that reminds me, I remember a while ago,

too, there was a connection between EQ Bank and wiseISE. So that might be kind of, you know, what you were chatting about. Can you kind of explain what is that partnership all about? Yeah, so we're integrated with EQ Bank. And so we let customers use the power of WISE from the convenience of their EQ Bank account. So I think it's important just to say, you know, you might not actually have a WISE account, you might already be using us. And so check that out if you do use EQ. And like I said, this is something that with our wise platform, we're hoping will continue in Canada, giving Canadians more choice, cheaper options, faster options, more convenient options. Absolutely amazing. Well, before I let you go,

where can people find more information about WISE? I know there's some great resources. I did a big deep dive on the website. But yeah, where can, you know, any other social media platforms and the website, where can people find more information about WISE? Yeah, WISE.com. Download our app on the App Store. And I think we have a lot of fun blogs out right now about travel and living abroad. So do check that out. We've got an awesome lineup of blogs. And I don't know, talk to your friends. You know, I think from the beginning, wise was a huge sort of word of mouth.

I found out about wise from a Scottish friend and who was like, you got to use this. And so I just think still today, we hear a lot of those stories. So if you're looking for a solution, you're going to be living abroad, traveling abroad, you have family abroad, talk to friends, see what they're using. And if they say they have no fees, I would encourage them to take a deeper look. Yeah. Nothing in life is truly free truly free. What I've discovered, especially when it comes to financial products. So it's important to know, okay, what are the fees? And and how are they structured? How are they potentially embedded? And just understand Yeah,

what your options are, because there may be an option, like why I said has significantly lower fees out there, that may be a good solution for you. So Bridget, it was so amazing having you on the show. I appreciate you sharing all that information and also your personal story in connection to it. So thank you again for joining me. It was a pleasure. Thanks so much, Jessica. And that was episode 373 of the More Money Podcast with Bridget Carroll. She's the policy lead at North America at Wise. You can find more information about WISE and, you know, test drive it and sign up if you want at WISE.com. And you can find them on Twitter at WISE, on Instagram at WISE account, and also on Facebook slash WISE. I will link to everything

so you can easily find it in the show notes for this episode, jessicamorehouse.com slash 373. But yeah, you know, check it out. See if it is the solution you've been looking for. Just like literally, I'm not even joking. I was talking to my husband the other night at dinner, telling him I was going to record this episode. He's like, literally, it's something I use all the time. And he's saved so much money in fees, which is great. It's been great for his business. And I'm excited to use it on our trip abroad whenever that will be hopefully sooner rather than later. Actually, no, it is gonna be sooner rather than later. He literally just like this morning, booked us a trip to Mexico, which I'm very excited about. He was able to find a deal we've been looking for a long

time. And we had plans to go to like, you know, we hadn't been to a resort, a Mexican resort since 2018 maybe. And we were meant to go. We booked a trip in like for late 2021. And it was after Christmas and we were so excited. I booked it like almost a year in advance thinking that the world would have gotten better by then. And no, Omicron happened. We had to cancel it. We had to cancel it. And now it's 2023. And I just want to go on vacation for like five days, back to back days. I just need a vacation, guys. I just need a vacation. So that won't be happening until um around christmas time or something like that so but i've got lots of time to save up that's what i'm gonna do save up and put it uh in my little travel fund in my wise account so i can not be gashed by fees so uh yeah final episode guys uh let me just get to all the reminders since this is gonna be the last time I speak to you until season 17 of

the show, which will launch sometime in September. Okay, first and foremost, this is kind of your final reminder. If you want to enter to win any of the books that have been featured on this season of the show, I'm giving away a ton of books, ton of books. And this is like I mentioned on previous episodes, this is the only place that I promote this I think I I put the link that's shown us for this episode talk about it on the podcast sometimes promote it in my email newsletter that goes out like once a month so I do not blast this to my all my followers on on all my platforms no I I want to make sure these books go to my wonderful podcast supporters so go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest to enter to win. I'm giving away a ton of copies. This could be one of the books that you read this summer.

So go do it jessicamorehouse.com slash contest. And next, if you have been maybe just you're new to the podcast, or maybe you've been listening for a while and you've never really you know, you still know you have some work to do in terms of organizing your finances, you need some help with that. Check out all the variety of budget spreadsheets I have for download on my website. They are cheap. They're like 30 bucks Canadian. So if you're American or, you know, outside of Canada, that means it's going to be even cheaper for you because our currency is not as good as yours. And yeah, they have I have a budget spreadsheet for pretty much every scenario I could think of whether you're self employed, employed, have a budget spreadsheet for pretty much every scenario I could think of, whether you're self-employed, employed, have a side hustle, whatever. Go to jessicamorehouse.com

slash shop. You can find all the budget spreadsheets in there. There's also a little quiz to help you figure out which is the best spreadsheet for you and your situation. So check it out. It is a very easy to use comprehensive spreadsheet that will help you organize your finances so you can finally feel like you're a bit more in control of your financial life. And speaking of your financial life, if you listen to the show and you're like, gosh, I really need to get organized with my investments. I have no idea what I'm doing. You will want to check out my Wealth Building Blueprint for Canadians. Of course, it is just for Canadians.

I'm sorry for anyone who isn't Canadian listening, but I want to build something specific for Canadians because guess what? There are a ton of courses out there for Americans and the information is not the same. We have different tax rules. We have different accounts. We have different things going on in Canada. So I want to make something specifically for my Canadian podcast listeners. So check it out. It is all about the fundamentals of investing, all of the things that you need to know about investing, but then also how to actually invest on your own, either through a robo-advisor or self-directed DIY investing so you don't have to use an advisor. Now, the course has been around for

two and a half years at this point, which is really exciting. And there's a just over 400 students. And yeah, it's it's a good one. It's a good one. It's by application only. That's why there's not 1000s and 1000s of students in there. I do not let everyone in it is to make sure that people that enter the course are actually motivated and will do the course and do the thing. I don't want you just to buy the course and never touch it and never do anything. I want you to take it. I want you to learn from it. I want you to take action so you actually start doing something different with your investment. So check it out. All the information about what you can expect is on the website. You

can apply. If you are a good candidate for the course, we will have a call one-on-one with me and I will be blocking off some time in the summer. So you will probably want to register or, you know, apply as soon as possible. I usually get back in terms of approvals fairly quickly, but this is if you want to enter the course before the meat of the summer, like July, basically, I'm not going to be doing any calls. Then you're going to want to apply sooner rather than later. So you can get in touch with me and enter the course. And not sure if I mentioned the link for that, but as JessicaMorehouse.com slash course, that is where you can find it. You can find all the information about pretty much everything I talk about on my website, JessicaMorehouse.com. And last thing, I guess,

before I go, because this is kind of the most important thing and the last thing I just want to remind you about. So, of course, too, even though I'm ending this season and kind of taking the summer off from the podcast, you can still reach me over email, DM on Instagram, what have you. I'm still going to be around. Hopefully I can also make some more YouTube videos. I've been kind of slacking on that a little bit because I've been busy writing a book. If you don't know, if you missed the past couple episodes that I did share, hey, I'm writing a book through HarperCollins. Well, I am and I am in the thick of it and I have to finish it by the end of the year. And part of that is also gathering stories from real people like yourself so I can integrate them into the book so everyone can see themselves

inside the book. It's not just a book that's, you know, quoting people or me talking about my life. I want to have a variety of stories in there because I love reading books like that. So if you want to submit your story or be considered, go to jessicamorehouse.com slash interview. And that is where you will find the application form, you can fill in some of your info. If you're a good fit, and I want to reach out to you for an interview, then I will do that. So just put your details in there. I'm gathering all this, you know, details and stories from people until honestly, I finished the book. So don't think you've missed the boat. Just even if you're listening to this in the future, just put your details in there. And once I'm done collecting stories that I'll just have a page on there

saying sorry, you know, no more submissions. Thank you. But if it's still accepting submissions, please submit your info. And I might get in touch with you and your story might appear in my book. So with that, I think that's pretty much all I've got to say. Again, I do want to say a big thank you so much to supporting this podcast. And I don't think I've got to say. Again, I do want to say a big thank you so much to supporting this podcast. And I don't think I've ever actually acknowledged that we've crossed the eight-year anniversary mark. Like this show has been on the air. I've been producing this show for eight years. That is wild. Almost 400 episodes. This is a crazy thing. And I couldn't have been able to do this without your support, you listening to these episodes, you telling your friends and family

to check it out. So I want to say a big thank you for doing that. And I'm excited to hit nine years and then eventually 10 years. To be able to say that I've had a podcast for a decade, that's wild to me and it's going happen. And I'm so excited about it. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you know, we're gonna come back here. We're gonna keep on having amazing guests on the show come September at some point, I haven't decided what the schedule is going to look like. But sometime in September, I'm sure I'll have the first episode. But I will, you know will let you guys know on my Instagram or if you're on my email newsletter, jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe is where you can get on there. Or if you like download my budget spreadsheet or something like that, you can probably get on the list that way as well. But yeah, I'm excited for the future. So it's exciting times. So that is it for me. Shout out finally, you know, final shout out for the season to my podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And I just wish you having the best summer ever. Get outside, do some summer activities, enjoy nature, go on your porch or

your balcony and have, you know, some rosé for me. And I will see you back here in a few months. Have an amazing break and recuperate. I'll see you soon. this podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network find out more at women in media.network