Short version: Ask a friend with an activated account to transfer 120 TRY to your account, and it will be activated. Note: it has to be a Wise-to-Wise transfer. Wise usernames start with @; tap your avatar in the top-left corner to find yours.
Long version:
I helped my partner register for Wise, but got stuck at the activation step.
I was supposed to deposit 170 RMB first. I tried every other option, but either the fees were ridiculously high or it required a foreign-currency card in the same name as the account, which was impossible.
After spending half the day looking into it with no luck, I checked Xianyu and, lo and behold, people were charging 200 RMB to activate accounts.
I pretended I wanted to buy the service and chatted with them for a bit. It turned out they seemed to be using an already activated Wise account to transfer money to the new account and activate it.
So I decided to try it myself.
First, I transferred 1 euro from my Wise account, but nothing happened.
Then I suddenly wondered: why did they specifically require a transfer of 120 TRY?
As a last-ditch attempt, I transferred 130 TRY.
And it actually activated the account…
That one simple step, and people on Xianyu charge 200 RMB for it.
I saved 200 RMB—and it really pays to have information others don’t.
