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Two-factor authentication on Wise

Wise publishes software of its own for this and also takes an open authenticator code. What choosing either one commits you to, and what happens when the phone holding those codes is gone.

What Wise supports

These are the second factors Wise offers on wise.com. Which ones you see can depend on your plan and your country; what each of the seven actually costs you is set out once.

MethodWhat it is
Authenticator app (TOTP)SupportedComputed on your own device; nothing is sent to produce it.
The service’s own appSupportedSoftware this service publishes; it works, and only here.
SMS text messageSupportedTexted to your number, so your carrier is part of the lock.
Voice callSupportedRead out over a call; the same carrier dependency as SMS.
Hardware security keyNot offeredA physical key you tap; the one option phishing does not beat.

Wise's own caveat, as recorded in the directory: SMS 2FA must be enabled before software methods can be enabled.

Data sourced from 2FA Directory by 2factorauth. Snapshot 2026-09-24.

What that particular mix means

Wise offers both SMS and an authenticator app. They are not equivalent — a texted code depends on your mobile carrier and survives no longer than control of your phone number, while a generated code never travels. If both are enabled, the account is only as strong as the weaker one, because an attacker picks.

Wise also publishes its own app for this — Wise App. It works, and it works only here: an account secured that way needs that software on whatever device you are holding.

Where this page's facts come from

Of the fifty services on this site, nine publish software of their own as a second factor, and Wise is one of them. No other service here accepts exactly this combination of factors. No other service here carries the finance label at all.

The directory files Wise under finance, records four of the seven second factors it tracks, and points at instructions published at wise.com/help/articles/2932125.

One setting, several addresses

Wise is wise.com, and the same account also signs you in at transferwise.com. Two-factor authentication is a property of the account, not of the address you happened to type — switch it on once and every one of those is covered. That also means losing the second factor loses all of them at once.

Switching on an authenticator app

Wise's own instructions: Wise — two-factor authentication — linked, never copied, because a stale menu path here locks people out.

If the phone holding your Wise codes is gone

Wise publishes no dedicated page for losing your second factor, which in practice means the route back is ordinary account recovery: proving who you are to support, on their timetable.

Background: how the codes work · what still works when the phone is gone.

Other services in the same place

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Where Stillcode fits

An iPhone, iPad and Mac authenticator for these codes that makes no network calls at all. What is free and what Pro adds. Get it on the App Store