Wise money card review
A few years ago I read a book called “The Nordic Theory of Everything: In search of a better life”, and as result I had in my head this image of how things would be in Scandinavia. The book is basically the story of how a Finnish journalist falls in love with an American and when she moves there she has this huge culture shock at how different the places are in terms of social welfare and living standards. However one of the things that surprised me most when I moved here was how hard it was to do certain things. For instance, to buy a car here, it’s almost impossible without this thing called a BankID, which is basically similar to what us aussies would call MyGov I suppose. Basically it’s your bank account linked to your identity which they use for pretty much everything here in Norway. In order to get BankID however, you need to have a Norwegian bank account which in itself is extremely hard unless you are Norwegian. In the rare case you manage to buy a car legally like I did by jumping through endless hoops and paperwork and language barrier charades, insurance is mandatory here and that in itself is a nightmare. I signed up to insure the car, and was expecting to pull my card out to pay online like you would anywhere else in the world. Instead, nothing. No confirmation email. Just a few weeks later I got a letter in the mail asking me to sign up to a direct debit to my Norwegian bank account which I didn’t have. I went into the office to pay the bill in person which they said wasn’t an option. I ended up having to give a Norwegian person cash and get them to pay the insurance for me! For such a developed country, it’s definitely very hard to do certain things here.
After a few months travelling through Denmark and Sweden, I’ve found a place to stay for the winter and have picked up a bit of work in the meantime, but being paid was itself another hurdle (Just a side note here, as an aussie you need a valid temporary residence to earn money in European countries – I have a 2 year permit for Norway which allows me to stay and work for up to 2 years). Countries in Europe use this banking system called IBAN’s, but Australian banks use SWIFT. Up until now I was using my ING debit card for all of my overseas transactions as they refund me all of the international transaction fees which has saved me hundreds of dollars so far. But, it’s extremely hard to get paid from a European bank to an Aussie bank and the fees are criminal. This is where I’ve discovered WISE.
What is WISE
WISE is essentially an online money transfer app. It allows you to hold and spend money in up to 52 currencies and receive payments in 10 currencies. The currencies you can receive payments in are:
- British Pound
- Euro
- US Dollar
- Australian Dollar
- New Zealand Dollar
- Singapore Dollar
- Romanian Lei
- Canadian Dollar
- Hungarian Forint
- Turkish Lira
The 52 currencies you can hold money in
I signed up in a couple minutes with a copy of my passport and it cost me 71NOK (around $10 AUD) which includes a WISE debit card, linked to a European bank which I linked up to google pay on my phone immediately.
Why are the pros
The signup process was flawless and the phone app is straightforward and super clean. In the app, you can just copy and paste your European bank details and send to your employer which made things so easier for me and my temporary boss. I’ve ended up using the WISE for nearly all of my transactions lately because of the better exchange rate being offered compared to my ING debit card. Even though ING refunds any international fees, the exchange rate isn’t great paying from AUD to NOK or any other foreign currency for that matter, and wise has much lower fees and better exchange rates which will end up saving me quite a bit over the course of the next year or so in Europe. I also like the idea of leaving my ING card somewhere safe when travelling. Having being robbed of my phone and wallet before in Colombia many years ago, having a second card in my bag was a lifesaver. With Wise it’s super easy for me to order a new card to a European address whereas if I were to lose my ING card, I’d only be able to get the replacement sent to my Australian address which is a nuisance.
What are the cons
Because your Wise account is not a traditional bank account, there are some risks. There is no guarantee like you would get on a normal bank so I would recommend not holding large sums of money in any currency, instead using it for more as a transaction account. You also don’t receive any interest on the money you hold in the accounts. For me, I’m keeping the bulk of my cash in my ING account’s because not only is it guaranteed by the government, It’s now earning 4.5% interest. The Wise account I’m basically just putting all my income from my new job into it and using it for all my very limited expenses for the next few months and going to keep some savings in euros for future travel.
What does it cost
The cost to open an account is zero and to order a card is $10 AUD. Using the card like a normal debit card there are no fees and transferring money they give you different options on how quickly you want the transfer to go through which changes how much fees you pay. You can pay a little higher fee for a fast transaction, or a lower fee for a slower transaction. The fees for transfers start as low as 0.41% and differ depending on the currencies you are converting to and from. For instance to transfer EUR to AUD would be 0.48%.
You get 2 free withdrawals from ATM’s a month up to the value of $350AUD. Over that amount, they charge a $1.50 + 1.75% transaction fee. Honestly I can’t see myself using this feature very often, not only do most places in Europe now offer contactless payment, I’d probably just use my ING card if I really needed to withdraw a large amount of cash for some reason.
A thing to note here is Wise isn’t necessarily the cheapest option in the space. If you are looking at fees alone, there are cheaper options like Atlantic Money however given the features, reputation and reviews I read and received from other travelers I ended up going with Wise.
Conlcusion
If you are planning on spending any amount of time overseas like myself, either through semi retirement or long term travel or just normal travel, then Wise is a good alternative to your traditional aussie bank card. Not only does the heap of currencies make it super convenient to use all around the world, the fees are reasonable and it’s a piece of cake to set up. After being a ING orange convert thanks to Scott Pape for many years, the bright green card has moved to the front of my wallet and I cannot see it moving for the foreseeable future!
Check it out for yourself at www.wise.com
