This is the best debit card for Digital Nomads/Travellers!
By: Jose Velez
Tags: Payments, Travel Tips, Digital Nomads, Travel Card, Traveling

Now, if you would like to continue the read, I would like to talk a bit more about each one of the benefits above.

Mid-market rate exchange rate

In my case, this is a game changer!

I have been on the move for the last 2 years working as a freelancer in different countries. So usually I am equiped with the following cards:

Payoneer debit card (this is where I get some of the money from my clients)

Travel card (issued by an airline) which gives me free airline points to travel with them for every $75 I spend with the card and also allows me to withdraw money for free on my first 3 withdrawals per month.

Credit card from my bank, which give me some extra benefits (apart from borrowing money or withdrawing money from ATMs at a very high interest rate/fees)

Debit card from my bank, so I can use it in places that do not accept credit cards

They all have one thing in common: They have a shit exchange rate for me, every time I use any of them.

You probably don’t know this but most of the banks and credit cards out there are charging you a conversion fee between the 2 and 2.5 percent. With Transferwise, most of the most popular currencies conversion fees do not go over 0.60%. You can see all the conversion fee details here.

Here is an example of a transaction using my travel card where I have multiple currencies:

In here it shows that I made a payment of USD36.96 but my USD balance was low and only had 3.67 USD left, so they used it to pay partially and then they paid with my Euro balance, for which they charged me a beautiful exchange conversion fee of 2.5% of the 30.02 Euros I used.

On top of this, the exchange rate for USD to Euros they gave me was: 1.1089 which means for each Euro I spend they convert it to 1.1089 USD. However the market rate for this transaction 1.1106 (you can check the historical exchange rate in this page), which means I should have spent 29.97 Euros instead of 30.02. This is a small difference you might say, but for me, this is money that is your money but now the bank is taking it just because they can. Imagine this over time and using your card multiple times a day and with bigger amounts than this.

I don’t know about you but I hate giving my money away to banks!

They are so confident they will offer you the best service with the lowest fees in the market that they even have a comparison calculator before you do any money transfer vs the other most popular services like Paypal and WorldRemit.

Multiple international “bank accounts”

You can create borderless accounts in the US, UK, Europe, Australia and NZ send and receive money in any of these countries without paying any fees because it works like a local transfer.

So, for example in my case I have an account in NZ and another one in the US. I can just create a NZ and a US borderless account and can send money to my Transferwise debit card at no extra cost and usually it would take a business day to receive the money. No need to do international transfers or pay transfer fees.

Free ATM withdrawals for up to £200

This is self explanatory. After this, they will charge you 2%

Multiple currencies in your account

Photo by Keegan Houser

You can hold your money in more than 40 currencies and receive payments in GBP, EUR, USD and AUD with zero receiving fees. You can switch between currencies for a very low fee — between 0.35pc and 2pc of the amount of the transaction.

To Sum Up

If you are located in one of the eligible countries to receive this amazing card, and you are someone that travels considerably and/or do money transfers in different currencies, this service and this card is for you.

You will save a ton of money.

Just with the fact that they are so transparent in the fees they charge and that they use mid-market exchange rates, shows how great this service is.

Something I love about this company is that they even give you tips about how to not get ripped off by other banks or local ATMs while using your card overseas.

If you know of any other good services that can compete or even be better than these, please make sure to comment.

And by the way, I’m sorry. I know I said I don’t like long articles. I just couldn’t help it 🤷🏽‍♂️