The zero-fee currency card
Good news. TransferWise announced it’s bringing its zero-fees debit card to New Zealand. Why is it good news? Because Kiwis love to travel and we were charged a massive
US$1 billion (NZ$1.55b) for using our cards abroad last year.
It’s a disgustingly big number. Especially for spending your own money.
TransferWise’s Platinum debit Mastercard will help cut this figure to a fraction of its size.
The card is an evolution of TransferWise’s core business, lowcost currency bank transfers.
The benefits here are easy to understand. Customers can use TransferWise to store up to
40 currencies on their account. Each currency gets its own local bank account number, and users can spend or receive money from these accounts for free.
With the card, customers can then use these balances to make purchases. With zero fees.
If a currency conversion is needed, from NZD to USD for example, then users will only be charged TransferWise’s traditionally-low conversion rates
(0.49 per cent).
Compare this to the Cash Passport card, for example, where
you’ll be charged ‘‘5.95 per cent of the transaction value’’, and the benefit is easy to see.
TransferWise card users can also withdraw up to NZ$350 from ATMs for free every 30 days – after that, there’s a 2 per cent charge on withdrawals.
This represents another improvement on the similar Cash Passport card, where you’ll be charged NZ$3.50 (minimum) for overseas ATM withdrawals.
Speaking to technology website TechCrunch, TransferWise chief executive Kristo Kaarmann said his decision to bring the debit card to New Zealand and Australia was fuelled by the rapid growth of its traditional business here.
‘‘In addition to responding to customer demand, launching the card in Australia and New Zealand was also driven by the fact that Aussies and Kiwis are being overcharged by banks for using their own money abroad. It is expensive to use debit, travel and credit cards for spending or withdrawals,’’ he said.
‘‘Independent research conducted by Capital Economics showed that Australians lost $2.14b last year alone just for using their bank-issued card abroad.
‘‘Similarly, in New Zealand, Kiwis lost $1b simply for using their card abroad.
‘‘While there are existing multicurrency cards that exist in Australia and New Zealand, they are prohibitively expensive to use. For example, in Australia, the TransferWise Platinum debit Mastercard is on average 11 times cheaper than most travel, debit, prepaid and credit cards,’’ Kaarmann said.