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Wise (Transferwise) Borderless Debit Card - Experiences?

drlabman
Posts: 326 Forumite


I have a borderless account with Wise and it has an amount in euros and an amount in GBP. I'm about to go on holiday to Greece and wondered if anyone has experience of using these cards. My understanding is that if I want to pay by card (in euros, obviously) it'll just take the amount off the euro balance.
It's the first time abroad for me with this card so was wondering if there's anything I should be aware of and/or any gotchas.
It's the first time abroad for me with this card so was wondering if there's anything I should be aware of and/or any gotchas.
Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you’ll get rid of him every weekend.
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I have no experience with these cards, but I know there are better options out there. Wise charge (albeit small) conversion fees when you spend abroad and only allow £200 of ATM withdrawals free per month.
I would consider getting a Barclaycard Rewards credit card for spending (no fees on foreign spending and gives 0.25% cashback) alongside a Chase Bank debit card (no fees on foreign spending or ATM withdrawals with 1% cashback) for ATM withdrawals and for a back up card.
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Yes, the Wise card debits your account when used, like any debit card, from the same currency when available. There's a modest fee for currency conversion but not for card use (within ATM limits).
Evolution, not revolution0 -
jbrassy said:I have no experience with these cards, but I know there are better options out there. Wise charge (albeit small) conversion fees when you spend abroad and only allow £200 of ATM withdrawals free per month.
I would consider getting a Barclaycard Rewards credit card for spending (no fees on foreign spending and gives 0.25% cashback) alongside a Chase Bank debit card (no fees on foreign spending or ATM withdrawals with 1% cashback) for ATM withdrawals and for a back up card.Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you’ll get rid of him every weekend.0 -
eDicky said:Yes, the Wise card debits your account when used, like any debit card, from the same currency when available. There's a modest fee for currency conversion but not for card use (within ATM limits).Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you’ll get rid of him every weekend.0
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If you use the card in Greece then any transactions will be applied to your Euro account, so there will be no foreign exchange fees involved. You Euro account will be debited with exactly the same amount as you spent.
If there is insufficient balance in your Euro account to cover the amount then Wise will taket the remaining money from your GBP account. That will incur a small fee, which I believe is 0.43%.
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The local ATMs and card machines in retailers/restaurants will recognise the Wise debit as a UK issued card so watch out for Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) preselecting GBP as the transaction currency.1
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drlabman said:jbrassy said:I have no experience with these cards, but I know there are better options out there. Wise charge (albeit small) conversion fees when you spend abroad and only allow £200 of ATM withdrawals free per month.
I would consider getting a Barclaycard Rewards credit card for spending (no fees on foreign spending and gives 0.25% cashback) alongside a Chase Bank debit card (no fees on foreign spending or ATM withdrawals with 1% cashback) for ATM withdrawals and for a back up card.2 -
jbrassy said:drlabman said:jbrassy said:I have no experience with these cards, but I know there are better options out there. Wise charge (albeit small) conversion fees when you spend abroad and only allow £200 of ATM withdrawals free per month.
I would consider getting a Barclaycard Rewards credit card for spending (no fees on foreign spending and gives 0.25% cashback) alongside a Chase Bank debit card (no fees on foreign spending or ATM withdrawals with 1% cashback) for ATM withdrawals and for a back up card.Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and you’ll get rid of him every weekend.1 -
I use my Wise card abroad. I've learnt that I may as well keep all my money in GBP, spend in any currency and the card just takes off the GBP balance and converts to the local currency. Far easier than transferring amounts to the foreign currency and the exchange rate is the same.
Looking at my last transaction of around £100, I was charged 50p in transfer fees, but the exchange rate was slightly better than I got on my normal credit card.I'm a Forum Ambassador on the housing, mortgages, student & coronavirus Boards, money saving boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Forum Ambassadors are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com (it's not part of my role to deal with this). Any views are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.1 -
drlabman said:jbrassy said:drlabman said:jbrassy said:I have no experience with these cards, but I know there are better options out there. Wise charge (albeit small) conversion fees when you spend abroad and only allow £200 of ATM withdrawals free per month.
I would consider getting a Barclaycard Rewards credit card for spending (no fees on foreign spending and gives 0.25% cashback) alongside a Chase Bank debit card (no fees on foreign spending or ATM withdrawals with 1% cashback) for ATM withdrawals and for a back up card.1
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