Wise Travel Money Card

Pauline Hatch

Pauline is a personal finance expert at CreditCard.com.au, with 9 years in money, budgeting and property reporting under her belt. Ask Pauline a Question about this card.

You can use the Wise card as an everyday debit card to buy groceries, pay for an Uber or send flowers to your mum - whether you’re doing it in Australia, online or overseas. Its big drawcards are simplicity and savings.

I’ll explain how the Wise debit card works, including how it's linked to an account that you can transfer money in and out of. It’s a very good alternative to credit cards with no foreign transaction fees if you’re not eligible, don’t want to earn points or don’t need access to credit.

Editor’s Review: What we love about the Wise Travel Money card

Let’s start by looking at how Wise cards are linked to an account. When you apply for a Wise card, you’ll be directed to set up a Wise multi-currency account first. A Wise account is fully digital, has no monthly fees and allows you to preload money in various currencies, which you can access using the app and your Wise debit card.

For example: if you regularly travel to New Zealand, you could keep NZD in your account and Wise will automatically use it to pay when you tap your card. You wouldn’t be charged any currency conversion fees. If you don’t have any NZD in your Wise account, Wise will automatically convert the money for you at a competitive mid-market rate.

Once your Wise account is set up, you can order a card. It can take a few days for your physical card to arrive (or you can pay $26 to expedite it), but you’ll be able to use your digital card immediately by adding it to your phone or watch.

I’ll break down the features of the Wise card.

Sending money overseas. Wise also works like a regular account, allowing you to send and receive money to other accounts in local currency. The transfer process is the same as a savings account - when you start a transfer in your app, Wise will show you the totals in foreign currency plus any fees (for instance, sending AUD to GBP incurs a flat fee of $0.66 plus 0.45% of the amount that’s converted). You’ll be asked for the recipient's details and you’ll be able to track the transfer via your app. You can also receive money by supplying your account details.

Low or no withdrawal fees. Every month you can make up to 2 withdrawals (totalling $350) without paying a fee. After that, you’ll pay $1.50 per withdrawal, which is still very cheap compared to standard rates fees that can be as much as $5 or a percentage of the amount withdrawn (whichever is highest).

Cutting out the middle man. By preloading your card with the currency you’ll be spending overseas, you’ll avoid the conversion fees. If Wise needs to convert the currency from Australian dollars, it uses the mid-market exchange rate, which is generally a better exchange rate than you’ll get from banks or money transfer agencies. Wise says it can help you save up to 80% on international spending, according to a 2022 study by Alderson Consulting.

Three digital cards. You can set up three digital cards at any one time, each with different details to your physical card. You can cancel and recreate new digital cards anytime, which gives you some extra security.

A properly helpful app. I like that Wise’s app has decent functionality and seems fairly intuitive (it’s been downloaded over 10 million times, so it’s well-tested!). You can cancel or set up new digital cards, freeze and unfreeze your card, make online money transfers, track your spending and even cancel a money transfer that hasn’t been processed yet. The app is available for Apple(rated 4.8 stars) and Android(rated 4.7 stars) smartphones.

Transparent fees. I particularly like how transparent Wise is about its fees. It says that it will show you any fees that you’ll pay for making purchases or transferring money and there are no hidden fees. Since fees are a big concern for people travelling or spending online, it’s nice to have a little transparency.

What's not so great

There isn’t too much to pick on, but I should mention that while you can use Wise as your regular spending account and even have your salary paid into it, you’ll miss out on earning interest or offsetting a home loan. Consider whether you want it to be your primary account or one you use specifically for foreign transactions.

While Wise makes spending overseas as cheap as possible, there are still some costs involved. For instance:

Withdrawals: you’ll get 2 withdrawals up to $350AUD each month for free, but after that, fees are charged at $1.50 per withdrawal (still, not bad). If you withdraw over $350, you’ll also pay a 1.75% fee.

Physical card: $10, and $6 to reorder if the card is lost or stolen (digital cards are free)

Sending money overseas: Minimum is 0.33% but it will vary depending on the currency

Receiving USD wire payments: $6.11USD flat fee per payment

Wise does a good job of being available in more than 160 countries, but not all. You’ll need to check that you can use Wise in the country you’re travelling to or purchasing in. Wise’s website says it currently can’t be used in:

Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo and The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen

Overall Rating

The Wise Visa card has one of the cheapest exchange rates in the world, plus the ability to spend overseas fee-free if you preload the card in the local currency. It doesn’t cost anything to open or hold an account and gives lots of flexibility in being able to send, spend and receive money globally.

If you’re a frequent traveller or spender abroad, a money transfer card like Wise can help you save money on fees without having to apply for a 0% foreign fee credit card, but you won’t earn interest or rewards points on your spending.