This past March Break, we had a family Trip to the beautiful French Island of Martinique. It was an incredible trip to say the least. One of the things I found quite interesting was the Currency was all in Euro’s. I’ve been trying to find a solution to bringing a lot of cash on our trips so I tried looking at some of our banks for international credit cards. To no avail, I stumbled upon Wise (Formerly TransferWise).
Wise will allow you to sign up for an account which will let you buy over 50 different currencies and hold them in your different accounts. Once your account is setup you can download a digital card to throw in your Apple Wallet (and assuming similar competitors) for quick tap to pay, along with sending a physical card (includes chip and pin and tap) to pay with. This is also a great solution if you’re looking to send money and different currencies to friends or family abroad! Wise has both personal and business accounts to setup. Making it easy for anyone who may be looking at leading the digital nomad life and wanting to get paid in local currencies!
The process of adding funds is super simple! In Canada, you can request an E-Transfer from your account to your email and load your funds that way. It seems there are many different options to load depending on where you are located and your banking system.
While we were in Martinique we were able to test this out, and it worked as expected and was amazing! I even loaded more funds once we were there and knowing it worked. I also found that when buying the currencies, the rate I was getting was substantially better than what the banks were offering. It was basically the market rate, whereas the banks usually pad an extra 5 points on top. I can’t recommend this solution enough for anyone who is an advent traveller or someone who is looking to carry just one credit card for their travels.
Feel free to use my referral link when you sign up and you’ll pay no fees for up to $800!
https://wise.com/invite/u/jeffreymichaelk1
Gone are the days of traveller’s cheques!
