Are Multi-Currency Accounts Worth It? (And Which Should You Choose)

Not all multi-currency accounts deliver on their promise of borderless banking. Jonny and Jan dig into what these accounts really do, and which ones are genuinely worth using in 2025.

They unpack the pros, cons, and hidden catches of Wise, Revolut, Trading 212, Bunq, HSBC Global Money, and NatWest, exploring who each account suits, what makes Wise the current gold standard, and when a simple travel card might actually be the smarter move.

What to expect

• Why most people don’t need to pre-convert currencies
• The truth behind “mid-market” and “weekend markup” fees
• Which accounts actually pay interest on foreign cash
• How to choose between Wise, Revolut, and Trading 212

Connect with us (via LinkedIn)

Jan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-watermann/

Jonny: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-pease

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Drop us a message at jonny@technicallymoney.com

Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:15
Unknown
Okay. So there are a lot of multi-currency accounts available. We have some for freelancers, we have some for students, we have some that are built for investors,

00:00:07:15 - 00:00:10:14
Unknown
and we have some that are just like glorified travel cards.

00:00:10:14 - 00:00:17:07
Unknown
So today, Yana and I, we're going to be breaking down which ones we think are genuinely worth it and which are just a waste of time.

00:00:17:07 - 00:00:21:23
Unknown
Now, multi-currency accounts are relatively new, but they've exploded in popularity

00:00:21:23 - 00:00:25:06
Unknown
because most of the transactions we make today, or at least some of them,

00:00:25:06 - 00:00:26:18
Unknown
are across borders.

00:00:26:18 - 00:00:31:14
Unknown
So, for example, if you have a ChatGPT subscription that's probably built in US dollars,

00:00:31:14 - 00:00:37:14
Unknown
if you buy an Air Rolo eSIM or an eSIM from Sally, again, probably built in US dollars.

00:00:37:14 - 00:00:41:20
Unknown
So if you can hold USD or euros or yen in your account,

00:00:41:20 - 00:00:47:08
Unknown
then you can also spend them directly, which means skipping foreign exchange fees.

00:00:47:08 - 00:00:59:16
Unknown
but there's obviously a lot more to it. And I think, Yann, you're probably best positioned to talk to or talk about the benefits of multi-currency account because you are a digital nomad and you are someone who's frequently being paid in foreign currencies.

00:00:59:16 - 00:01:04:00
Unknown
So can you give us a couple of reasons why they are beneficial and could be useful to someone?

00:01:04:00 - 00:01:10:14
Unknown
But also, can you explain why in some cases they're not really that necessary?

00:01:10:16 - 00:01:15:05
Unknown
Johnny. To be honest, I personally think they're they're quite overrated for most of the people, at least.

00:01:15:05 - 00:01:26:02
Unknown
And that's. Yeah, it's, it's due to the fact that, many people won't take advantage of the low key low to receiving details that could make, multi-currency account compelling.

00:01:26:02 - 00:01:28:18
Unknown
If you think about potential use cases,

00:01:28:18 - 00:01:33:20
Unknown
most multi-currency accounts allow you to exchange, exchange currency or different currencies,

00:01:33:20 - 00:01:37:20
Unknown
in order to you know, spend like a local when you're abroad.

00:01:37:22 - 00:02:01:14
Unknown
That's at least a value proposition to advertising. And, that comes with some risk. You know, there's some some exchange rate, timing risk, obviously. If the exchange rate looks appealing right now, you could go ahead and convert it, convert your money into the, foreign currency, but then you're not essentially taking a risk that the currency, the exchange rate could change in the future.

00:02:01:14 - 00:02:22:11
Unknown
And if it if it, changes to if it becomes, you know, less, if it drops or it rises, it's really hard to predict that, there are people doing that for a living trying to predict currency, exchange rates and, Yeah. Many fail. You know, so why would you, as a private consumer, be able to do that?

00:02:22:11 - 00:02:41:13
Unknown
I in the center that comes with some peace of mind. If you exchange your, let's say you're, you're planning a trip to the US, you exchange some euros into dollars beforehand. You at least know how much the trip is going to cost you. And you don't, you don't have to risk that. Let's say the euro becomes weaker and then things get more expensive there.

00:02:41:15 - 00:02:45:10
Unknown
But, yeah, speaking from a general perspective,

00:02:45:10 - 00:03:00:02
Unknown
think you'd be losing money with that, to be honest. So the local receiving details, the ability to receive money in a foreign currency, that's what makes, multi-currency accounts appealing, in my opinion. And, to be honest, my gut feeling is that most,

00:03:00:02 - 00:03:07:19
Unknown
travelers, most people, they won't take advantage of that, because when's when's the last time you've received money from the U.S, for example?

00:03:07:21 - 00:03:14:20
Unknown
You know, I mean, I'm, I'm quite, quite a niche case. To be honest, I have I have a lot of clients all over the world.

00:03:14:20 - 00:03:15:07
Unknown
I assume

00:03:16:02 - 00:03:33:13
Unknown
Do you think most people then could just do with a travel card that provides them with the decent exchange rate that they can then just, you know, use that, that can deposit pounds or whatever their local currency is. And then when they go abroad they'll just tap that card and it'll be exchanged at the point of sale for like a good exchange rate without

00:03:33:13 - 00:03:34:14
Unknown
bad fees.

00:03:34:14 - 00:03:37:08
Unknown
But that is probably ample for most people.

00:03:37:08 - 00:03:41:03
Unknown
probably the best solution for most people. However,

00:03:41:05 - 00:03:41:18
Unknown
Okay.

00:03:41:18 - 00:03:45:05
Unknown
some benefits to the multi-currency account as well. The only thing is,

00:03:45:10 - 00:03:46:03
Unknown
Oh for sure.

00:03:46:03 - 00:03:52:11
Unknown
use them, right? Also, let's talk about interest briefly. Interest rates vary

00:03:53:01 - 00:03:55:08
Unknown
right? So,

00:03:55:20 - 00:04:00:06
Unknown
you could technically go ahead and let's say convert euros to U.S. dollars or British pounds.

00:04:00:06 - 00:04:06:13
Unknown
British pounds is a good example. You'd be essentially doubling the interest rate you're going to going to receive with that.

00:04:07:03 - 00:04:27:15
Unknown
And so so multi-currency can't let let you generate interest on, on different currencies as well. Can be quite useful. However, there's also ultra risk attached to that. If you if you, if you have your, let's say your, your, your daily living expenses then euro you convert your, your savings to the U.S. dollar.

00:04:27:15 - 00:04:35:20
Unknown
You want to convert it back. And if the exchange rate has dropped or something, you know, you could end up losing money. Instead of earning any.

00:04:35:20 - 00:04:49:18
Unknown
So what you're saying in that case is that would be someone who's converted their euros to US dollars to generate interest, but that could backfire because they may just end up, you know, spending all the money that they generated in interest on like a poor currency exchange.

00:04:49:18 - 00:04:59:15
Unknown
backfire. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So for most people, you know, if you think about the, the average Joe, probably not the best idea, to be honest, because because it comes with

00:04:59:15 - 00:05:00:02
Unknown
Yeah.

00:05:00:02 - 00:05:01:01
Unknown
risk I just mentioned.

00:05:02:01 - 00:05:17:13
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. But but you know, when, you know, we're going to talk in a moment about, you know, wise, for example, being the gold standard multi-currency account is a good example of one that you could earn interest with. If you are someone that's going to use these account details to be paid in US dollars.

00:05:17:13 - 00:05:22:17
Unknown
I mean, you're going to really benefit from the fact that you can potentially earn interest from this US dollars as well.

00:05:22:19 - 00:05:31:05
Unknown
Whereas like the the alternative to that would be to have a British pound bank account that receives has like an international receiving,

00:05:31:05 - 00:05:42:20
Unknown
international receiving details that you those dollars could be sent to, which would enact a wire transfer, which would have costs for both parties, and then the money would be exchanged to British pounds from both. That sounds dreadful.

00:05:42:20 - 00:05:46:00
Unknown
Not just dreadful, also expensive journey. I think that's the

00:05:46:11 - 00:05:48:13
Unknown
major issue here. That's going to be really expensive.

00:05:48:13 - 00:05:49:02
Unknown
Yeah.

00:05:49:02 - 00:05:58:05
Unknown
And that's one of the key benefits here. So if we look at wise as a sort of gold standard multi-currency account that I know a lot of people watching this will have already heard of

00:05:58:05 - 00:06:04:00
Unknown
having a wise account is you know and say you're someone that's a, a freelancer working.

00:06:04:04 - 00:06:17:16
Unknown
Not necessarily in the US, but for a US company that needs to pay you in dollars, being able to provide those local account details is going to benefit not only you, but also the your employer, because they're not going to have to pay a wire transfer fee when they send you the money.

00:06:17:16 - 00:06:32:08
Unknown
That is one of the great benefits of having this local account details and the wise account comes with 19, I believe, 19 local account details, not just US dollars, but you can get currency accounts and details in a number of different currencies.

00:06:32:13 - 00:06:46:09
Unknown
Let's talk about it. So what have we got? We've got Australian dollars. We've got Canadian dollars. It's just some example. We've got obviously euros. I think you can get yen. There's there's 19. I think the Hungarian the Hungarian currency today. Thank you. Yen.

00:06:46:09 - 00:07:02:12
Unknown
that's a huge benefit. Johnny. And, that makes wise to the best multi-currency account out there in my opinion. Right now, at least for most people. They also let you hold up to 40 currencies. So even if you don't receive, local account holders in some, but you still get to convert

00:07:03:14 - 00:07:07:13
Unknown
and hold these currencies, which can be can be useful, you know.

00:07:07:15 - 00:07:17:06
Unknown
And then it's also a great travel card. We've we've discussed this before, before in, in previous episodes. The fees are just really low. When you, when you go ahead and, and spend money

00:07:17:17 - 00:07:24:16
Unknown
alter the user mid-market exchange rate. Always great. And there are no weakened markups or other gimmicks. So it's it's really

00:07:25:17 - 00:07:26:08
Unknown
card.

00:07:26:08 - 00:07:28:17
Unknown
And that's why I think it's the best on the market, I know.

00:07:42:04 - 00:07:52:22
Unknown
Very little caveats really on there. Yeah. I mean you know you could potentially argue the fact that they're an e-money institution and not a licensed bank. So you know you have different insurances for your deposits.

00:07:52:22 - 00:08:03:01
Unknown
You know when it's a licensed bank you have protection in the UK at least up to 85,000 pounds with an EMI. The money you deposit with wise, it'll be ring fenced in in bank accounts under

00:08:03:01 - 00:08:05:19
Unknown
the likes of JP Morgan, Barclays and that's how it's protected.

00:08:05:19 - 00:08:12:23
Unknown
So why is became insolvent? You'd receive your money back from those legacy banks, typically those big established banks

00:08:12:23 - 00:08:25:02
Unknown
in my opinion, that's arguably just as safe as the UK government insuring your deposits. So that's not really a caveat. Yeah. I just want to see if we can push back on why is at all here. But I'm not sure if we can.

00:08:25:02 - 00:08:35:05
Unknown
we can, to be honest. I mean, there's some some risk when transferring large amounts, you know, might take some time. Or manual to to due to manual reviews or other delays. You know,

00:08:35:21 - 00:08:40:20
Unknown
make sure that, the, the money comes from legit sources, which I totally understand, but you'll have that with, with.

00:08:40:20 - 00:08:43:03
Unknown
Yeah, most, most bank accounts, to be honest. Like

00:08:43:03 - 00:08:54:13
Unknown
even, non multi-currency accounts. Traditional accounts. You go through inspections and delays and verifications that just all part of the process nowadays if you are handling large sums of money.

00:08:54:13 - 00:09:01:14
Unknown
you're buying property abroad. Yeah. There may be some delays if it's a larger transfer. But as long as everything is legitimate everything you've done is correct.

00:09:01:14 - 00:09:09:07
Unknown
if you're selling a house abroad or if you're buying a house abroad, buying houses in foreign currencies or buying large assets in foreign currencies, it's going to be fantastic for that.

00:09:09:07 - 00:09:16:04
Unknown
And as we mentioned, you can earn interest on foreign currencies. Yeah. Which I think is awesome. The fact you can earn interest on US dollars and euros,

00:09:16:04 - 00:09:25:21
Unknown
the next provider, Revolut, who have a relatively compelling multi-currency account offering. They don't they don't do interest like that, do they?

00:09:25:21 - 00:09:28:00
Unknown
An I don't think they do. Revolute

00:09:28:00 - 00:09:44:16
Unknown
has lots of features. One of them being a mode, that they did allow you to hold multiple multiple currencies. But to be honest, that's probably not the main reason I would open up a Revolut account. Revolut is great for feature maximizers for people looking to, Yeah.

00:09:44:16 - 00:09:51:22
Unknown
So if order banking, investing, crypto travel, budgeting needs in one place, you know,

00:09:52:10 - 00:09:54:01
Unknown
I think that's a good summary. And

00:09:54:01 - 00:09:55:09
Unknown
Yeah.

00:09:55:09 - 00:10:03:02
Unknown
that. Because they, they have this amazing app, which is super intuitive, probably the best on the market in my opinion. If you look, look at banks in general.

00:10:03:02 - 00:10:05:00
Unknown
makes them a compelling product.

00:10:05:03 - 00:10:16:11
Unknown
There are some downsides to it. From a from a banking perspective, if you if you don't decide to upgrade to plus premium metal or ultra, you'll end up with, with a weakened fee of 1%, which can be,

00:10:16:18 - 00:10:17:11
Unknown
Yeah.

00:10:17:11 - 00:10:32:04
Unknown
annoying. I'm someone who uses their Revolut account quite, quite frequently. But I generally, I recently stopped using them for, for foreign transactions due to, due to the weakened mark of the, on the, on the standard plan.

00:10:32:06 - 00:10:44:09
Unknown
But what I, what I forgot was that I had a subscription running, that was, was charged once a year, and, yeah, I was charged last Saturday, and that was incredibly frustrating. I believe I even went ahead and sent you a screenshot, of the fee that

00:10:45:04 - 00:10:46:20
Unknown
because I. Yeah, I was annoyed.

00:10:46:20 - 00:10:49:23
Unknown
I mean, just a just a few dollars, but it was still very annoying

00:10:49:23 - 00:10:53:10
Unknown
to me, at least. And, yeah, that makes Revolut

00:10:53:10 - 00:11:08:18
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In a lot of the markets or countries around the world both Revolut and why is it going to be available to you. There's very few where it's like one or the other. And so if you're thinking about which one to use, if it's purely for multi-currency functionality,

00:11:08:18 - 00:11:10:20
Unknown
it's got to be wise.

00:11:10:22 - 00:11:25:07
Unknown
Obviously they don't have that 1%. We can fee their exchange rates as well or relatively similar. Right. We've looked at this previously to try and compare the two. They're all relatively similar, but in some cases why's come out more favorable than Revolut in terms of the exchange rates.

00:11:25:07 - 00:11:30:14
Unknown
dessert. There's a slight difference, though. Why is uses the mid-market rate? Revolute uses

00:11:31:03 - 00:11:33:21
Unknown
rate. Why then goes ahead and

00:11:33:21 - 00:11:34:13
Unknown
Yeah.

00:11:34:13 - 00:11:37:16
Unknown
an exchange fee, which is very transparent,

00:11:38:07 - 00:11:44:16
Unknown
by currency pair. And what Revolut does is they just include the fee into the exchange rate. So yeah,

00:11:45:10 - 00:11:47:15
Unknown
but two different way of charging fees here.

00:11:47:19 - 00:11:59:17
Unknown
It's less transparent isn't it. Yeah. And you know if you're getting the paid accounts from Revolut you're going to benefit because you get discounted exchange rates don't you.

00:11:59:17 - 00:12:09:04
Unknown
I suppose if you're on anything but basically standard or plus rate you're going to get fee free currency exchange. But if you're just getting a standard plus account with Revolut, you've also got the fee to pay for after, what, 1,000 pounds?

00:12:09:04 - 00:12:28:07
Unknown
I think of currency exchange. I mean, if you're using this from multi-currency account because you intend to deposit, you're probably depositing more than 1,000 pounds or euros, whatever it is. So that's not going to be very good. You're probably going to want to pay for the fee free currency exchange, which is yeah, it's a bit off putting.

00:12:28:09 - 00:12:29:21
Unknown
Yeah it's quite quite expensive.

00:12:29:21 - 00:12:32:14
Unknown
I think in this sense Revolut is good.

00:12:32:14 - 00:12:34:14
Unknown
There's no doubt. But wise is better.

00:12:34:14 - 00:12:44:08
Unknown
What about this next one? Yann trading two. One, two. This is a different account, isn't it? This is a really interesting one. Could you could you talk about this?

00:12:44:08 - 00:12:51:19
Unknown
absolutely. So what trading to one two is, we've we've discussed it in a previous episode. It's an investment platform, essentially. That also comes with,

00:12:51:21 - 00:12:52:09
Unknown
Yeah.

00:12:52:09 - 00:13:03:02
Unknown
with a card that lets you, lets you spend your, your money, quite easily all over the world and that, and that for free, essentially. Right. There's a there's a small ethics fee attached to it,

00:13:03:02 - 00:13:05:05
Unknown
1.15%.

00:13:05:07 - 00:13:28:02
Unknown
And it's a flat fee. So it doesn't really it doesn't really vary by currency. That's great. Also lets you withdraw money for free, I believe, and lets you hold 13 global currencies, which. Yeah, it's not as much as revolute, or vice, but it's still good, you know, you get a British pound, U.S. dollar euro, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and a few others.

00:13:28:04 - 00:13:30:06
Unknown
So it can be can be quite useful.

00:13:30:06 - 00:13:37:04
Unknown
Yeah. You're not getting you're not getting local account details. You know don't think of this as an opportunity for a freelancer

00:13:37:04 - 00:13:47:14
Unknown
you know, if you're looking to invest in stock markets around the world, say, you know, you want to buy Tesla in US dollars and you can hold US dollars in this account and exchange them from, say, your local currency.

00:13:47:14 - 00:14:12:10
Unknown
That could be British pounds for just like Yann said, 0.15%. That's market leading. That's really, really good guys. You know if you're buying Porsche, you know, you want euros to make that purchase. You can exchange pounds or whatever to euros and get that .15 percent again, that's really good. You're not going to find that anywhere else. You know, Revolut, you know, if you're going to buy foreign shares with Revolut, you're going to have to pay the Revolut rate plus a potential fee.

00:14:12:12 - 00:14:20:04
Unknown
So that's where trading 2.2. Such a compelling off offering isn't it, for buying foreign foreign equities. It's really compelling.

00:14:20:04 - 00:14:23:06
Unknown
I'd like to criticize. So I'm,

00:14:23:06 - 00:14:23:19
Unknown
Yes. So it.

00:14:23:19 - 00:14:26:05
Unknown
using Interactive Brokers, for my, for my

00:14:26:17 - 00:14:27:23
Unknown
And it's, it's great. And

00:14:27:23 - 00:14:28:08
Unknown
Yep.

00:14:28:08 - 00:14:30:06
Unknown
lets you hold multiple currencies.

00:14:30:06 - 00:14:38:17
Unknown
And the reason why why I'm so, compelled by it is, the fact that, whenever there's a, there's a dividend payment coming in, you know, in that foreign

00:14:39:11 - 00:14:42:10
Unknown
it doesn't get automatically converted to my, to my main currency.

00:14:42:10 - 00:15:00:10
Unknown
And that can be quite useful if you plan on reinvesting your dividends at some point. Let's say you, you're, you're using trading to want to, you're holding Portia's stocks, for example, they're paying out a dividend. Your main currency is the British pound. Then trading to one to converts that, from your into British pound beforehand. Sure.

00:15:00:10 - 00:15:21:10
Unknown
You're paying a 0.15% fee. And then if you want to reinvest it at some point, you'd have to convert it back into, into the British pound. Into the euro. Sorry. From the British bond. So you're essentially paying the fees twice. It's not it's not significant because you mentioned the fees very low for just one thing to to criticize

00:15:21:10 - 00:15:27:19
Unknown
But it's just another fee. It's just another fee. And we should always be looking to try to reduce the fees that we pay.

00:15:27:19 - 00:15:28:15
Unknown
Exactly.

00:15:28:15 - 00:15:30:00
Unknown
This next one is

00:15:30:00 - 00:15:35:22
Unknown
big in the European Union. I think you're the person who's best to talk about them. But bank?

00:15:35:22 - 00:15:43:22
Unknown
It's a very good option if you ask me. If you're looking for one specific thing, and that is credit cards. So

00:15:43:22 - 00:15:44:12
Unknown
Okay.

00:15:44:12 - 00:15:46:03
Unknown
the other banks that we just mentioned,

00:15:46:03 - 00:15:57:17
Unknown
they're using debit card, debit cards, bank offers, credit cards. Really credit cards that you can use to, to, hire cars, for example, or use as a, as a deposit when checking into a hotel.

00:15:57:19 - 00:16:12:03
Unknown
It's very useful. It also lets you hold up to 22 currencies, I believe. You get the ability to, to obtain certain bonds. But it's. Yeah, kind of, from my understanding, it's kind of a gimmick because what they

00:16:12:11 - 00:16:13:01
Unknown
Okay.

00:16:13:01 - 00:16:16:15
Unknown
they, they give you, let's say you're living in the Netherlands. You'd get a Dutch Iban.

00:16:16:17 - 00:16:24:20
Unknown
If you're living in France, you get a French Iban. If you're living in Germany, go to Germany even. But I think you can't get a Dutch Iban when living in in Germany at least wasn't the case.

00:16:25:12 - 00:16:27:09
Unknown
few months ago when I looked into into a bank.

00:16:27:09 - 00:16:35:14
Unknown
Still quite useful. However, as you can use these bonds anyways, internationally, within the whole, CPA area.

00:16:35:16 - 00:16:38:05
Unknown
Yeah, there's no real benefit, attached to that.

00:16:38:05 - 00:16:58:09
Unknown
They also allow you to, to generate interest on savings and varies by currency. So that can be quite useful if you want to, generate the, interest in US dollars, for example, you can just convert your money, on the platform and then do that. And I think you'd be getting 3% instead of, 2%, which is the current euro, interest rate.

00:16:58:10 - 00:17:14:20
Unknown
That's good. That's good. They also allow you to sign up without a tax ID. And did you know this. So if you, you know if you got your tax ID at your new in a country and you get a 90 day window to get it so you can start banking immediately, which I could see that being quite good for an expert, someone who's recently moved to another country.

00:17:14:20 - 00:17:23:00
Unknown
Is this account free? They make a big deal out of bank being for free. But I know you've complained to me in the past about how expensive this account is.

00:17:23:00 - 00:17:27:23
Unknown
it's kind of I mean, they have a free tier, but it's not really usable if you ask me. So it's not, not a true,

00:17:28:12 - 00:17:29:06
Unknown
But.

00:17:29:06 - 00:17:30:15
Unknown
tier. It's very limited.

00:17:30:15 - 00:17:31:03
Unknown
Okay.

00:17:31:03 - 00:17:43:09
Unknown
Yeah. Many limitations there. If you're interested in Bank, I'd definitely recommend one of the paid plans. You don't need to go ahead and purchase the most expensive one, but, you know, I think to to start a plan.

00:17:43:12 - 00:17:44:13
Unknown
What does that cost?

00:17:44:13 - 00:18:03:17
Unknown
got. Yeah. No, I've got it in front of me here. So you've got bunk core for €3.99. You've got Pro for 999, an elite. Elite is 1899. All in euros. It's fascinating, isn't it, to see these accounts. You know, we're talking about say, you know, the top tier Revolut account, metal in euros is, I believe, 1399.

00:18:03:21 - 00:18:15:19
Unknown
So it's cheaper than the Lea and you get a whole bundle of subscriptions. So what a bunk doing. Yeah. And that gives them this, this right to charge us €19 for elite.

00:18:15:19 - 00:18:22:20
Unknown
credit cards, I guess. That's probably probably the reason. No, I don't know, Johnny. It's, not making too much sense to me.

00:18:22:20 - 00:18:38:18
Unknown
That they do make a big deal out of being really expat friendly, you know, so, you know, this is an account that, you know, you can sign up from home. So if you're not necessarily in the country you're moving to, like I said, regarding the tax ID, you know, it does include travel insurance as well.

00:18:38:18 - 00:18:42:17
Unknown
You could see this being potentially beneficial for someone who's moving abroad, maybe as a student.

00:18:42:17 - 00:19:04:02
Unknown
obviously you have the multi-currency functionality there. But it's quite difficult, isn't it, to say, look, you know, you've got three accounts now that we've discussed why's Revolut Bank and they're all basically available to most people inside, you know, Europe, most countries. Yeah. Bank and Revolut are sort of close together. But you still would pick wise when you over over those two.

00:19:04:02 - 00:19:08:10
Unknown
Especially if you're not looking for a paid account. Then for sure. Why? This would be my gold

00:19:08:10 - 00:19:12:15
Unknown
Wise you of course, of course it's free. Of course.

00:19:12:15 - 00:19:19:21
Unknown
you were you were just briefly talking about Bank elite. They do give you the ability to earn, points, which can be used as a cash back.

00:19:19:23 - 00:19:32:10
Unknown
Can be quite, quite useful. So, similar to RAF points, bank has their own bank points. We could look into that in a in a later episode. Could be quite useful in a way to, you know, earn it, earn that money back that you spend on the plan.

00:19:32:10 - 00:19:51:23
Unknown
an account that's available in the UK, one that I've talked about before, I made a few years ago, a video on the best and worst multi-currency accounts. And I actually put this account as my, my pick for worst at the time, but also at the time. Yeah. And I didn't have access to the account, but I was quite I was quite put off by the fact that the exchange rates weren't that transparent.

00:19:51:23 - 00:19:57:00
Unknown
So I couldn't really tell people precisely what they would pay when making a currency exchange.

00:19:57:00 - 00:20:06:19
Unknown
But now I've gone ahead and opened an account. So this is the HSBC Global Money account. I had to open a current account, first of all, and then I was able to access the global money account.

00:20:06:19 - 00:20:11:06
Unknown
is an account where you can essentially just hold various currencies.

00:20:11:06 - 00:20:37:18
Unknown
Yeah. And there aren't local account details like wise, you can just hold 18 different currencies. So you would deposit British pounds into this account and then hold them. Now I do think for an HSBC user this could be quite convenient because you get a really nice layout rundown or try to. For those watching, I'll show you what the app looks like on the screen, but you get this really beautiful, you know, organized list of your different currencies.

00:20:37:18 - 00:20:53:08
Unknown
And I think, you know, if you're going abroad to spend money, it's not a bad option because you're not going to get charged a fixed fee for transacting, particularly if you've already exchange the currencies. And they're available because your debit card will be linked to all those different currency wallets.

00:20:53:08 - 00:21:08:01
Unknown
The exchange rates were a little bit frightening. Maybe frightening is a bit aggressive, but I did have a look at British pounds, the Swiss Francs, which approximately had a 1.52% margin fee.

00:21:08:03 - 00:21:13:15
Unknown
Pounds €2 was 1.04%. These are higher than wise.

00:21:13:15 - 00:21:23:20
Unknown
Australian dollar wasn't too bad 0.86. But what frightened me or what bothered me the most was the British pound to US dollar exchange rate with the global money account

00:21:23:20 - 00:21:31:21
Unknown
arguably probably the most or the busiest. Possibly not pound to euros, probably very busy, but pound to dollar is also quite a busy exchange.

00:21:31:23 - 00:21:34:23
Unknown
One.

00:21:35:01 - 00:22:06:14
Unknown
Thank you. Yeah, nice. Thank you. Well, this one must be relatively popular. And it was 1.42% when I checked, which, I don't think that's good enough. I think that's pretty significant. So even if you're an HSBC user thinking, well, this is a really convenient way for me to hold dollars and spend them internationally, you'd still be better off getting just a wise card and just transacting at the point of sale, or exchanging ahead of time, because right now, I mean, what a what a wise offering right now 1,000 GBP to to.

00:22:06:14 - 00:22:35:18
Unknown
Let's just have a look at this to us dollars. It is a 0.47% fee, 0.47%. This is 1% more. Yeah. Yeah. So I'd say look, the global money account is convenient. It is like it's a legacy bank. It's HSBC attempt of being, you know, digital modern. It's their go at it. But it's still still has it comes with the legacy fees that these banks try to get away with charging.

00:22:35:18 - 00:22:39:13
Unknown
don't like the fact that the hiding the exchange rates before you actually go ahead and open the account,

00:22:39:13 - 00:22:40:02
Unknown
Agreed.

00:22:40:02 - 00:22:46:17
Unknown
that's just not nice. You know, nowadays, that's also that's. Yeah. You can't do that. It's just transparent.

00:22:46:17 - 00:22:52:07
Unknown
yeah I agree, I grab sure there's some people listening to this or watching this that do have the, global money account.

00:22:52:07 - 00:22:54:12
Unknown
the, not the worst, multi-currency

00:22:54:12 - 00:23:02:09
Unknown
it's not, it's not. Well.

00:23:02:11 - 00:23:26:17
Unknown
Yeah. This is this. I just want to quickly share this one with you. Look, this account isn't even one account. It's two accounts. This is NatWest's attempt at doing, like, a multi-currency global account. So what they've done is they've opened, they've got a travel account which links a Euro and a USD wallet to your debit card. So you could have these, have these accounts have have and spend the, spend this, this currency.

00:23:26:17 - 00:23:43:17
Unknown
And you can withdraw up to €200 and $200. Is this all right? It's not really multi-currency. But you think that. Well, why can you have loads of different currencies? Why is it just got to be euros and dollars? Well, for some crazy reason. Yeah. And they also have the cash management account. So they have these dev two accounts.

00:23:43:17 - 00:24:06:01
Unknown
And the cash management account allows you to hold up to 25 currencies but doesn't have a debit card. So I don't know what they've done there. I don't know why they I don't know why they just don't merge them. I don't I don't, but you know, I just I did want to share that one. The cash management account is kind of from NatWest is kind of positioned as like a savings account for foreign currencies.

00:24:06:03 - 00:24:17:01
Unknown
So you think, okay, that could be interesting, but they don't even put the savings rates on the website. You have to contact them to find out if you've not signed up with the savings rate. So I just think that is a red flag.

00:24:17:01 - 00:24:19:06
Unknown
I just want to jump back to the global money account quickly.

00:24:19:06 - 00:24:37:16
Unknown
And one thing I didn't mention is just to give it some benefit, you know, just to just to say that you could deposit foreign currency at a bank branch. Yeah. And with that global money account, which could be beneficial, right. If you come home from somewhere and you've got large sums, you're laughing, but it's true. I'm just trying to find a reason.

00:24:37:18 - 00:24:43:08
Unknown
You know, there is something there, right? You could walk into an HSBC branch at least and deposit US dollars.

00:24:43:08 - 00:24:49:02
Unknown
arriving, driving to the, to the UK with lots of, Colombian pesos. That

00:24:49:02 - 00:24:53:09
Unknown
There. They don't take that.

00:24:59:08 - 00:25:00:03
Unknown
Okay.

00:25:00:03 - 00:25:05:05
Unknown
What about the use cases though. Tell me some use cases for these accounts. Who is the wise account? Mainly for?

00:25:05:05 - 00:25:13:21
Unknown
Wise is probably best for, for most people looking, looking to get a multi-currency account and it's great for getting paid. In multiple currencies

00:25:14:00 - 00:25:15:07
Unknown
Yeah a great.

00:25:15:07 - 00:25:21:03
Unknown
the most local account details by far and they offer the, the mid-market rate whenever there's a currency conversion

00:25:21:14 - 00:25:24:20
Unknown
to have a fee. We mentioned that, but it's, moderate.

00:25:24:20 - 00:25:29:15
Unknown
And if you're looking to have one app that handles everything revolute, it's the answer.

00:25:29:15 - 00:25:31:17
Unknown
It's great. Super intuitive,

00:25:31:17 - 00:25:33:15
Unknown
not the best banking product, to be honest.

00:25:33:15 - 00:25:33:22
Unknown
No.

00:25:33:22 - 00:25:34:20
Unknown
That's due to the

00:25:34:20 - 00:25:35:05
Unknown
No.

00:25:35:05 - 00:25:36:17
Unknown
mentioned and the plan limits.

00:25:38:03 - 00:25:43:04
Unknown
credit card and you're residing within the EU, look, it bank, could be a great

00:25:43:04 - 00:25:44:05
Unknown
Moving abroad.

00:25:44:05 - 00:25:45:11
Unknown
get. You can sign

00:25:46:05 - 00:25:46:10
Unknown
minutes.

00:25:46:10 - 00:25:55:17
Unknown
And, as Johnny mentioned, you don't need to add your text study for the first 90 days, which can be useful if you just just move to to a EU country, for example.

00:25:56:05 - 00:26:07:13
Unknown
an HSBC customer, an existing one, potentially, a very wealthy one, maybe one that arrives to the UK with large sums of foreign cash every month, then

00:26:14:21 - 00:26:17:20
Unknown
Yeah.

00:26:18:15 - 00:26:34:22
Unknown
Yeah I think so. And look if you've got a multi-currency account that we haven't talked about today, let us know in the comment section. Because I think it'd be really interesting to see if there's any others that we haven't covered. We can talk about them in future episodes. And if you are currently using any of the accounts we've talked about today, could you could you just let us know why?

00:26:34:22 - 00:26:52:23
Unknown
Because I think it's always fascinating to hear, like what people's use cases are for these accounts. Like I hear some fascinating cases when people say, yeah, I use my wise account to get paid in like a really exotic currency. But they somehow, because they somehow happen to freelance and work for a company in that country, I think that's always really, really insightful.

00:26:52:23 - 00:26:57:22
Unknown
last recommendation. Under no circumstances you should go ahead and sign up for the, NatWest travel

00:27:00:11 - 00:27:03:13
Unknown
if you ask me. There are far better options out there.

00:27:03:13 - 00:27:14:03
Unknown
There are far better options out there. Okay everybody, if you enjoyed today's episode, if you're watching us on YouTube, please do give us a like you can subscribe to the channel as well. That would be amazing. And if you're listening to us what do they do. Yeah.

00:27:14:03 - 00:27:16:11
Unknown
Radius five star on these, these

00:27:16:14 - 00:27:19:21
Unknown
Oh that'd be nice. That'd be amazing.

00:27:19:21 - 00:27:22:12
Unknown
all of these ideally.

00:27:22:12 - 00:27:25:08
Unknown
All right. Thanks, everyone. It's been a pleasure as always by.