WeSwap travel money review | Card, app, and rates explained
Find out more about WeSwap's travel money options with our useful guide.
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If you’re heading abroad, you’ll need to make sure that you’re spending your money wisely. While the things you’re likely to spend money on can’t always be controlled, the way in which you spend it can be. That’s where WeSwap comes into play. It’s a prepaid Mastercard that’s designed specifically for travel.
WeSwap’s Mastercard allows travellers to spend money anywhere in the world, swapping Sterling for Euros, Dollars and 15 other currencies. As well as being able to swap money into any currency, users’ home WeSwap matches travellers heading in opposite directions and directly swaps their travel money. Based in London, WeSwap was fully launched in 2015 and currently supports 18 different currencies.
Read on to find out more about what WeSwap has to offer, and whether you should get your travel money through them before you go abroad.
WeSwap simply swaps your currency directly with other travellers. Here’s a step by step guide to how the process works:
Here’s a list of some of the main currencies that are available with WeSwap:
For your security as well as WeSwap’s, there are some limits on how much you can load onto your WeSwap card – and how much you can carry on your card at once.
Minimum you can load: £50 or equivalent in other currencies.
Maximum single load: £3,000 or equivalent or equivalent in other currencies.
Maximum you can load in one year: £12,000 or equivalent in other currencies. This means that you cannot load more than £12,000 during any given year.
Maximum you can carry at one time: £6,000 across all currencies. This means that you cannot have more than £6,000 on your WeSwap card at any time.
Remember, it’s free to load your WeSwap card.
Perhaps the biggest downfall of WeSwap is the fact that you have to wait for your card to arrive. This takes 3-5 days.
WeSwap can be a great option if you’re planning a trip in advance, but less convenient for those who forget their travel money and need a quick solution just before they jet off.
Money is uploaded securely through your bank’s online payment services – so this aspect of the transfer is totally secure.
It’s completely free to use your WeSwap MasterCard online or at point of sale.
Where you should expect to incur fees is at ATMs. You are able to withdraw twice a day for free if the withdrawal is £200 or more. Smaller withdrawals will incur a charge.
It’s a good idea to withdraw larger amounts less often. (This is a general rule of thumb for all travel money providers!)
It’s always free to use your card to spend at shops and restaurants, so it’s recommended that you pay with your WeSwap card rather than with cash whenever possible.
Here’s a table of the additional fees WeSwap may charge:
Additional Fee | How much you will pay |
---|---|
Swap* | 2.49% of the transaction amount |
Replacement Card | £4.95 |
Chargeback Fee | £10 |
Administration Fee** | – |
Inactivity Fee*** | £2 |
Refund Fee | £5 |
Stamp Duty**** | €5 |
*This applies to wallet swaps or when you do a swap at the point of sale.
**This fee is chargeable under certain rare circumstances (if you request an additional service from us which we normally do not provide), but we will always notify you in advance if and when the fee applies.
***Monthly fee applied after 12 consecutive months of inactivity.
****Annual fee for residents of the Republic of Ireland only. This is deducted from the balance on the account, or from the first load of the year.
A strong alternative to getting your travel money with WeSwap is to do so with a digital banking app. Leaders in this field, such as Starling, Revolut and Monzo, offer travel money with zero transaction and withdrawal fees. It can also be managed from anywhere in the world, and “topped up” easily and for free, as this is done in exactly the same way standard bank transfers are.
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