Ultimate Guide To Digital Multi-Currency Accounts: Revolut vs YouTrip vs Instarem vs Wise vs Wirex (2023)

Disrupting the foreign currency exchange space, digital multi-currency accounts give the notion of 'travelling light' a brand new meaning. 

With more digital multi-currency accounts making their way to Singapore, the days of monitoring exchange rates, deciding on exactly how much money to change and physically visiting a money changer, might just be a thing of the past.

Through a mobile app, you now have the option of exchanging, holding and spending foreign currency, without additional bank charges at your fingertips (quite literally!).

Not to mention, if you love shopping on sites like ASOS, TaoBao or eBay (like us) you could save quite a bit just by transacting in their home currency.

• What is a Multi-Currency Account?
• How does a Digital Multi-Currency Account work?
• Digital Multi-Currency Accounts Available In Singapore
  • Wise
  • YouTrip
  • Instarem
  • Revolut
  • Wirex

What is a multi-currency account?

A multi-currency account allows you to hold, send, and receive multiple currencies in a single account. Think of it like having a regular bank account that allows you to transact in different currencies.

Generally, there are two types of multi-currency accounts: traditional multi-currency accounts and digital multi-currency accounts. 

Traditional multi-currency accounts are offered by commercial banks like DBS, UOB and HSBC. These accounts work similarly to a regular savings account but will further allow you to hold and transact multiple currencies at a time, with some offering interest rates. 

On the other hand, digital multi-currency accounts are offered by hybrid digital banking solution companies like Wise, YouTrip, Instarem, Revolut and Wirex.

Similarly, these accounts allow you to hold, transact, and withdraw money in multiple currencies, but with lower fees and more favourable exchange rates. Some of these companies also offer additional perks such as cashback.

Compared to banks, a multi-currency account offers better conversion rates, so you’ll save on hefty transaction fees when you make international payments. What’s more, you also can send money internationally almost instantaneously.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll be covering multi-currency accounts offered by hybrid digital banks.

How does a digital multi-currency account work?

A multi-currency account works just like a debit card, which you have to put money before spending. The main difference is that you have the option to keep, hold, and spend multiple foreign currencies at the interbank exchange rate, hold, and spend in multiple foreign currencies.

That said, some multi-currency accounts do not have a digital wallet function, so you’ll need to link your debit/credit card to make payments. 

Aside from making payments online, you also have the option to request for a physical card that allows you to pay for items over the counter and withdraw cash at any ATM around the world. This would come in extremely handy if you need cash to make purchases at markets or smaller shops, where cashless transactions are not widely accepted.

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Digital multi-currency accounts available in Singapore

Wise

Formerly known as TransferWise, the UK-based fintech firm allows travellers to avoid high foreign exchange fees when spending overseas.

Wise’s USP lies in its promise of low conversion fees based on mid-market rates and letting users store the maximum number of currencies (among the existing players in the market).

Wise allows you to add money in 21 currencies and keep and exchange money in over 50 currencies, including Singapore Dollar (SGD), Malaysian Ringgit (MYR), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), US Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), British Pound (GBP), Japanese Yen (JPY), and Thai Baht (THB), among others.

Additionally, you can also send money to 80 countries. As such, Wise is great if you’re a frequent traveller or often make international transfers.

The downside is that there’s a minimum 0.41% charge when you convert money, which varies based on the currency. However, this is still much lower than what traditional banks as well as payment services like PayPal charge.

Also, while you can make cash withdrawals from ATMs when you’re overseas, you’re only limited to S$350 and two withdrawals per month. If you exceed either, Wise will charge you S$1.50 per withdrawal. You also cannot make ATM withdrawals in Singapore.

Pros

• Has the most currency support; you can add money in 21 currencies and keep and convert more than 50 currencies in your account.
• The rates are based on the mid-market exchange rate, so there are no additional markups.
• For cards issued in Singapore, you get to withdraw cash from overseas ATMs for free twice a month and up to S$350.
• Bonus points for transparency as you can check fx rates in real-time on the app.
• Save up to 12% on Booking.com when you pay with Wise.
• Spend with the Wise card in 174 countries.
• Currently, you can only receive payments in nine currencies (GBP, AUD, USD, CAF, HUF, SGD, NZD, EUR and TRY).
• You can use Google Pay and Apple Pay for your Wise card.

Cons

• A S$1.50 charge will be incurred if you withdraw less than S$350, but more than twice a month; or S$1.50 + 1.75% of the amount if you withdraw more than S$350 and make more than three withdrawals a month.
• There’s a small currency conversion fee starting from 0.41%.
• Requesting for a physical card will cost you S$10.

YouTrip

YouTrip lets you convert up to 10 foreign currencies and make payments without transaction fees in over 150 currencies. It’s also available as a physical card by Mastercard, which you can use for over-the-counter purchases or overseas cash withdrawals. 

Through their dedicated mobile app, you can monitor, exchange and hold up to 10 currencies with rates updated in real-time. What’s more, you can easily top up your YouTrip wallet with any Singapore credit or debit card (up to S$3,000), no bank trips or signatures are necessary.

Pros

• Exchange, hold and make payments in over 150 currencies.
• You can withdraw up to S$5,000/day from overseas ATMs. 
• No currency exchange fee and overseas transaction fee.
• No service fee for top-ups made via PayNow, Visa debit cards, and Mastercard debit or credit cards.

Cons

• No option to exchange excess foreign currency back to Singapore dollar.
• Overseas ATM cash withdrawal costs S$5 per transaction.
• You can’t transfer money to other bank accounts, only to other YouTrip users.
• You can’t make ATM withdrawals in Singapore.
• Only supports 10 currencies in your digital wallet.
• A 1.5% service fee charge for top-ups made with Visa credit cards.
• No Apple Pay and Google Pay support.

Instarem

Instarem is a Singapore-headquartered digital cross-border payments company with a presence across Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe. Instarem allows you to transfer money to over 60 countries, including South Korea, Thailand and India, at a significantly lower cost.

While sign-up is free, Instarem charges a nominal fee between 0.25% to 1% to cover the cost of processing a transaction.

What pits its Mastercard-enabled card, Amaze, as a potential winner is its advantage as the go-to card that lets you link up to five debit or credit cards to the account. Also, the card also doesn’t charge you any foreign transaction fee, although you’re still get charged with a small FX spread.

Previously, users could enjoy a 1% cashback earn rate for both local and foreign currency spends, on top of the rewards, miles, or cashback that your linked credit card(s) would earn. This was capped at S$100 per quarter, or S$400 annually.

However, the Amaze card has since been nerfed, twice. Firstly, the cashback for local currency spends was previously reduced from 1% to 0.5%.

Then, Instarem replaced its cashback rewards system entirely in favour of a point-based one, known as InstaPoints.

You’ll only earn InstaPoints when you make a foreign currency transaction, at a rate of S$1 to 1 InstaPoint. In other words, you won’t be eligible for any cashback for local or foreign currency spends with your Mastercard cashback cards.

On top of that, DBS has also excluded the Amaze card as one of the transactions that will not earn you DBS points. This means that if you had previously paired your Amaze card with DBS credit cards such as the DBS Woman’s World Mastercard to earn 1.2 miles to 4 miles per dollar, well, that’s not possible now.

While you can use your InstaPoints to redeem cashback, note that there’s a minimum fixed rate of 2,000 points to S$20. What this means is that you would need to accumulate 2,000 points, or spend S$2,000 per quarter, to get S$20 cashback.

Moreover, there’s now a limit of 500 InstaPoints per transaction. So, regardless of whether you spend S$500, S$1,500, or S$5,000 in foreign currency, you’ll still earn 500 InstaPoints.

That said, your associated cards will still earn you rewards; so if you tag your Amaze card with the Citi Cashback or Citi Cashback Plus credit cards, for instance, you’ll still continue to earn cashback.

Likewise, you can also earn miles for every dollar spent if you have a miles credit card like the Citi Rewards card or Citi PremierMiles card.