Making payments easier with a multi-currency debit card

Multi-currency debit cards bring your multi-currency account to the physical world and allow you and your team to pay like a local wherever you are.

• Pay online in EUR, USD, GBP or any other currency
• Use ATMs all across the globe during your business trips 
• Cut down your exchange rate fees
• Only one single multi-currency debit card needed

Understanding multi-currency debit cards

Multi-currency debit cards enable users to receive, hold and send multiple currencies using a single card, thereby circumventing the need for currency conversion when being abroad or paying in different currencies.

They are connected to payment networks such as VISA or Mastercard and provide convenience and flexibility when conducting transactions in multiple currencies, reducing the hassle and costs associated with currency exchange.

A virtual card for subscriptions is ideal to cover your recurring plans or membership costs in multiple currencies, while a physical multi-currency debit card allows you to get money on ATMs worldwide and cut out expensive exchange rate fees.

In comparison, traditional debit cards are linked to your house bank account and allow you to hold money only in your home currency. When sending or receiving money in other currencies, costly exchange rate fees apply.

Consult amnis’ country list for a complete overview of all supported currencies.

Advantages for businesses of multi-currency debit cards

A multi-currency card facilitates your payment processes and comes with a lot of advantages, as you cut out expensive and non-transparent banking fees.

Ease of managing international transactions

Your traditional bank debit card most likely doesn’t allow you to hold other currencies than your home currency. A multi-currency debit card, on the other hand, enables you to receive, hold and spend multiple currencies on- and offline as it’s linked to a multi-currency account. This eliminates the need to switch business bank accounts, making your payment processes much easier and allowing you to limit exchange rate risks.

Reduced currency conversion fees

If you frequently make transactions in another country, you can hold different currencies in order to eliminate conversion fees. Plus: If you don’t hold the needed currency, your provider automatically checks your overall multi-currency balance and converts your home currency to the local currency at transparent and fixed FX margins – no bad surprises when buying online or withdrawing money abroad.

Simplifying accounting and financial reporting

SMEs and corporations can assign cards to their purchasing team or any other department without losing control of their finances, as admin controls allow you to set limits (team budget limits or merchant type restrictions) and access the dashboard any time. Therefore, you know exactly when and how the budget is spent, can streamline your business transactions and speed up reporting.

Challenges of multi-currency business cards

Even though multi-currency debit cards are a great way to save money, mitigate exchange rate risks and empower your employees, there are still some challenges when it comes to choosing the right provider.

Currency limitations

Capable providers offer a wide range of currencies for their multi-currency debit cards, however, you won’t be able to cover all of them. While US-Dollar, Euro, British Pound and Japanese Yen are common currencies, there are less widely used currencies, which are specific to particular regions or countries. If you receive currencies, which are not supported by your debit card, they will be automatically converted to your home currency.

Conversion fees and rates still apply

If your foreign currency balance is not sufficient when making a payment, you will still receive exchange rates below market price if the exchanged currency is supported by your provider. But even if you don’t have enough foreign currency and your provider does not support it, you can still make use of the exchange rate fees offered by payment networks such as VISA or Mastercard. Therefore, you will never run out of cash and will always profit from the cheapest FX options.

Transaction limits

Make sure that the limits imposed by the bank or issuing institution do not interfere with your daily business. Depending on the card issuer, you should be able to set your limits on each individual card, so that every department and even single employees can spend the required amount, while you stay in control of all your finances.

Safety concerns

When choosing a multi-currency debit card, make sure to take a close look at the deposit protection that the jurisdiction of your provider offers. Financial institutions and banks in the European Economic Area (EEA) are protected by 100’000 EUR in case of bankruptcy. This decision is important to ensure that your finances are safe.

Choosing the right card for your business

The choice of the right multi-currency debit card mainly depends on your business needs. While fees should generally be as low as possible, it is worthwhile to consider other factors such as supported currencies or transaction limits in order to find the best multi-currency card.

The following table compares amnis with other famous card providers.

When to choose a multi-currency debit card?

A multi-currency debit card offers a lot of benefits for businesses of all sizes. Firstly, you are able to buy from companies that offer their products and services online or through supplier marketplaces without spending too much money on FX rates. Secondly, you will never run out of cash during your business trips.

If you want to completely avoid foreign exchange costs, you are free to add multiple foreign currencies to your account. This not only gives you more flexibility, but also enables you to reduce the foreign exchange risk.

Further, you never need to worry about hidden banking or FX fees, as all rates are clear and fixed from the beginning. Therefore, you can truly cut foreign transaction and conversion fees compared to debit or credit cards, which are issued by traditional banking providers

Future trends and developments

Financial services, as any other sector, are driven by demand. The need of smaller companies to go global leads financial providers to put a greater emphasis on compatibility as well as real-time data and analytics.

Global expansion and diversification

Once deemed as a corporate-only activity, we can see that nowadays more and more SMEs scale their businesses globally.

The reasons are clear:

• Increased customer base
• Higher control of market factors such as changing interest rates, consumer needs, costs and more 
• Diversified products and services for specific markets¹
• Access to cost-efficient suppliers
• Less reliance on single markets and currencies

Scaling companies need the right technologies and processes to make the transition as smooth as possible and to cope with increased challenges, such multiple markets, currencies and legal issues.

Digital integration

While most companies engage in digitisation activities, real success through streamlined processes and increased transparency still remains a challenge. The problem: Digitisation only works with integration.

Growing companies are reluctant to invest in new financial ecosystems if they cannot be integrated into their current accounting and financial systems. Therefore, we can already see a trend towards increased integration such as importing contacts and invoices across different platforms. In the future, we will see more providers investing in APIs and other integration tools to make the transition easier and manageable for growing SMEs.

Real-time data and analytics

While a multi-currency debit card adds more flexibility to each employee, it may come with a loss of transparency. This is especially important for SMEs, as an overwhelming 82% of failed businesses² cited cash flow problems as one of the main reasons for their demise.

Companies are only willing to invest in new technologies, including multi-currency debit cards, if they don’t lose control or increase the risk of maverick buying. Therefore, we will see an increase in real-time data and analytics services, which allow managers to get a bird’s eye view of all real-time transactions from one single dashboard.

Pay like a local with amnis

amnis’ multi-currency debit card offers many reasons why businesses should replace their traditional bank cards. The virtual and physical business debit card allows you to keep all frequently-used and even exotic currencies. If you don’t have the needed currency, amnis enables you to change the currency at FX rates way below traditional bank rates – learn now how to get an amnis business debit card.

With amnis, you can issue more than 200 physical cards for your team. If you want to get virtual debit cards, you can even issue unlimited virtual cards at the free Starter subscription, while the easy-to-use platform allows you to seamlessly export your transactions into your accounting software. amnis’ multi-currency international debit card is the easiest way to cut your transaction and FX costs, while increasing transparency of your financial processes.

Try out the amnis business debit card

Create your free amnis demo account and stay up to date

While the European Union actively supports SME internationalisation³ to facilitate growth, there are still obstacles to local businesses when it comes to scaling beyond domestic borders. amnis allows you to pay like a local in major markets such as the EU, US, UK and many more, no matter where your business is located.

Create your free demo account with amnis to avoid SWIFT and use local payment schemes such as SEPA or ACH from wherever you are. amnis offers you all the tools needed to make your international payment processes as easy and cost-efficient as possible. Create your free demo account now to check how much you can save with amnis!

Sources:
¹ American Express: How to Address Four Market Factors that Can Impact Your Business Strategy
² Myos: 21 Most Important Small Business Statistics in 2023
³ European commission: Support for SME Internationalisation beyond the EU