Starling Bank launches dual currency debit card with pounds and euros
UK challenger Starling Bank is launching a dual currency card which allows personal and business customers to spend in pounds and euros through one single debit card.
Starling Bank now serves 77,000 businesses
The bank says the new card will go live alongside its business euro account launch, but the date is yet to be confirmed.
Now serving 77,000 businesses, the bank has designed the card to reduce currency exchange risks across the Eurozone, as well as get rid of fees for euro to euro transactions. Despite being driven by business concerns the bank says that individual Starling customers, though they cannot open a business euro account, can benefit from the dual currency card.
“A single card that can buy things in both euros and pounds is long overdue and something that we know our customers will value both in their personal and business lives,” says Starling’s CEO Anne Boden, who hopes the new card and its accompanying euro account will give companies a chance to stick to their tight budgets when transacting abroad.
Read more: Starling Bank secures £30m with user milestone on horizon
Despite free euro to euro transactions, companies will be charged a 0.4% fee of transaction values when they receive money to their business euro accounts, and charged “a flat fee of £2 per month” to use the accounts.
Businesses which the neobank says should apply include those who pay overseas suppliers, who receive payments from Eurozone customers, who rent out property in Europe or who receive payments for services in euros as self-employed contractors.
The bank’s international currency transfer service is also being stretched into the weekends, giving customers instant currency conversions on Saturdays and Sundays as well as the rest of the week. But as currency markets don’t operate on these days, the challenger will calculate its own exchange rate for foreign transactions in this window.
Read next: Starling Bank partners with CreditLadder
