Hi Emma,
yes, in your use case you should probably be loading up your transferwise borderless account in pounds and then transferring it internally to your separated Euro “account” (all within the borderless account, tis a bit confusing).
From there, if you present your card at a Euro merchant it’ll just use the Euros. If you left it in pounds, it would make the transfer at the point of use.
Yes. I usually load up with £, convert it to Euros in Transferwise, and then spend/withdraw in Euros.
I think you can simply load £ and spend in Euros. I did accidentally use it the other way after a trip. There were a few Euros left on the card and I accidentally used it to spend in £. It worked out OK, though.
Thanks Guys. I was confused as i just assumed it would work like Monzo does, but it doesn’t. Next time I load it up i’ll load it up in Pounds then convert it into Euros in my account or just withdraw pounds in Euros at the cash machine!
I’ve just checked this on the Transferwise app.
Here’s my workflow for adding Euros.
I suspect you may have transferred the money by a bank transfer to your Euro account.
How long did you guys wait for your TW green card to come through the post?
Really excited to try the card and I’m a bit impatient regarding post 
I waited two weeks due to it being a private beta at that time.
I can’t remember exactly, but certainly within a week. It was probably something like 2-3 days.
Having regard to your avatar, I know have a vision of an excited puppy barking at everyone who comes near your door. 
Is anyone a UK citizen using Transferwise in anger in another country? I got myself an account ready for a trip to Australia, just wondering if it will be worthwhile, I’ll have a chunk of money to transfer.
Yes I have, recently on a trip to Ireland. Worked perfectly, in shops, restaurants and at ATMs. I converted what I needed to Euros via their app beforehand. It was a breeze. Just top up with your GBP card, convert to your desired currency, and you’re ready to go, as long as you have their debit card of course, which you can order through their web portal.
Same for me in Spain. The debit card has unlimited free ATM withdrawals until June, and it’ll then be free for £200 per month and then 2% thereafter (so a bit cheaper than Monzo).
Apart from that, there’s no advantage over Monzo for me, but it does work well.
Good experience with transferwise card in shops in Germany except a slightly curious issue in a hotel. I presented the card on checking in. They took the booking price off the card plus 50 euros more against mini bar etc The sum appeared to leave my account rather than being marked as pending. When I checked out there were in fact no more extra charges so the hotel told me they would retundthe 50euro difference. I left with a receipt reading paid in full via the transferwise card. As I was in a rush for a train, I didn’t check the app but later saw that they had in fact refunded the whole amount they took on checkin and not kept the money due to them. So I was clutching a receipt saying paid but had the money in my account! When it hadn’t reversed later that day I spoke to transferwise who advised me to keep the amount due in the account. It took about 10days to be sorted out. TW staff were very helpful but did need nudging from me to get to the bottom of what was going on. I guess this is like pay at pump petrol…but it might be worth asking them how they deal with hotel bookings if they were to form part of your spend.
Good to know, I’ll be doing a lot of checking in and out of hotels/hostels.
Has anyone enabled a foreign balance and had money paid into it? Also has anyone transferred money from a foreign TW balance account to another foreign bank account? Were there any additional fees? or is the only fee you’ll pay be the forex fee upon transferring between your own TW balance accounts?
Yes and yes
See here for all fees:
In summary, you pay for:
Thanks Nanos. The borderless element really does interest me at this point in time, however I use Monzo as my daily driver while I’m in the UK.
Just wondering… who has the better currency conversion rates? Transferwise or Monzo? Or are they the same?
Some days Monzo, some days TW. However, as any conversion with TW attracts fees, TW conversions will I believe always be more expensive than Monzo’s.
Ah I see… cheers!
I’ve got myself one of these lovely lime green cards, but now I’m not sure why. Is there any benefit over Monzo for standard day to say spending abroad? What would be the benefit of loading it with Euros before I got away for example?
