You’ve seen the ads all over the Northern Line by now: the Monzo-rival offering four per cent interest rates on your current account; the contactless debit card for expats and freelancers; that Instagrammable new credit card promising to pay for your papardelle at Padella. But are any of them really worth ditching the Monzo and the Amex for?
From the snazzy new business card for newbie founders to the UK’s first green debit card, these are the hottest new credit and debit cards to add to your wallet.
For foodies: Yonder
USP: London-based rewards you’ll actually want to use
Barry’s Bootcamp classes. Secret Cinema tickets. Meals at Padella, Pear Tree Cafe, Sucre and Bao. These are just some of the experiences new lifestyle credit card Yonder lets you spend your points on if you open an account (you earn points on all your purchases).
Think of it as the lovechild of Monzo, Amex and Timeout, with no FX fees abroad and worldwide travel insurance for just £15 a month (new members can now get their first six months for free; the representative rate is 64% APR variable). Spend £1,250 a month and you’ll earn up to £375 in cool London rewards, with no expiry date.
If that doesn’t tempt you, Yonder’s new Make It Rain campaign — London’s first ever weather-based giveaway — probably will. On every day that it rains on Yonder’s east London office, its team will send out a Rain (e)Mail detailing the prizes on offer for that day, from rounds of pub drinks of Junkyard golf to a hotel stay for two in Capri. The first people to click through from the email will win. Head to makeitrain.london to play.
For expats and chatbot haters: Suits me
USP: multi-lingual, face-to-face appointments
“A more personal touch”. That’s the mantra of new British fintech Suits Me, which has just launched a multilingual face-to-face appointment service for customers looking to discuss problems with their account with an actual person, not a chatbot.
Anyone living in the UK (including foreign nationals, expats, freelancers, poor credit and the unbanked) can open an account and you’ll receive a contactless Mastercard debit card can be used anywhere in the world at no extra cost. You’ll earn £25 for every friend you refer.
For savers: Kroo
USP: market-leading interest rates
Customers recently had to wait up to 10 days to open a Kroo account due to such high demand. That’s all fixed now, but demand is still rocketing, largely thanks to the app-only bank’s unbeaten easy-access interest rates.
The award-winning, Holborn-based bank claims to be the only UK current account to offer more than four per cent interest on balances up to £85K . Some 70 per cent of accounts are approved automatically, with accounts opened in minutes and snazzy new blue and pink cards delivered within three days.
For small businesses: Tide
USP: expenses and invoicing made easy
Perfect if you’re going freelance or starting a business but scared of managing your finances. The Monzo-style blue card offers a free business bank account with no monthly fee and all your finance admin from one app, from scheduling payments to exporting your transactions to share with your accountant.
You can order up to 50 expense cards for your team and there are no fees abroad. More than 500,000 UK businesses already use it.
For eco warriors: Tred
USP: the UK’s first green debit card
Track your carbon, not just your spending. Tred’s hot green debit card is made of recycled plastic (they even carbon-offset the delivery), plants trees around the world as you spend and tracks your transactions to give you personalised carbon footprint insights so you can manage your impact.
You can connect your other bank accounts and cards to Tred, too, so it’ll track your environmental impact across the board. Tred For Business — a new business account offering tailored support on getting to net zero — launches soon.
