Pay for overseas, online shopping in more than 150 currencies with new, no-fee mobile wallet service

YouTrip comes with a contactless Mastercard prepaid card issued by EZ-Link in collaboration with You Technologies Group, which enables users to pay at more than 30 million Mastercard merchants worldwide. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM YOU.CO

SINGAPORE - EZ-Link, You Technologies Group and Mastercard on Tuesday (Aug 7) launched YouTrip, a multi-currency mobile wallet that allows users to pay in more than 150 currencies when overseas or shopping online without any currency conversion or transaction fees.

This tri-party collaboration is said to mark EZ-Link's first advancement into fintech and pioneer the future of multi-currency payments in the Asia-Pacific.

YouTrip comes with a contactless Mastercard prepaid card issued by EZ-Link in collaboration with You Technologies Group, which enables users to pay at more than 30 million Mastercard merchants worldwide. You Technologies Group is a Hong Kong-based fintech start-up that develops mobile payment solutions.

With YouTrip, users will not incur fees typically charged for currency exchange at banks or money changers and overseas bank card transactions, as well as online currency conversion and transaction fees typically incurred for cross-border payments. Currently, YouTrip supports no-fee overseas transactions in over 150 currencies.

Users can also use the YouTrip app to "maximise savings" by monitoring live foreign exchange rates on the go and instantly exchange and store up to 10 selected currencies in their wallets at their preferred rates, with no additional fees or mark-ups.

The 10 wallet currencies are Singapore dollar (SGD), Hong Kong dollar (HKD), Japanese yen (JPY), Australian dollar (AUD), New Zealand dollar (NZD), euro (EUR), pound sterling (GBP), Swiss franc (CHF), US dollar (USD) and Swedish krona (SEK).

With YouTrip's SmartExchange technology, users can also use leftover currencies to transact in any of the 150 and more currencies during their next trip or in Singapore. The app will automatically convert leftover currencies at wholesale exchange rates at no additional fees for users to complete transactions when there is insufficient balance for the transacting foreign currencies.

The YouTrip app will provide instant notification upon every transaction and allow instant card deactivation when the linked Mastercard is lost or misplaced, to give users peace of mind.

"As users can check their balance and top up on the go, they will never have to worry about running out of cash when overseas," said the three companies in a joint statement.

Users can sign up for a YouTrip account at no charge and without any minimum account balance or card fees. Topping up the YouTrip wallet in SGD with any debit or credit card is free and each account can store up to S$3,000. Starting on Tuesday, YouTrip will accept registration for the first 1,000 users with an early bird bonus of S$20 to be credited upon their first successful top-up.

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