Businesses are turning to prepaid travel cards as a safer, cheaper alternative to credit cards. Here’s how they work and why they’re the best option for your employees
Get started Contact salesWhen your employees and teams travel overseas, managing their business expenses can get tricky. Reconciling receipts across currencies adds a layer of complexity, as do the uncertainties of travel – will there be a cashpoint? Do they take this kind of card? There are also prickly international fees to consider – one wrong move can be inconvenient, but many can be extremely costly. That’s why businesses are turning to prepaid travel cards as an alternative to company credit cards, reimbursements and other more ‘traditional’ methods of expense management.
No wonder more than $1.1 billion is spent on travel expenses every year on prepaid travel cards in Europe alone.
Using a prepaid card couldn’t be simpler. You simply load up a card with the team member’s travel budget – for food, rental car and fuel expenses, for example. You might give individual cards to each employee, or one to a group that’s travelling together.
If you have an existing expenses policy, you can add restrictions and limits that automatically prevent any transactions that don’t fit your rules.
The card then works like any other – in Soldo’s case, it’s a Mastercard®. You can even top it up instantly from the mobile app if there’s an emergency.
The type of prepaid travel cards best for your business will depend on where your team travels regularly. The best card for Europe may be different from the best payment card for the USA and so on. Here are the main differences to look out for:
This type of card allows you to buy one currency upfront. If you’re savvy, you can lock in a favourable exchange rate. However, exchange rates can fluctuate, so you may end up losing out
Multi-currency cards are ideal if your teams visit more than one country. You can load cards with several different currencies including sterling, euros and dollars.
Some platforms allow you to generate multiple cards for specific currencies, so you can make the most of their enticing foreign exchange rates. In this case the money comes from one central business account, and you can add additional controls to each card. More on these cards here.
Business credit cards may offer extra loyalty points, insurance or concierge services to encourage you to spend overseas. They might also offer a foreign exchange rate that’s very close to the bank rate. However, in the context of business travel, credit cards have three significant drawbacks:
This type of card allows you to buy one currency upfront. If you’re savvy, you can lock in a favourable exchange rate. However, exchange rates can fluctuate, so you may end up losing out
It may take some forward planning to preload your travel cards instead of paying them off later. But you’ll save money as a result compared to making interest payments.
Credit cards allow access to huge amounts of money, but you can’t set up granular controls and limits, which could put the business at risk of overspending. To save money on corporate travel, a prepaid travel card is a better option than a credit card.
If you’re looking for a prepaid credit card for travel, you’re in the right place! Technically, prepaid credit cards don’t exist, but prepaid travel cards work in the same way as your regular credit card would – the only difference is that you pay the balance when you spend, not after.
While prepaid cards are convenient in their own right, finance managers and finance controllers can get the best results by combining a set of prepaid cards with their expense management software.
Your existing expense system may let you scan and upload receipts, generate invoices and integrate with your accounting software. With a more complete spend management platform like Soldo, the prepaid cards are part of the system – so every penny spent on those cards pulls through automatically.
Access lower fees while saving time spent on accounting by joining Soldo today.
Manage spending on prepaid cards
Empower employees to spend responsibly; define budgets and track spending in real time, from anywhere.
Automate your expense admin
Stream transactions, receipts, and other data right into your accounting software through smart integrations.
Effortless bookkeeping
Track in real time on desktop and mobile; flow data into accounting systems automatically.
Soldo Mastercard® cards
Get as many cards as you need for employees and departments. Our contactless cards are accepted by millions of merchants worldwide.
Web console and mobile app
See spending in real time on the web console. View balances, capture receipts and manage cards on the employee app.
Accounting integration
Export transaction data to every major accounting software, in two clicks. Connect expenses to Xero and QuickBooks.
Free & unlimited transactions
Soldo Mastercard® cards have no fees for domestic transactions and our foreign exchange fee is fixed at just 1%.
No charge for deposits
It’s free to add funds, and money is available to spend instantly. Allocate funds to cards when your team needs it.
Dedicated support
Need a hand? Our friendly customer success team is at your service, providing support whenever you need it.
“Since we started using Soldo, it’s been such a relief not to have to regularly email or phone the banks to ask for our credit card limits to be raised. I love Soldo’s flexibility – it’s so easy to maintain and everything is in real-time.”
“We’re a caring company and always look after each other. With Soldo, I know I’ve always got my drivers’ backs and the best bit is that I don’t need to do loads of work (or miss out on VAT claims) at the end of the month.”
