Trust card vs YouTrip: Which is a better SG travel card for overseas spending?

If you’re planning a trip abroad, you may be trying to pick the right card to use for spending and withdrawals. If you’re stuck between your Trust card¹ vs YouTrip², this guide is for you.

Plus, to help you compare YouTrip and the Trust card for overseas use, we’ll also throw in some details of an extra card - Wise. Wise offers a multi-currency card you can use to hold 40+ currencies and spend in 150+ countries with the mid-market exchange rate and low costs.

Trust card vs YouTrip - Main benefits

Let’s start with a broad overview of Trust vs YouTrip, plus a comparison with the Wise card as an alternative you can use for cheap and convenient local and overseas spending.

We’ve added the Wise card to the table for comparison and context, to help you pick the best card - or cards - for your needs
Pricing/fees: Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information

What is the Trust card?

The Trust Card is a credit card issued by Trust Bank¹⁰, the digital bank backed by Standard Chartered and the FairPrice Group. As a credit card, the Trust card has eligibility requirements including a minimum income, and you’ll pay interest and penalty fees if you don’t repay your bill in full every month. However, it also has some great perks like easy ways to earn rewards and cashback, and the option to make local Singapore ATM withdrawals, which YouTrip doesn’t allow.

Screenshot from https://trustbank.sg/credit-card/

Trust Bank is known for having low cost ways to hold, spend and save money, with some fantastic reward and cash back opportunities and very few fees to worry about.

What is YouTrip?

YouTrip is a popular e-wallet which lets you hold 10 major currencies and order a linked physical payment card for easy spending and withdrawals. YouTrip is a debit card, which means you need to add money to your account before you can spend - but which also means you can’t accidentally run up a higher than expected bill and you won’t need to pay interest costs.

Screenshot from https://www.you.co/sg/

One drawback of YouTrip is that you can’t make Singapore ATM withdrawals - but for overseas use, YouTrip is handy as you can exchange currency in advance if you’d like to lock in an exchange rate and set your travel budget.

What is Wise (formerly TransferWise)?

To help you compare YouTrip and Trust, we’ve also added another popular multi-currency card option from Wise to this guide. Wise launched in 2011 as TransferWise, and offers a multi-currency digital account you can use to hold 40+ currencies and spend in 150+ countries. All currency exchange uses the mid-market exchange rate and low fees from 0.43%.

Pricing/fees: Please see Terms of Use for your region or visit Wise Fees & Pricing for the most up to date pricing and fee information

Like YouTrip, Wise is a debit card which keeps costs down and offers convenient spending. However, as with YouTrip, you can’t make local ATM withdrawals, and you won’t be able to earn cash back on spending.

Learn more about the Wise card

Trust vs YouTrip - Fees and charges

Whether Trust or YouTrip - or another card like Wise - suits you best may come down to the costs associated with the services you need. To give you an idea let’s look at the fees and charges of Trust, YouTrip and Wise side by side.

We’ve added the Wise card to the table for comparison and context, to help you pick the best card - or cards - for your needs

As you can see, all 3 cards have their own strengths in terms of costs and fees. If you’re planning to make local cash withdrawals, the Trust card could be a winner.

However, as Trust accounts can only support SGD holding, this won’t allow you to hold, exchange, send or receive foreign currencies. If you’re hoping to convert your dollars to the currency you need for your trip in advance - or if you need to get paid by others in a foreign currency - an option like YouTrip or the Wise account may work better.

Comparing exchange rates

The Trust card foreign exchange rate used to convert your overseas spending to SGD will be set by the card issuer - Visa. There’s no Trust fee to pay, and the Visa exchange rate is usually pretty fair.

One thing to watch out for if you’re spending with a Trust card overseas is dynamic currency conversion (DCC). This is when you spend in a foreign currency, but the retailer or ATM operator converts your payment back to Singapore dollars instead of Visa. If this happens, Trust can’t set the exchange rate being used, which will usually mean you pay more in the end as the retailer or ATM operator can add charges into the rate being applied.

While DCC can happen when spending on any card overseas, using a multi-currency account from a provider like YouTrip or Wise can help you avoid it. Both YouTrip and Wise use the mid-market exchange rate to convert your dollars to the currency you need for spending, and can automatically pay in the right currency wherever you are, to avoid DCC. Plus, if you’d like to buy your foreign currency for a trip in advance, you can do that by simply topping up in SGD and switching over to the currency you need in the provider’s app.

Summary: Which travel card should you pick in Singapore?

YouTrip, Trust and Wise all offer cards for spending and cash withdrawals that can be super handy when you’re overseas. However, the features and benefits of each card vary, so you’ll need to consider which suits you best before you pick.

If you’re a Trust Bank customer and eligible for the Trust card, you’ll be glad to know that there are very few fees for spending at home and abroad, and payments are converted to dollars using the Visa exchange rate which is usually very fair. However, you’ll need to bear in mind that this is a credit card which can mean you run into extra costs if you don’t clear down your bill in time and every time.

Multi-currency accounts from services like YouTrip and Wise offer debit cards which are secure for overseas use, and which don’t have restrictive eligibility requirements, or any interest costs to worry about.

However, you’ll need to hold a balance in advance of spending and can’t spread the cost of your trip out over time - plus there are fewer options to earn cash back or rewards compared to using a credit card from a service like Trust Bank.

Travel optimised cards like those from Trust, YouTrip and Wise all present great value for overseas use - and because it’s usually a smart idea to have more than one means of payment available when you’re abroad, getting both a credit card and a multi-currency debit card may ultimately be the best option. Use this guide to get a feel for your options, and don’t forget to check out Wise as a flexible way to pay with the mid-market rate, in 150+ countries globally.