PNC Virtual Wallet review - All you need to know

PNC offers a full range of regular banking products, including checking and savings accounts, credit cards, loans and more. A popular choice is the PNC Virtual Wallet, which lets you manage your money online across accounts designed for checking, saving and investing.

Let’s take a look at how the PNC Virtual account works, as well as the features and fees you need to know about.

PNC Virtual Wallet overview

Before we dive in, it’s good to note that the services, fees and features available from PNC may vary by location. To give a point of reference in this guide, we have used a California zip code - but you’ll want to double check availability and costs for your own state before you decide to use PNC.

Let’s take a look at the features of the PNC Virtual Wallet.

Spend, Reserve and Grow

When you open a PNC Virtual Wallet, you’re actually opening 3 accounts - Spend for checking, Reserve as an interest bearing checking option, and Grow as your long term savings vehicle.¹

You’ll get a checkbook and card linked to your Spend account, and can switch easily between accounts when you want to, using the PNC app. The Reserve and Grow accounts can be linked to your Spend account, to cover transactions which may cause you to dip into your overdraft.

Minimum account requirements

When you open a PNC Virtual Wallet, you’ll choose between the following account types:

• PNC Virtual Wallet²
• PNC Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend³
• PNC Virtual Wallet with Performance Select⁴
• PNC Virtual Wallet - Student⁵

Each account type comes with different monthly fees, and varying requirements if you want to avoid this cost. For example, PNC will waive the fee on a regular account if you hold $500 minimum balance, but for the Performance Select you may need $5,000 in your account for the same benefit. We’ll look at these fees and limits a little later in more detail.

Rewards and deals

At the time of writing there are various opening offers available for the different wallet types - you can earn cash back and get rewarded for opening your account, to the tune of up to $300.

Security

PNC is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) which means your money is stored safely, and insured in the unlikely event PNC runs into difficulties. Check out the limits and terms on this insurance, online.

Budgeting tools

One of the selling points of the Virtual Wallet is that you have several different ways to budget and save between your 3 different accounts. You can view your available funds as a bar graph, schedule upcoming bills and deposits in a calendar to predict your cash flow, and move money to savings easily.

The PNC app

As you might expect, you’re mainly going to manage your money online if you choose a PNC virtual wallet. The easiest way to do that is to get the PNC app, which lets you track and review your balances, switch between accounts, and more.

PNC Virtual Wallet fees

Let’s take a look at the fees you’ll pay to open and operate your PNC Virtual Wallet. As we mentioned above, fees may vary by state, so you’ll want to double check the fineprint for your location before you sign up.

If you expect to travel, love to shop online with international retailers, or send and receive payments overseas, it’s worth noting that PNC has relatively high fees for cross border transactions. You’ll pay up to $45 to send an international wire for example, and using your card to shop at your favourite international ecommerce retailer could mean you pay 3% more than you expect.

As with any account, it pays to look closely at the costs before you sign up. Here are the key charges to consider.

PNC Virtual Wallet card and ATM usage

You’ll get an ATM card automatically when you open a PNC Virtual Wallet account. You get free access to PNC’s 9,000+ ATMs in the US, and can also use your card in other ATMs at home and abroad, although you may be charged a fee.

Here’s what you need to know.

So there you have it - all you need to about the various Virtual Wallet accounts available through PNC.

If you’re looking for an innovative way to manage your money, a Virtual Wallet could be just what you need. However, if you’re planning on traveling, or regularly send or receive cross-border payments, you’ll want to take a close look at the fees for international transactions with PNC.

Before you decide which account will work for you, think about the type of transactions you’ll regularly make, and do some research into the products available from traditional banks and specialist online services. Don’t forget to check out the multi-currency account from Wise to see if you could save.