Paying contractors in Berlin, billing a client in Singapore and restocking inventory from Shenzhen once meant trusting a chain of correspondent banks—each nibbling a little from every transfer. A multi-currency account rewrites that routine, letting you park balances in several currencies, convert funds only when the rate looks attractive and move money through low-cost local rails.
How the model works
A provider such as Wise, Revolut or OFX issues you domestic account numbers in key markets. Euros reach an EU IBAN, dollars settle through a US routing number, pounds arrive via Faster Payments. The moment funds land you can:
- Hold the balance indefinitely without conversion.
- Swap it at or near the mid-market rate instead of the three-to-four-percent spread most banks add.
- Spend through a linked debit card or push a local payout that costs pennies instead of a forty-dollar wire.
Where a traditional SWIFT transfer hops through multiple intermediaries, a multi-currency account clears domestically at both ends—no intermediary, no hidden handling fee.
Why the fee stack is lower
Banks earn twice: first with a flat wire fee and again with a padded exchange rate. A multi-currency provider separates those charges. Wise publicly shows the mid-market rate and adds a transparent fee that starts around 0.57 % of the transfer value . By comparison, Australian high-street banks still add 3–4 % to the rate, while US banks bill $35–$50 to send funds abroad and another $10–$20 to receive them. The arithmetic is brutal on large tickets—and even harsher when revenue arrives in one currency but expenses go out in another.
Everyday savings you will actually notice
- No double conversion. Keep euros from your German client and pay your Italian supplier later in the same currency rather than bouncing EUR→USD→EUR and swallowing two spreads.
- Real-time quotes. Provider apps surface the interbank rate to six decimals, so you lock a rate before hitting “convert”.
- Zero weekend mark-ups on the right tier. Revolut scrapped its 1 % weekend surcharge for Premium, Metal and Ultra customers in April 2025, a perk that repays the subscription for anyone who travels or shops across borders on Saturday.
Hidden costs to review before you switch
- Out-of-hours surcharges—some firms add up to 2 % when markets are closed.
- Wide spreads on exotic currencies such as the Tanzanian shilling or Argentine peso.
- ATM withdrawal caps; free cash often stops at €200 a month.
- Fair-usage limits on entry-level business plans that can throttle very high turnover.
Who benefits most
- Freelancers and remote teams invoicing in one currency and spending in another.
- Import-export SMEs whose suppliers insist on being paid locally.
- Frequent travellers keen to dodge issuer surcharges abroad.
- Marketplace sellers paid in U.S. dollars but living outside the dollar zone.
Choosing a provider
Coverage comes first—does the service support the currencies you actually receive? Next, audit the real exchange-rate promise: is the mark-up fixed and visible in the app? Local account details often matter more than a long currency list; having a U.S. ACH routing number or a UK sort code can decide whether a client pays fee-free. Finally, look at extras such as auto-deduct cards, batch-payment APIs and regulatory safeguards that ring-fence client money.
The quick experiment
Transfer one thousand euros from your client to the account, convert it to U.S. dollars and pay a supplier. Now run the same journey through your high-street bank. Time each hop, record every charge and note how much arrives at the far end. Most businesses see savings of twenty to thirty dollars per thousand and a full business day shaved off settlement—evidence persuasive enough to reroute payroll and supplier flows for good.
With the right multi-currency account in place, you decide when and how cash crosses borders, instead of letting the banking system decide—and the money you save can fund your next product launch instead of another bank’s fee revenue.