How Niyo’s global card made my travel easy

It was my first international trip and my biggest worry was currency and its conversion; amongst other things. I was sure I am going to get something or the other wrong. For a person like me, the Niyo card was a miraculous savior. Of course, this does not mean, I had to forget all about currency conversion. But what I mean is, it took away 70% of my anxiety away.

I first encountered Niyo card when I was working for a startup that offered prepaid cards for businesses. Niyo was running their promotions for their new product called Niyo Global card. I took a card to know more about the product and the experience. I got it for free, no joining fee or subscription fee. Because it was a global card and I had no plans to travel abroad, it was in my wallet for almost 10 months — unused. It eventually saw the light of the day when my husband and I planned a trip to Bali (Indonesia) soon after our marriage in December 2019.

Between me and my husband, we hold Amex Platinum Travel Card, Amex Rewards card, HDFC Regalia, and Kotak’s credit cards. We knew that these cards would charge us anywhere between 3% — 5.5% for a single transaction. While cash was the default option, exchanging Indian Rupee can get very expensive at these booths because of the markup fee they charge. We also realized that several money exchangers were fraudulent and that it was necessary to know these companies before dealing with them.

In this perplexed state, I posted on twitter to see if someone on my timeline had used this card. The responses were overwhelming.

I instantly went from “Is this card going to work as promised?” to “We should get 1 more!” Customer stories are so won my trust.

To test the card, I loaded only Rs.10 initially; the amount was loaded to the card successfully. I loaded more money using the UPI option and then used it first in the Kuala Lumpur airport at McDonald’s. It worked like a charm! We both looked at each other and grinned. The next transaction was at an ATM at Bali airport. When the cash came out, we grinned again :). By now we were sure that this is going to work. It did a splendid job.

I did about 13 transfers from my bank account to my card and then spent that money at merchants on the POS(Point Of Sale) machine. We also withdrew from ATM and used cash in places where the card was not accepted.

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What I loved the most?

• The seamless experience of loading the card.
• The cost-free transactions at ATM and POS machines.
• No fretting over currency conversion or counterfeit notes

I just have one takeaway from this experience, build a product that solves one core problem. No one likes a beautifully designed product that does not work. Since I am in the product team and I do own few products, it is a learning for me on how they focussed on solving one thing. Narrowing down to one core problem is not as simple as it sounds.

That brings me to the end of this story. If you are planning to travel abroad, go ahead and get yourself a Niyo card. If you do end up getting one then these practical tips should help you {TL;DR}:

1. For the first time, load only Rs.10 and familiarise yourself with the app.
2. Load the card for the amount that you would need. Don’t load too much because in case ATM PIN is compromised or card is stolen, you will not lose much.
3. Always note the customer support number on the back of the card and save it on your phone when you travel. If you need to block your card, you can do it via a phone call. This is typically how every credit card works.
4. At times you might see an additional fee deducted from your card 2–3 days after the payment has happened. This is the forex adjustment amount. For example, when you paid an amount, the forex rate was X. But when the merchant was about to be settled, the forex rate is Y, the change in amount is the adjustment you will see. This is very normal; nothing to worry about.