Zinli review

Zinli charges a monthly fee of $0.99 for the card, and that is the recurring cost to budget for. Monzo Flex, Wise and Bitpanda each list a monthly fee of £0, £0 and €0. Over a year the gap is small, but it does not go away.

It is listed as a prepaid card rather than a bank debit card, so money is loaded onto it first and spent from that balance. It does not draw down a current account. That makes spending on a trip predictable, and it also means the balance is held by the card provider.

The card runs on the visa network, so acceptance follows wherever that network is taken. For a travel card that reach matters more than most other details. Check that the network is welcome in the places you plan to pay before you rely on it there.

Virtual card use and travel are both listed among the card's features, so online bookings can be covered without waiting for a physical card to arrive. The card is prepaid, so whatever balance you load is what the virtual card spends from.

The licence on record names the Superintendencia de Bancos de Panama, the banking supervisor in Panama. That is the body that oversees MFTECH S.A, the company behind the card. It is the first thing to check before you load a large balance.

Support runs on chat, so live chat is the listed route for questions about the card, and no other channel is set out beside it. That is worth knowing before a trip, because a card declined at a till abroad means opening a chat to get it moving again.

Zinli's monthly fee is $0.99, while Monzo Flex lists £0, Wise lists £0 and Bitpanda lists €0. On recurring cost alone Zinli is the only one of the four with a monthly charge, and what it issues is a prepaid card built around travel.