Sometime during the past year, banks reduced the spending limits on naira debit cards to as low as $100 per month.
Some banks reviewed their international spending limit and increased the spending limit, whereas some didn’t. As of the moment of this post, Standard Chartered Bank has the highest spend limit of $500 per month.
Quite a number of Nigerians rely on their naira debit cards to pay for online transactions that are billed in US dollars. They are then charged with the prevailing exchange rate.
Monthly subscriptions make up for a percent of our online transactions and as they are recurrent dollar expenses, you are unable to get those shoes you’ve added to your Nike cart for over three months because you always exhaust your dollar limit.
Opening new accounts with multiple traditional banks can be so stressful and unrewarding. Let’s not mention the unnecessary bank charges that come with it. It’s not exactly worth it.
We thought long and hard about solutions that really work for you and we found quite a number.
GoMoney allows you to increase your dollar spend limit without any inconvenience and at zero cost to you. Although, the monthly limit is $100. In addition to the dollar limit of your bank, that’s an extra $100.
GoMoney is a digital bank. The mobile app is available on Play Store and AppStore.
The onboarding process is also quite direct.
- You’ll be asked to input your phone number
- An OTP will be sent to verify the number provided
- You will be required to enter your email address
- Your full legal name, Date of Birth, Home address and Gender
- Then, you set up your security questions.
To upgrade to a full account, you’ll need to input
- Your BVN
- Take a selfie
- Take a picture of your signature
- Provide a Government ID
You can then go ahead to create a virtual card and customize however you like it.
You can also temporarily stop transactions by using the ‘Pause Card Transactions’ option
You have the option to block the card from the app and permanently delete the card.
Asides from dollar payments, you can
- Receive and Send money
- TopUp Airtime
- Pay for Internet
- Pay for Electricity and related Utility expenses
You also get a report in-app on how often you make some payments, how much you’ve spent on the family as opposed to self-care or card purchases.
You also get to see if the people you send money also sends you money back.
To access this feature, click on Reports and Tap on a category to see how much you’ve spent and received.
This option is a bit pricey because they have a higher exchange rate. However, the upside is that there are no monthly limits.
You also get to customize cards for various sites you’ll be making payments on.
The onboarding process is also straightforward
- You’ll be asked to input your email address and phone number
- An OTP will be sent to you for confirmation
- On signing in, you’ll be required to input your password
- Verify your account by inputting your BVN and Date of birth
You can then go ahead to fund your wallet and create your virtual card.
There’s a $2 charge for card creation.
Also, asides from making dollar payments, there’s a whole lot that can be done with GetBarter
Search for Barter by Flutterwave on AppStore or Play Store. Download and try out the other amazing features.
Lastly, there’s this other option that a few people have hacked, It saves you money, stress, etc
You can help your friends and family abroad fulfill their naira payment needs; they need to send money to someone here or pay for something in naira.
And when you need to make payment in dollars, they help you with it.
Are there any other options you’ve tried and we didn’t mention?
Please let us know in the comment section.
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