Keep your home bank, add one multi-currency account for daily spending, and carry a second card from a different institution. The reason is in the terms: Wise’s own customer agreement lets it suspend or close an account, and says balances are not automatically covered by deposit insurance such as the FDIC. The rest of this page gives the fees we could read, dated, and the arithmetic on cash withdrawals.
- The core stack
- Home bank + multi-currency account + backup card from another institution
- Wise card and ATM (US page, 29 Sept 2026)
- Card USD 9; ATM free up to USD 250 a month, then USD 1.95 + 1.95%
- Local account details
- 9 currencies on the US page: AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HUF, NZD, PHP, SGD, USD
- Biggest avoidable cost
- A flat ATM fee on small withdrawals; accepting conversion at the machine
- Biggest real risk
- A restriction or closure with no branch to visit
What Wise charges, from its own pages
| Item | Figure | Source (US region pages, read 29 Sept 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Registering and holding money | Free | Wise pricing |
| Multi-currency card | USD 9 | Wise pricing |
| ATM withdrawals | No Wise fee up to USD 250 a month; then USD 1.95 + 1.95% per withdrawal | Wise pricing |
| Converting or sending | From 0.23%, by currency pair; mid-market rate | Wise pricing |
| Receiving a USD wire (Swift) | USD 6.11 per payment | Wise receiving fees |
| Receiving a EUR or GBP Swift payment | EUR 2.39 or GBP 2.16 | Wise receiving fees |
| Receiving domestic (non-Swift) payments in the listed currencies | Free | Wise receiving fees |
| Local account details | AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HUF, NZD, PHP, SGD, USD | Wise receiving fees |
Fees differ by region; a Wise page for your country of residence may show other numbers. Revolut’s fee pages refused automated reading (HTTP 403) on 29 Sept 2026, so this page states no Revolut fee: read your country’s plan and its ATM allowance on Revolut’s own site before relying on it.
The three-account stack
1. Keep your home-country bank alive
Keep it for tax payments and refunds, subscriptions that reject foreign cards, money from home-country clients, and as the fallback when another account is restricted. Log in now and then so it is not marked dormant. Some visas need proof of funds in a bank account: see the Thailand DTV guide for what embassies ask.
2. A multi-currency account as the daily driver
A provider such as Wise gives you local account details in several currencies so clients can pay you as a domestic payer, plus a card. Holding money is free on the page above; the costs sit in ATM use, Swift receipts and conversion.
3. A backup card, kept apart
A second card from a different institution, stored separately from the first. If the daily-driver account is restricted, a second card from the same provider is no backup.
Freeze risk, from the terms
Wise’s US Customer Agreement (last updated 25 Sept 2026) says Wise may suspend an account on security concerns, suspected fraud or suspected breaches of the agreement, may close it on notice, and may put a hold or limit on it when a court order requires. It also says the account is not automatically protected by deposit insurance: only customers who opt into Wise’s interest feature have their USD swept into FDIC-insured accounts at partner banks (up to USD 250,000), and everyone else relies on safeguarding, meaning customer funds held in segregated accounts at safeguarding institutions that Wise may change. Those are legal terms, not statistics: we found no published freeze rate, so this page does not claim one. What follows for a nomad is practical: have a second institution, and know what identity and income documents you can produce quickly.
The 220-baht arithmetic
Wise’s Thailand ATM page (published 9 July 2024; Wise’s page notes it was updated more than a year ago) says Thai ATMs tend to charge about THB 220 per transaction, and other sources report different figures by bank and card type in 2026, so read the amount on the ATM screen before you confirm. Using THB 220 as a working figure, the fee share falls with the size of the withdrawal:
| Withdrawal | Fee share (220 / amount) |
|---|---|
| THB 2,000 | 11.0% |
| THB 5,000 | 4.4% |
| THB 10,000 | 2.2% |
| THB 20,000 | 1.1% |
Ten withdrawals of THB 2,000 cost THB 2,200 in ATM fees; one of THB 20,000 costs THB 220. This is our arithmetic on the stated fee; it ignores your own bank’s charges. Check the per-transaction limit at the machine before planning big pulls.
Decline the conversion offer
When an ATM or terminal offers to bill you in your home currency, that is dynamic currency conversion. Wise’s Thailand page says such rates are nearly always poor and to choose local currency. In the EU, Regulation 2019/518 requires the conversion charge to be shown as a percentage markup over the latest ECB reference rate before you accept, so you can compare it. We do not quote a typical markup: none of the sources we read gave a measured one.
Can I use one fintech account as my only bank?
The terms above are the reason not to: an account can be restricted or closed, and money held there is not automatically covered by deposit insurance (only Wise’s opt-in interest feature sweeps USD into FDIC-insured accounts). Keep a home bank and a second-institution card.
Do I need a local bank account in each country?
Only when something forces it. Some visas and landlords ask for a local account or proof of funds in one; check the specific visa in the tracker. Otherwise a multi-currency account and a backup card usually cover it.
Related
For how banking connects to tax, see US taxes for American nomads and the tax residency basics. Insurance is in the insurance matrix. City pages: Lisbon, Chiang Mai and the Chiang Mai cost of living sums.
Method
Researched from Wise’s US pages and customer agreement, Wise’s Thailand ATM page, and the text of Regulation (EU) 2019/518, checked 29 Sept 2026. Pages were read through an automated summariser; re-read the linked pages before you decide. Revolut and other providers are not priced here for the reason given above. Re-checked every 30 days.