Singapore’s YouTrip wants to eliminate pesky foreign transaction fees for Southeast Asian travellers
- Caecilia Chu decided to launch YouTrip after realising that she frequently had to fork out foreign transaction fees on her credit card when travelling
- Her start-up offers users a multicurrency mobile wallet using mid-market exchange rates, with no foreign transaction fees
As an ex-McKinsey consultant and a frequent business traveller, Hongkonger Caecilia Chu was all too familiar with having to fork out foreign transaction fees on her credit card. Calculated over time, the amount could range from hundreds to even thousands of dollars.
Eager to find a solution that would eliminate such fees, Chu decided to launch her own fintech start-up, YouTrip, with co-founder Arthur Mak. Specifically targeted at countries in Southeast Asia, YouTrip offers users a multicurrency mobile wallet with better foreign exchange rates than traditional credit cards, and no foreign transaction fees.
Although companies in Europe – such as UK firms Transferwise and Revolut – have already pioneered such models, Chu wanted to offer a similar model in Southeast Asia, where the digital financial services and mobile payments markets are still fragmented and there is no dominant player.
“In this region, mobile payments and digital financial services are not yet as developed as [somewhere like] China,” said the CEO. “In Southeast Asia, it is just starting.”
With YouTrip, users are issued a Mastercard prepaid card which can be topped up via an app from either their bank accounts or credit cards. The money in the YouTrip account can be converted to more than 150 currencies at mid-market exchange rates – the midpoint between demand and supply for a currency that is widely considered the fairest exchange rate – instead of the poorer rates typically offered by banks.
