Financial firms that launch innovative digital banking services may sometimes turn to Wallester for the digital infrastructure and physical debit and prepaid cards, featuring their company logo, to allow their clients to access their banking or prepaid card offerings.
Wallester, in this context, is known as a 'white label' provider of technology services and Visa cards to be utilized by various financial service providers. In essence, this means they supply the necessary components for online financial services companies or digital marketplaces to function smoothly. These organizations can then add their own brand to these services and applications.
Business
Established in 2018, Wallester Business is a financial technology platform designed for both new startups and well-established companies. It is a recognized partner of VISA, concentrating on providing a range of VISA services such as debit cards, credit cards, prepaid cards, and additional services for business use.
Wallester serves as a kind of safety net for your business, enabling you to manage your employees' spending and expenses in one place. Following Wallester's swift and complimentary setup process, you need to fund your account through a bank transfer to ensure it can cover all anticipated business costs.
Once funds are available in the account, you're able to provide both digital and tangible Visa cards to your staff, allowing them to use the expense account for their purchases, within set spending boundaries. (For those unfamiliar, a digital card is a digital card number that functions similarly to a physical card for making payments to suppliers).
This functionality is accessible through Wallester's mobile app for iOS and Android.
The best part is, Wallester supports full customization of the platform. This means not only can you customize the appearance of your cards, but you can also customize the mobile app, ensuring your employees remain connected with your brand at all times.
The application offers the necessary tools to handle your money matters, including automatic sorting of expenses, issuing and locking credit cards, reminders for PINs, changes to PINs, automatic expense reports, intelligent attachments to receipts, storage for invoices, and additional features.
Additional Services Offered by Wallester:
Business Credit Cards
Wallester provides business credit cards that are fully customizable. You have the option to request a large number of physical cards or create digital cards instantly, depending on the restrictions set by your chosen plan, whether it's free or paid. These cards are then available for your staff to make business transactions and cover costs such as travel, corporate events, software fees, and more.
After the card is utilized, both the cardholder (employee) and the account owner (employer) receive an instant notification about the payment, and the transaction is monitored. They have the option to capture images of receipts or invoices through Wallester’s application to include in their documentation.
Wallester Business’s cards are compatible with VISA, ensuring they are accepted globally in areas where the VISA payment system is operational. Furthermore, these virtual cards are integrated with digital payment platforms such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, while the physical cards support contactless transactions.
Cost Control
You have the ability to easily modify the settings on each card to control your spending and manage your costs. You can access the funds on your card through a centralized system and adjust your business budget at any time. Additionally, you can assign permissions to a digital card to individuals or entire groups. For instance, you might authorize a whole team to use a digital spending card for their expenses.
You have the option to set spending limits for daily or monthly use. For instance, you might decide on a limit for each single transaction or restrict spending to certain categories, such as dining out. You can also decide if a card holder is permitted to withdraw cash. Furthermore, you can mandate that all payment requests be approved before they are processed.
Financial Insights
The Wallester Business app offers detailed analysis into your company's financial activities. It enables you to view expense reports based on various criteria, such as overall budget figures or information specific to certain cards. Additionally, you have the option to sort through business expenditures by type and whether they have been paid.
You have the capability to generate financial statements for chosen periods and to convert this information into Excel, PDF, or CSV formats.
The Wallester Business API facilitates the seamless integration of the platform with external financial accounting systems. This integration simplifies the process of combining tracked expenses, other liabilities, revenues, and budgeting. However, this process necessitates a member of your team to develop custom integrations through the API, as there are no built-in integrations with external accounting software.
Exchange Rates
At present, the funds in a Wallester Business account are exclusively in Euros, yet you have the freedom to buy goods in any desired currency. Additionally, as per the Wallester website, the exchange rate is frequently 4 times more favorable than what is typically found with conventional banks.
Regrettably, as we've already pointed out, it's not possible to manage various currencies within your account. This renders Wallester Business somewhat less user-friendly for companies operating across borders.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Wallester Business Advantages:
- Benefit from exchange rates up to four times higher with Wallester cards.
- Wallester's business cards are recognized globally (as long as the issuing country's Visa system supports international payments).
- It's more cost-effective to issue cards to your staff via Wallester Business compared to traditional banks (The typical credit card may incur annual fees of $30 or more. Wallester does not impose additional fees for each card issued, as long as the total number of cards does not exceed the limit of your chosen plan).
- You have the option to request an unlimited quantity of physical cards at no additional cost per card.
- Wallester Business's white-labeling feature enables your business to tailor the cards to better suit your brand.
- Quick and free setup is available, with a basic plan starting at $0 that grants access to 300 virtual cards.
Drawbacks of Wallester Business
Wallester Business is exclusive to businesses located within the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom.
The account is only accepted in Euros.
It's feasible to connect with accounting software through an API, although there aren't any straightforward one-click integrations available.
Now that we've established the foundation for Wallester's pricing structure, we're ready to delve into each option:
The Basic Plan
The basic plan is complimentary, offering up to 300 digital cards. Yet, you have the option to buy extra cards at a cost of EUR 0.35 each per month. Additionally, you gain access to the cash management application and have the flexibility to set up as many sub-accounts as necessary. These sub-accounts serve various purposes, including team accounts, individual employee accounts, and accounts for freelancers, among others. However, it's important to note that transactions between these sub-accounts are not allowed.
The increase in cost from the free version to the initial paid version is quite significant.
The website lacks a specific community-led support center that thoroughly examines its functionalities.
Cost Structure
Wallester provides four different pricing options, ranging from a basic program to a comprehensive Enterprise suite. It's important to mention that sending physical cards costs 5 EUR per card throughout Europe for each package, with no limit on the number of cards you can order. After receiving your card, there are no additional yearly charges!Additionally, the basic plan includes all the essential financial management tools that other programs offer, like the capability to set personal spending limits, export transactions in PDF or spreadsheet formats, generate automated expense reports, integrate accounting systems through APIs, automatically sort expenses into clear categories such as dining out, entertainment, utilities, etc., and much more.
Every plan (be it the free plan) also provides access to instant live chat and emails Premium Plan:
- Monthly fee: EUR 199
- Free features: Basic account management
- Advanced features: Free account to account payments, email reminders for document submissions (like receipts and invoices)
- Additional: Unlimited virtual cards for free, extra cards at EUR 0.20 each
Platinum Plan:
- Unlimited virtual cards: Up to 15,000
- Extra cards: EUR 0.10 each
- Future: Eco-friendly, premium physical cards with VISA benefitsupport.In terms of functionalities, in addition to the previously mentioned, the Platinum plan provides comprehensive analytics and a specialized support representative.
The Enterprise Plan
Opting for the Enterprise Plan allows for a personalized strategy in developing your plan. It includes a customer success manager who will talk about your business requirements and expansion from the start, support during the onboarding process, tailored agreements, and improved pricing. Moreover, you'll receive round-the-clock priority support and direct access to the developer APIs.
Guide to Launching a Wallester Business Account
The process of creating a Wallester Business account is efficient and accessible without any upfront costs. Nonetheless, there are a few essential documents required to initiate the issuance of your initial cards. These include a certificate detailing the board members' information and another stating the details of the business's proprietor.
Additionally, you're required to supply fundamental details about your organization, such as its company registration number, VAT number, and information regarding any shareholders owning more than 25% of the company's shares.
Registering your account typically takes only a few moments and involves a four-step application form. The process also includes agreeing to a program participation agreement.