London, 25th April: SWAPX, in collaboration with leading payment issuer processor Global Processing Services (GPS), today launches their consumer travel card that allows customers to ‘swap’ and ‘spend’ in local currencies when making foreign payments.
SWAPX has the aim of making travel money free by creating their own exchange – fuelled with currency which is swapped online and on mobile, peer-to-peer, from one traveller to another.
The travel card allows customers to send money to other SWAPX cardholders through one app, making the funds available instantly while benefiting from access to the best exchange rate possible, beating those of the High Street by approximately 4% and airport kiosks by up to 8%.
The SWAPX travel card can be used anywhere where Mastercard debit cards are accepted, and the features of its mobile app allows the cardholders to track their spending in real-time, set individual balance alerts and use the SWAPNOW function in the Global SWAPX Exchange, to automatically swap funds into the currency they require at the fraction of the cost normally provided by banks. Both the app and web portal provide cardholders with the same high level of high security as with managing bank accounts online. Cardholders can access different features such as controlling their card directly through the SWAPX app and instantly block the card if lost or stolen.
With the increase of cross-border travel becoming accessible to all, and in the UK alone, travel and tourism directly contributed to GBP 69.4bn to the national economy in 2017, showing a 2.9% growth from the previous year according to Travel and Tourism Economic Impact 2017 report by World Travel & Tourism Council. Travel and tourism is set to significantly grow and the SWAPX travel card offers consumers the possibility to save on FX fees while travelling and spending money overseas.
To further support their expansion plans, SWAPX will be looking into external private equity funding, and other partnerships, in the coming months.
Suresh Vaghjiani, Managing Director at Global Processing Services, comments: “SWAPX are demonstrating how consumers today can be provided with real money-saving, convenient payment alternatives on a global scale. Our GPS Apex platform and its Multi FX-functionality enables organisations like SWAPX to launch new products to the market with consumer-centric solutions.”
Simon Miles, CEO at SwapX, comments: “Having worked in the commercial foreign exchange sector for many years, it was clear that the travel market still had gaps to fill. We felt that if you could facilitate putting in contact someone who had the currency you needed, then the ability to swap it at the true rate of exchange would be very appealing for consumers.”
