What is currency alignment?

What is currency alignment?
It's where we convert some money to the currency you're paying in to help cover the total payment amount. This happens when there isn't enough money in the payment currency, and you have enough money to pay the rest using other currencies. We could use many currencies to cover the payment.

Example:

1. You have 100 GBP in your GBP account. If you buy something for 50 GBP, no currency alignment happens.
2. If you try to buy something for 150 GBP, and also have money in EUR account, we'll take the missing money from your EUR account. This will use the 100 GBP and convert EUR into 50 GBP. We could use many currencies to cover the 50 GBP.

‍

Which currencies can do a currency alignment?
Currency alignment is active for 15 out of the 20 card currencies. The supported currencies are: GBP, EUR, USD, AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK, HKD, HUF, JPY, NOK, NZD, PLN, SEK, ZAR. If you pay in one of the other five currencies on your card (CZK, ILS, RON, SGD or TR), you must have money in that currency on your card. You can do this by sending funds in that currency or exchanging money in the Equals Money platform.

‍

What happens with payments made in non-card currencies?

If you use your card to buy something in a non-card currency, there will be an exchange from the base currency on your account. If there isn’t enough money in the base currency to pay for the transaction, then there can be a currency alignment from one or more supported currencies into the base currency.

‍

‍Turning on currency alignment

1. Go to the Balances page of your account.
2. Click "View" on the relevant balance tile and select the "Manage" tab.
3. Toggle the switch in the "Currency alignment" section.

Cash withdrawals
Currency alignment must be on if you need to withdraw cash overseas as we charge the fee in base currency (GBP for UK, EUR for EU or USD for US).

‍

Statements
Currency alignment transactions may show on your statement before the transactions themselves have been completed (as the currency alignment itself has been completed). Please view the transaction activity report to see all transactions including the pending ones.