Guide
Using Revolut or Wise abroad? How to see what each country really costs
Multi-currency cards show what went through the card. What they can’t show — cash, other cards, one currency across several countries — and a simple routine for the whole picture.
Revolut and Wise are favourites of people who live abroad: accounts in many currencies, a card that pays in the local one, and a notification for every payment. It is tempting to treat the card’s app as your budget.
It is a good start. But a card only knows about the card. Here is what it shows, what it misses, and a routine that fills the gaps in a few minutes a week.
What the card apps already do well
- A notification for every payment, so nothing goes through unseen.
- Balances in many currencies, converted when you pay.
- Revolut adds budgeting and analytics tools to its app.
- Both let you download your statements as files.
What they can’t see
- Cash. Once you withdraw it, the card app sees one withdrawal, not the twenty meals it paid for.
- Other cards and accounts. The home bank card you used for rent, the credit card for the flight.
- Countries. A euro account doesn’t tell France from Spain, and a payment from your home-currency balance in Thailand is filed under that home currency.
- Money that isn’t yours. The dinner your friend paid back, the deposit you will get back next month.
A routine that fills the gaps
- Keep paying with the card — it is still one of the cheapest ways to pay abroad. (Why the rate and fees matter: where your money goes when you pay abroad.)
- Log cash on the spot in a travel budget app: amount and category, in the currency you paid in.
- Once a month, download your Revolut or Wise statement and import it into Nomad Budget. It knows both statement layouts, asks which wallet each account’s entries belong to, keeps the rate of each entry’s day, and shows you a summary before anything is saved.
- Look at the whole: one total in your main currency, and on the globe, what each country cost.
Why the numbers may differ slightly
Your statement shows what left your account, after the card’s rate and any fee. Nomad Budget records what you paid in the local currency and converts it at a reference rate for that day. The small gap between the two is roughly the price of the conversion, and worth knowing about.
Sources
Checked on 4 October 2026. Other apps and services are named here only to describe and compare them.