Airwallex Review: The Best Corporate Card For SMEs

With integrated expense management capabilities, zero foreign transaction fees, market-leading forex rates, and unlimited cards, could Airwallex be the best corporate card for SMEs? 

One of the main challenges in running a business is how to streamline expense management. While banks have provided corporate credit cards to help business owners keep track of expenses and manage short-term cash flow, the best corporate card for SMEs, startups and entrepreneurs would be one that combines the speed and security of digital payments with low fees and business-friendly innovations. 

One such card is the Airwallex Borderless Visa Card - physical and virtual corporate cards designed with powerful features such as multi-currency capabilities and seamless integration for expense reporting and accounting reconciliation. 

In this review, we’ll take a deeper look at Airwallex and why it might be the ideal payment and card solution for SMEs looking to keep pace with an increasingly volatile business environment.

Table of Contents

• Why owning a corporate card is beneficial for businesses
• What can Airwallex do for you? 
• Airwallex corporate card vs bank corporate cards
• 5 reasons to choose Airwallex
• Who is Airwallex best for?
• How to apply?
• Empower your global ambitions with Airwallex

Why owning the best corporate card is beneficial for businesses

First off, let’s discuss the importance of having the best corporate card you can find for businesses. 

Just like how your personal credit card can help you smoothen your cash flow and make payments easier to manage, so too can corporate cards can do the same for your business. 

With a corporate card, your organisation can easily track business expenses and make approved payments and purchases. There’s just one bill at the end of the month to settle instead of several invoices with different due dates. 

Employees can also use a corporate card to make authorised transactions on the company’s behalf instead of paying from their own pockets first and putting in a request for reimbursement later. 

This reduces the time spent processing staff reimbursements and frees employees from the inconvenience of having to use their own funds for business-related spending. 

If you are in the habit of using your personal credit card for business expenses, you will know how tedious and complicated that can be in your month-end accounting. Having a corporate card eliminates this issue completely by separating your personal spending from business expenses. 

Reducing admin time and making expense management easier isn’t the only way a corporate card benefits your business. Another significant advantage is the potential for business savings by way of lower foreign transaction fees.

Everyday operating efficiencies aren’t the only benefits an organisation can enjoy. A corporate card can support scalability as the business expands overseas and starts transacting across borders. 

And in this, some corporate cards perform better than others. 

What can Airwallex do for you? 

Visa-powered payment

Powered by the Visa payment network, Airwallex enables fast, convenient and secure payments for your business. Whether paying suppliers and vendors or making other business-related purchases, you and your employees enjoy a reliable payment solution in all scenarios. 

Real-time expense management 

Airwallex goes one step further to enable truly streamlined management of company expenses. It incorporates a built-in expense management platform, allowing employees to submit photos of receipts and log the corresponding expenses in the app. 

This allows your finance team to monitor, review and approve spending in real time. Custom approval workflows and the option to restrict payments to approved categories further safeguards against card misuse.

Another handy feature is the ability to set individual transaction limits. Separate daily and monthly limits may be set for each card, facilitating fine supervision over business expenses. Different employee expenses can be tracked across cards, supporting expense management and reducing the need for manual reconciliation. 

Cross-border transactions

With the borderless nature of modern business, synergies and advantages can often be found in overseas partnerships. Airwallex offers cost-effective cross border transactions to  your business with zero foreign merchant fees; along with a multi-currency wallet to avoid currency conversion fees. Additionally, when conversion is required, we offer market-leading forex fees to help you save further.  

Accounting integrations 

Airwallex integrates smoothly with popular accounting solutions so your Finance department can spend less time on manual, administrative work and more time on tasks that matter. 

With direct expense data integration for leading accounting platforms such as Xero, your Finance team can import charts of accounts, tracking categories, and tax rates to code expenses directly in Airwallex, achieving smoother, more accurate expense management like never before. 

Other powerful accounting features include direct embedding of payment links in invoices for speedier payments, and automatic reconciliations with auto-sync transactions using custom bank feeds.

Other popular accounting suites such as Quickbooks and Netsuite are also supported, giving you greater choice.

Choose from physical and virtual cards 

The Airwallex corporate card is available in physical and virtual formats to better fit your business transactions. You can generate virtual cards for in-office teams to make online payments and provide physical cards that sales staff can bring with them as they conduct business on the road.

Back to top

Airwallex corporate card vs bank corporate cards

Back to top

5 reasons to choose the Airwallex Borderless Visa card

No foreign currency transaction fees and 1% unlimited cashback

As shown in the table above, Airwallex allows SMEs to enjoy savings when carrying out overseas transactions. This is because Airwallex incorporates a multi-currency account that holds balances in more than 20 foreign currencies, including USD, JPY, HKD, AUD and CNY. As your business spends, expenses are deducted directly from held balances, bypassing the need for currency conversions and costly forex fees.  

On top of that, Airwallex does not charge admin fees for foreign currency transactions if sufficient balance is held in the relevant currency. Otherwise, Airwallex automatically converts available funds at market-leading forex rates, allowing businesses to realise significant savings on cross-border payments.

Furthermore, with 1% unlimited cashback on eligible business expenses, corporations can further reduce costs with the Airwallex Borderless Visa card.

Save time and money on expense management

Airwallex’s nifty features make expense tracking and approval more efficient for your employees. This translates to a reduction in business costs and time spent on unproductive tasks. 

Unlimited corporate cards at zero cost

Another advantage is the ability to create as many corporate cards as your business requires without having to pay any additional fees or costs. 

As mentioned earlier, businesses can generate any number of virtual or physical cards as needed. To enhance safety against card misuse, businesses can set transaction limits for each card and utilise real-time monitoring to track and approve transactions. 

Meanwhile, bank corporate cards come with hefty annual fees as well as additional fees for each extra card requested.

Fuss-free application 

When compared to bank corporate cards, Airwallex is much more accessible. It has a no-fuss online application process that can be completed in as little as two minutes. 

Importantly, it also does away with tedious eligibility requirements, such as audited financial statements or net worth and/or annual income requirements. 

Who is Airwallex best for?

Airwallex is designed to cater to the needs of SMEs, addressing common pain points such as complicated business expense tracking and costly foreign currency transactions. With Airwallex, businesses can streamline payments and reduce business overheads that impact the bottom line. 

The Airwallex platform is also made to be highly flexible, convenient and secure with Visa and offers robust customer support, including dispute resolution and other safety features. 

As such, Airwallex is well worth a look for SMEs, startups and entrepreneurs who are seeking a flexible and powerful payment solution with low fees and competitive forex rates for cross-border deals. 

Back to top

How to apply?

Applying for an Airwallex business account is simple and straightforward. To begin the process, you only need your personal details and a business email. 

Step 1: Go to https://www.airwallex.com/sg/signup

Step 2: Fill in the required information and click “Get Started”

Step 3: Follow the on-screen prompts to complete your application

Empower your global ambitions with Airwallex

Sign up for an Airwallex account now to enjoy business savings on overseas currency transactions and streamlined expense management and tracking. With Airwallex, home-grown enterprises like yours can do business around the globe as easily – and at a lower cost – than anyone else.