Steward Bank Launches Globetrotter, A Visa Card Debit Card

Oh yes, guess what? There is now a new kid in the block, who goes by the name of Globetroller, shortcut Globe. Well, I know Globetroller suits perfectly fine for a newly baby’s name. On a different note, this may not actually come in the form of a human being, instead, Steward Bank recently had a presentation where it launched its newest product (baby) – the Globetrotter card.

The Globetrotter card is a Visa card by Steward Bank. The card can be obtained by both Steward bank account holders and non account holders.

As expected, the card requires prefunding with USD before use. Can we blame them? Certainly not, just like other banks that have too adopted the prefunding option for international payments due foreign currency scarcity. Therefore, despite what the RBZ Governor, Mangudya says, this surely testifies the fact that the money in our bank accounts are not in United States Dollars, we got bond notes.

The prefunding of the card is not limited to one bringing cash to a Steward Bank branch, but one can also use the money they receive from the diaspora through Money Gram, World Remit as well as from other various remittance platforms.

The card is non personalised, just like their iSave account debit cards. This may not be an issue locally, but not so much internationally. For example, some South African restaurants are not too keen on accepting payments from a card which cannot be easily tied to a specific individual.

Apart from that, the concept of a debit card that doesn’t require you to be an account holder is quite convenient though of course it’s not unique to Steward Bank since FBC Bank and BancABC have the same provision.

Added to that, the Globetrotter Visa card is valid for 24 months after activation and can be used for making online payments, Point Of Sale (POS) transactions and for ATM withdrawals. The maximum transaction amount you can make using this card is US$10 000 per month.

I guess you may also want to know what the transaction fees are before actually using it, right? That’s sounds logical. Well, for a transaction between $1 to $100, you get charged 1.5% of the amount. For example if you want to buy goods for $10 then you get charged $0.15 and these rates apply both locally and internationally.

Hence it would be more ideal to even use it locally, since ZimSwitch enabled cards will charge you $0.40 for any transaction worth more than $10. But then again, that will depend on how much you’re transacting since the fees go higher with the Globetrotter Visa card as you purchase goods worth more e.g goods worth $100 will now attract a transaction fee of $1.50 on the visa card while with a ZimSwitch card, it remains at $0.40.

Also to note are the ATM charges for the Globetrotter debit card. Each transaction over $3.50 (minimum) attracts 3% transaction fees of whatever amount you’re withdrawing. So for example, if you want to withdraw $30, you get charged $0.90.

If you’re interested in getting the Steward Bank Visa card also known as Globetrotter, visit a Steward Bank branch with your ID card (or whatever else document you use for identification), proof of residence and $10. The promise is that you will not have to wait for more than 30 minutes to receive your card after you have completed the application process that is.

In a nutshell, this by no means cancels the MasterCard service that Steward Bank has. They will both work internationally if prefunded with USD. The only difference in terms of acquisition is that the MasterCard can only be issued out to Steward Bank account holders.