All about Cash App in New Zealand

Cash App by Square Inc. is a quick, easy way to send and receive money, with just a few taps on your smartphone. You can use it to pay friends your share of pizza night, send a cash gift for your sister’s birthday or whatever else you like. Payments happen instantly, making Cash App a much better option than painfully slow bank transfers.

But Cash App isn’t available everywhere, nor is it the only service of its kind out there. Here, we’ll take a look at whether Cash App works in New Zealand along with alternatives you can choose from.

For example, you can get a Wise Multi-currency account and you’ll get the same benefits as Cash App – fast transfers, the mid-market exchange rate and a handy app to use – in almost all countries.

Learn more about Wise

What is Cash App?

Cash App is a straightforward money transfer app for smartphones and tablets by mobile payment company Square. It was launched in the US before starting to take off among users in the UK.

It’s really simple to make or receive a payment. To send money, all you need is a debit card (linked to a working bank account) and the recipient’s mobile number. Type in the amount you’d like to send, confirm the transaction and the recipient will get a notification that they’ve received some cash. If someone owes you money and you’d like to send them a gentle nudge, you can also use the ‘request money’ feature on the app.

As well as being so user-friendly, Cash App is popular because it offers the mid-market rate (with no mark-up) and zero fees on most payments.¹

The only exceptions are when you use a credit card, or when you make an instant (rather than standard speed) transfer to a bank account. In these instances, fees will be charged.

The peer-to-peer app also offers an optional Visa debit card, which you can request with your account. This gives you the option of spending the money in your Cash App account on your shopping, or withdrawing it from an ATM. Alternatively, you can cash out your balance to your bank account, a process that takes a couple of days.

Is Cash App available in New Zealand?

One of the only drawbacks with using Cash App – and unfortunately, it’s a biggie – is that it’s currently only available in two countries – The US and the UK.²

Fortunately for residents of those countries, Cash App now allows them to send money from the US in USD to a UK recipient and vice versa, by converting their payment using the mid market rate. Hopefully, the service expands to other regions in the near future.

Though, at the moment, Cash App isn’t available in New Zealand. Time will tell whether Square decides to roll the app out to other countries worldwide.

What are some alternatives to Cash App in New Zealand?

You can’t currently sign up to use Cash App in NZ, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make local and international transfers. There are a few alternatives to try, including TorFX, OFX, PayPal and of course, Wise. All of these money transfer apps do work in New Zealand, so they’re perfect if you live, work, study or travel in NZ.

Let’s take a closer look at each:

TorFX

With this popular Android and iPhone app, you can send money in 60+ currencies and track your transfer in real-time. Exchange rates are competitive and there are no added fees, but there is a minimum transfer amount of 100GBP if you use their online platform.³

OFX

The OFX app for Android and iPhone offers transfers to a huge 170 countries worldwide. It’s not great for paying back friends or sending small amounts, as they do have a minimum transfer threshold amount, and you need to fund your payment from a bank account. But OFX does offer better exchange rates than banks, plus a range of handy features such as rate alerts and tracking.⁴

PayPal

The well-known payment app offers a simple, straightforward and reliable alternative to Cash App in NZ. However, it isn’t the cheapest way to send money internationally, as it doesn’t use the real, mid-market exchange rate.⁵ This added cost, along with PayPal’s usual fees and charges, can make it a little more costly than you’d like to wizz cash over to your friend in the US.

Wise

Wise always guarantees you the real, mid-market exchange rate on every transaction. This means no expensive mark-up on the rate, which even though there are small transfer fees to pay – the overall cost is often cheaper than other providers. Fees are transparent, so you’ll always know what you’ll be paying before hitting ‘send’.

Get a Wise Multi-currency account and you can easily manage transfers on the free Wise app, send money to multiple countries and hold over 40 currencies in your account.

And like with Cash App, there’s a free debit card attached. With your Platinum debit MasterCard, you can spend money and withdraw at the mid-market rate – a handy, money-saving feature for both NZ locals and travellers visiting other countries.

Wrapping up

In theory, Cash App would be a wonderfully convenient and quick to send money to friends and family in New Zealand and beyond. But unfortunately, it isn’t available in NZ just yet.

Luckily, there are alternatives to Cash App, like Wise which are already available in NZ. So you don’t have to put up with abysmal exchange rates and slow transfers from your bank. Just make sure you do your research and check out the full cost of the transfer before tapping ‘send’.

Register your Wise account in minutes 🚀

Sources used:

Sources checked on 21-July 2022.