SpareBank 1 alliance review

It is a standard debit card (debit) with free ATM withdrawals at NOK 0. The cost to watch is currency conversion at 2% on foreign purchases, which is above 0.1% at Wise, so spending at home is cheap and trips abroad are not.

Foreign purchases cost 2% in conversion. That is well clear of 0.1% at Wise and 0% at Bitpanda, and the card ranks 160 of 259 on this measure, so spending abroad adds up fast.

Free ATM withdrawals come to NOK 0, and the card runs on the visa network, so it works in the ATMs that accept it. That allowance places it 41 of 115 on free withdrawals, ahead of most cards in the comparison.

It is a debit card (debit) rather than a prepaid or credit product, running on visa. Spending draws on a bank balance as you go, and the intended customers listed for it are kids and student.

The stated audience is kids and student accounts (kids and student). Parents opening a first card for a child, and students setting up everyday banking, sit closest to that brief, while general adult current accounts sit outside it.

The alliance is Norwegian, with no as the home country and SpareBank 1 Gruppen AS as the legal entity. It has been in place since 1996, so the card sits inside a long established banking group rather than a new entrant.

Wise converts at 0.1% against 2% for the SpareBank 1 alliance card, and Bitpanda and Starling Personal Account Debit Card both sit at 0%. For a trip with heavy foreign spending, those options cost less at the point of conversion.