Know which kind of card you are comparing
Start by working out what the card actually is. A debit card spends money sitting in an account you hold. A credit card lets you borrow first and repay later, and a secured card is a credit card that only works up to a deposit you put down. Brands mix these labels, so the wording on the advert is rarely enough on its own.
In our listings, the Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card) is recorded as a debit card debit and a credit card credit. The Varo Believe Secured Credit Card is recorded the same way, as a debit card debit and a credit card credit. Wise is recorded as a debit card debit. Where a card shows up on both lines, treat it as its own category instead of forcing it into a ranking against a plain debit card.
If you would rather see the options lined up before reading any of this, the Debit cards ranking does that job. The detail behind the three above sits in the Varo Believe Secured Credit Card, Wise and Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card) reviews.
Work out what the account costs to hold
Holding costs come first, because they are the ones you cannot avoid. Varo runs a no-annual-fee model no annual fee, with an annual fee of $0 and a monthly fee of $0. Wise is a no-annual-fee account as well no annual fee, with an annual fee of £0 and a monthly fee of £0. The Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card) charges an annual fee of $0.
Paying nothing is a good start rather than a rare find, since monthly account fees across our comparison run €0 to €83.23. So when two cards both show no annual fee, move on to the smaller lines instead: what you pay to borrow, what you pay to convert currency, and what a declined payment or a late return costs.
Mind the currency before you compare two fees that look identical. Varo's are set in US dollars and Wise's in pounds, so the figures look the same and mean different amounts. Read every price with its currency attached rather than lined up in a column without it.
Price what it costs to spend money away from home
Two lines decide the cost of spending away from home: the foreign exchange fee and the ATM allowance. Wise charges a foreign exchange fee of 0.1% and holds 40 currencies on the account. Varo charges a foreign exchange fee of 0%, and the card runs on Visa visa, the network you would use abroad.
The ATM side works the same way. Wise includes an allowance of £250, and Varo lists Allpoint ATM access at no cost inside the network among its perks Reports to all three credit bureaus, Free credit score tracking in the Varo app and No credit check to apply. Across our comparison the included free ATM allowance runs €0 to €2,000.
Put those two numbers next to each other for scale. Foreign exchange fees in our comparison run 0% to 10.5%, which is the whole distance between a card that charges you nothing extra on a purchase abroad and one that does. For anyone who travels, buys in another currency or sends money home, that distance is usually larger than the annual fee the choice was made on.
Wise is aimed at business users and parents with children business and kids, and its features are built around multi-currency and travel multi currency and travel. That is a quick signal of who the card was designed for, and it often settles the fit question before the fees do.
Check who holds the money and which regulator watches
The brand on the advert is not always the company holding your balance, and this is the part most readers skip. Varo's legal entity is Varo Bank, National Association Varo Bank, National Association, based in the US US and founded in 2015. Its registration with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reads 59190.
Wise operates through Wise Europe SA Wise Europe SA, based in Belgium BE, founded in 2011. Its registers include the National Bank of Belgium 0713629988, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission MiCA CASP 549300ET4IUR6RCZOL84, the Bank of Lithuania PSD_EMI LT_LT_BL_304940980 and the Belgian payment institution register PSD_PI BE_NBB!0713629988.
These entries are identifiers rather than fees, and they are how you confirm a provider is properly listed. Read them on the provider's own pages as well as in any comparison table, and if a company name or a register entry looks unfamiliar, ask support before you move a large balance.
See what the card adds beyond the payment
Varo's features are rewards and secured rewards and secured, and the reward type is cashback cashback. That cashback depends on the offer at the merchant you use and carries a monthly cap set by the provider, so treat it as a bonus rather than a fixed rate you can plan around. The card is aimed at readers with poor credit poor. Its perks are worth reading closely Reports to all three credit bureaus, Free credit score tracking in the Varo app and No credit check to apply, and the entries that change what you pay or what you can get are the absence of a credit check to apply, free credit score tracking in the Varo app, the lack of any minimum security deposit with the cardholder setting their own spending limit, cashback offers at select merchants, and Allpoint ATM access at no cost inside the network.
On the borrowing side, Varo's annual rate is 0%, which only matters if you plan to carry a balance rather than clear it each month.
Reachability is worth checking too, since a provider you can contact is worth more than one you cannot. Varo is reachable through email, chat and phone, and Wise through email, chat and phone.
Compare in the same order every time
Give yourself a small table with one row per card and the same columns for every card: card type, annual fee, monthly fee, foreign exchange fee, ATM allowance, legal entity and register entry. Filling it from the same lines each time is what stops a generous fee on one card from hiding an awkward rate on another.
Work down those columns in a fixed order: type, holding costs, currency costs, safety of the money, then extras. Use the same order for every card and the front-runner changes for a reason you can point at, rather than for a reason that shifts with the day.
The brands above make good worked examples. Varo shows how a card can cost nothing to hold and still charge on borrowing, and how a limit can be set by the cardholder without a minimum deposit. Wise shows how a foreign exchange fee of 0.1% can outweigh any annual fee, and how a provider's registers are checked before money moves. The Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card) shows why a card listed on both the debit and the credit line deserves its own comparison rather than a place in someone else's category.
Then read the detail behind your shortlist. The Wise review covers the multi-currency setup, the Varo Believe Secured Credit Card review covers the credit-building side, and the Chime Card (Secured Visa Credit Card) review covers the secured Visa card. Wider options sit in the Bitpanda and bunq reviews, and the Debit cards ranking keeps the whole field in order while you decide.