The cancellation of the card also came at an unprecedented time, the day I entered China. I figured it was still ok since I had back up credit cards and atm cards so did not think on it much until a month later entering Kyrgyzstan. The four digit pin ATM machine made all my cards useless and the one card that had 4 digit pin was the canceled YOUTRIP card.
While traveling in Kyrgyzstan meeting up on and off with Bern & Ita bumping into each other throughout the common route, I found out that they were going to fly back to KL for a week to sort out some of their important things. They offered to bring me some love from home like Chicken-rendang canned food or Kicap Maggie.
It did not register in my mind at that time somewhere at 7 Bulls canyon, but a few days later I figured if there was a chance of carrying stuff, I might as well see if I could get another Fintech Card.
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| Stamps are one of the few things I buy as momentos when traveling |
Checking the web and WISE was the more popular and reliable one for Malaysian citizen so a quick download of the app, punched in all the details and uploaded a few photos of documents and viola, my account was active within minutes.
The digital card was also active within minutes and now all that was left is to somehow transport the physical card from Malaysia to Kyrgyzstan. From here it was a tracking game. Card was send to my home where Dad picked it up and later met up with Bern & Ita at the airport handing it over and a week later when they flew back to Almaty Kazakhstan, I was there the next morning at their hotel collecting the WISE Card.
Using the WISE card throughout the four central Asia countries, Kazakhstan – Kyrgyzstan – Tajikistan – Uzbekistan was seamless and made the travel much easier in my sense. A prepaid credit card which tells you immediately the exchange rate of the purchase instead of getting a surprise a month later was much better than a bank credit card.
The best feature I would say about WISE app is that you would know immediately if the transaction is approved. Sometimes the vendors keep swiping the card and informed me that it did not go through and without the ability to read Russian, there was no way for me to verify if I would get charged double. This immediate notification of transaction done on the app makes it much safer than a normal credit card.
The only draw back would be the monthly free ATM withdrawal limit of RM 1000. Long term traveler like me always exceed this amount.
Traveled on: June 2024
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