The Borderless Bank

Dodging Terrible Exchange Rates on Tour

Playing international festivals is the dream. Losing 8% of your payout to a terrible currency exchange rate at the airport is the nightmare.

When you are routing a tour through different currency zones, standard bank accounts will bleed you dry with hidden conversion fees and awful exchange rates. You need a bank account that travels as well as your road cases.

Enter the Wise Business Account

Wise is the ultimate financial multi-tool for an independent band. It is not a traditional bank, but it acts exactly like one for international touring. I am not affiliated with these guys in any way, but as an American expat living abroad I use it all the time and it works great. The Capital One Venture card also does no-fee foreign currency transactions and I’ve had good experiences with them as well.

Step 1: Set Up the Account

Register your band as a business entity and open a Wise Business account. It takes a few days to verify your documents, so do not wait until the week of the tour.

Step 2: Open Local Currency Balances

This is the magic trick. Inside your single Wise account, you can open a “balance” in Euros, British Pounds, US Dollars, and dozens of other currencies. Wise gives you legitimate, local bank details for each one.

Step 3: Get Paid Like a Local

When you play a festival in the UK, you hand the promoter your UK account details from Wise. They deposit Pounds directly into your account with zero international wire fees.

Step 4: The Clean Transfer

When the tour is over, you can convert all those different currencies back into your home currency at the mid-market exchange rate. This is the real rate you see on Google, completely free of the massive markups traditional banks charge.

Band Math doesn’t support multiple currencies, yet. But it’s an aspiration. For the moment, if you leave your home currency you can still track your expenses and inventory but you’ll have to modify each transaction to account for the conversion. So if Pablo’s home currency is € but Lynxhead goes on tour in the USA and he logs a $60 transaction for gas, he’ll have to update it later to account for the difference in what he actually paid.

Managing different currencies is a headache, but tracking who bought the gas and who paid for the hotel shouldn’t be. Band Math tracks every band expense so you can settle up fairly at the end of the tour. Support my independent project and secure your lifetime pass at itsbandmath.com.