Pelikin

Pelikin review

Pelikin is a travel app and card designed to be taken all around the world with minimum fuss and hassle. Pelikin is regulated by and has all of the necessary trading licenses, including the Authorised Deposit-Taking Institutions (ADI) license. It is also backed by Visa and Heritage Bank, ensuring that the app is safe to use.

Pelikin main features

Pelikin offers a multitude of features designed to help make traveling the world easier. Here, we run through the main features and the pros and cons of each.

Instant and free payments

Long gone are the times of waiting days for your payments to clear, which meant you were stuck in limbo anxiously trying to work out what your actual balance would be once all your transactions were processed. With instant and free payments, you can be assured that every payment is processed immediately, leading to little questioning about how much you actually have left to spend. 

However, there is a downside – Pelikin specializes in providing a  travel card, not an everyday-use card. When you’re on holiday, the temptation can be too real to splurge on luxuries and unnecessary commodities. This temptation could be doubled if it’s easier and quicker to spend, to begin with. As long as you budget properly and stick to it, though, you should be fine. 

Hold and swap currencies

Pelikin offers access to five different currency wallets at any one time. This versatility offers ease of purchasing for anyone going abroad and is especially useful for those traveling for a substantial amount of time across many different countries.  

One question that must be asked, however, is: is it really necessary? Not many people need to access and swap five currencies during one trip, and the app’s attention could be focused elsewhere. Despite this, it must be acknowledged as a needed feature for some, and they would be grateful for the tool’s existence.

Split bills and open tabs

Another feature that Pelikin offers is the ability to split bills and open tabs on behalf of the whole group. This can be used to track the group’s spending, which is useful if you’re on an overall tight budget or have a friend that’s got itchy fingers when it comes to money.

However, there may always be the odd person that views this omniscient tracking to be invasive, and they may kick up a fuss about it – leading to drama during a time where you should be relaxing. This is easily avoidable, though. Simply gain permission and agreement from everyone beforehand, and the problem is solved.

Over 150 currencies available

One of the main features that sets Pelikin apart from other travel cards is that it enables users to spend in over 150 currencies – wherever Visa is accepted. This enables an essential endless list of where travelers can visit without worrying that they don’t have the right currency.

Pelikin review. Conclusion

As it stands at the moment, though, one limitation of this is that Pelikin is only currently accepting their travel cards to be loaded with Australian Dollars. This means that you can’t load any other currency onto the card and convert it; it has to be AU Dollars. However, the Pelikin FAQs state that this is an “at the moment” issue, so there may be plans to broaden this in the future. 

Overall, Pelikin looks to be a reliable and flexible travel card and app that effectively empowers people to travel the world without the fear of monetary limitation. Not only this, but Pelikin has also partnered with Travel By Us to provide the option of travel insurance too, with the chance to choose up to 10 additional add-ons.