Business bank account
Easy to open
Unlimited debit and virtual cards
Multiple payment options
POS machines and QR codes
Business insights
Unlimited sub-accounts

wamo is a business bank account aimed at sole traders, micro businesses, and SMEs, but also large companies and corporations.

It’s a part of a new wave of companies that have technology and innovation at their core that are looking to take down the traditional banks and disturb the status quo.

About wamo

wamo is a fintech incorporated in the United Kingdom that has headquarters in London and Malta. It’s registered in the UK and the EEA, so it can offer its digital banking accounts across the continent.

Yanki Önen is the CEO and founder, and driving force behind the company, with 20+ years of experience in the banking and finance industry.

Investors from Canada, Turkey, Malta, and the UK have recognized wamo’s potential by investing millions of dollars into this newish fintech.

With a conceivable market of 25+ million small companies in Europe, wamo is seeking to become the first choice in this new age of digital banking.

Why is wamo so Special?

By focusing on businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as QR payments, wamo has carved out a niche for itself. It’s a niche with tens of millions of potential clients, big and small.

The pandemic has brought out so many new challenges for all types of businesses, and getting paid for the service you provide in a restaurant, at the hairdresser, in a hotel, an artisanal shop, or anywhere else, online or offline, suddenly became a hot topic.

This is where wamo came into the picture and where it shines. Its QR codes redirect your customers, clients, and users to a payment link with multiple payment methods, including Apple Pay, cards, N26, Sparkasse, Revolut, or any other platform that has a QR code scanner and supports SEPA instant payments.

Another innovation includes a contactless menu which is a digital QR code menu for cafes, bars, restaurants, etc., that provides a complete solution for ordering and making payments.

Pros and Cons

As with any business, there are pros and cons. This can be fairly subjective, however, it’s good to list out what works and what doesn’t.

Pros

Easy to open
A free account for aspiring self-employed, freelancers and sole traders
Unlimited Visa debit cards
Unlimited sub-accounts
Reports and analytics for each account
QR code payments
Digital QR menu

Cons

Some plans are pricey
Expensive SWIFT transfers
ATM withdrawals aren’t free

Who Can Open a wamo Account?

wamo is available in the UK, European Economic Area (EEA), Gibraltar, and Switzerland. Therefore, most businesses that were opened in one of the above countries or areas can open a wamo account.

This includes freelancers, sole traders, partnerships, and limited companies. However, charities, cooperatives, public sector companies, trusts, private foundations, and gaming or crypto companies are ineligible to open a wamo account.

There’s also a long list of industries that aren’t eligible, which includes adult entertainment, gambling, foundations, funds, etc.

How to Open a wamo Account

It takes around 10 minutes to open a wamo account if you have a few documents handy.

Sole traders only need their ID and some basic personal information. LLCs, on the other hand, will need more documents. These include:

Registration name and number
Shareholder structure
Articles of association and memorandum
Proof of identity for directors, shareholders, and UBOs

Fees

Compared to other digital business banks, wamo has similar fees. As you can see, there are monthly maintenance fees for all but one type of account. Others start from €9.99 per month, all the way up to €99.99 per month for big businesses.

Depending on the account you choose, you’ll get unlimited free debit and virtual cards, or have to pay €9.99 per card once.

SEPA, BACS, CHAPS, wamo to wamo, Faster Payments, and local transfers are free. SWIFT transfers, on the other hand, cost from €9.99 to €14.99 per transaction, in or out.

Other than that, ATM withdrawals are €1.99 across the board, and QR payment acceptance ranges from 0.99% to 1.49%.

Unlimited EUR and GBP IBAN sub-accounts are free.

wamo Accounts

There are two types of plans for sole traders and three types of plans for companies. Any business really can find a plan that’s fitting for them.

Sole trader

solo (free)

The solo account is suitable for freelancers, sole traders, and self-employed. It’s free to open and doesn’t have a monthly fee. If you want to have a physical debit card, it will cost you €9.99 and €0.99 for a virtual card. It’s a one-time payment, mind you.

Account opening: free
Unlimited debit cards: €9.99 per card
Unlimited virtual cards: €0.99 per card
Local transfer in & out: free
International transfer in & out: €14.99
wamo to wamo payments: free
ATM withdrawal: €1.99
Unique account QR code: free
EUR & GBP IBAN: free
QR payment acceptance: 0.99%

pro (€9.99/m)

The pro account is free to open but costs €9.99 per month. It’s recommended for growing freelancers, sole traders, and self-employed. You can get as many virtual and physical debit cards as you want for free.

Account opening: free
Unlimited debit cards: free
Unlimited virtual cards: free
Local transfer in & out: free
International transfer in & out: €9.99
wamo to wamo payments: free
ATM withdrawal: €1.99
Unique account QR code: free
EUR & GBP IBAN: free
QR payment acceptance: 0.99% (1st €2,500 free)

Company

start (€19.99/m)

The start account costs €19.99 per month but also has a one-time opening fee of €99.99. It’s best for micro and small businesses and doesn’t have free cards.

Account opening: €99.99
Unlimited debit cards: €9.99 per card
Unlimited virtual cards: €0.99 per card
Local transfer in & out: €0.99
International transfer in & out: €14.99
wamo to wamo payments: free
ATM withdrawal: €1.99
Unique account QR code: free
EUR & GBP IBAN: free
QR payment acceptance: 1.49%

grow (€49.99/m)

The grow account is best for growing, or small to medium-sized businesses. It’s free to open and has a monthly fee of €49.99. For that, you get unlimited cards, and free local and wamo to wamo transfers, among other things.

Account opening: free
Unlimited debit cards: free
Unlimited virtual cards: free
Local transfer in & out: free
International transfer in & out: €14.99
wamo to wamo payments: free
ATM withdrawal: €1.99
Unique account QR code: free
EUR & GBP IBAN: free
QR payment acceptance: 1.29%

scale (€99.99/m)

Scale account is best for medium to large businesses or corporations and costs €99.99 per month with no account opening fee and free unlimited cards.

Account opening: free
Unlimited debit cards: free
Unlimited virtual cards: free
Local transfer in & out: free
International transfer in & out: €9.99
wamo to wamo payments: free
ATM withdrawal: €1.99
Unique account QR code: free
EUR & GBP IBAN: free
QR payment acceptance: 0.99%

wamo Sub-Accounts

One of the best things about wamo is that you can create as many sub-accounts as you want, to manage your finances more easily. Each sub-account can have a EUR or GBP currency.

With these sub-accounts, you can put money aside for future costs like taxes, repayments, or the end of year party, as well as separate them by currency, employee, project, or whatever other categories you wish.

You can also link every sub-account to its own wamo physical or virtual Visa debit card and

get reports and analytics for each account, in allotted groups or all together.

Card Management

With wamo, you can easily get as many debit cards as you need and also:

Issue physical or virtual cards per team member
Link them to a sub-account that’s in their name
Name cards
Set limits, get reports and analytics
Oversee all activity for every card from your wamo dashboard
Freeze and unfreeze cards from your app if necessary
Withdraw up to €500 per withdrawal, €2,000/day

QR Code Payments

In modern times, even POS machines are optional, as digital or physical QR codes can take payments almost as easily. Here’s how wamo’s QR code payments work:

Place the QR sticker at tables, counters, guitar cases, and stalls, and let customers scan and pay directly into your wamo account
Put your digital QR code sticker on your website or your social media channels
Use a QR code on your phone for customers or clients to scan and pay
Clients simply scan the code with their phone camera, choose their payment option and pay

We already mentioned the contactless menu – an innovative digital QR code menu for cafes, bars, pubs, restaurants, etc. The customer can place an order via this digital menu and pay for the order in seconds. No hardware or integrations apart from the client’s smartphone.

How to Add Funds?

Adding funds to wamo is easy because you have three options:

Using an external bank transfer
Using a credit or debit card
Using a Payment request link

Choose the bank transfer option from the options screen in the app to fill out your wamo account holder name, IBAN, BIC/SWIFT, and bank address if it’s an international transfer or your account number and sort code if it’s a transfer from a UK bank account.

To top up using a credit or debit card, simply open the wamo dashboard and click ‘Add money’. After that, from the Top-up options screen, choose ‘Credit or debit card’. Enter all the card details and the amount you want to transfer.

Lastly, to top up using a Payment request link, on your wamo dashboard, choose Payment request link. Add the amount and tap on ‘Create link’. The link recipient will open the link and pay using Apple Pay or a debit or credit card.

How is wamo Regulated?

wamo is an e-money institution (EMI) incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom. For cards issued in the UK, the company is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority to issue electronic money. That indicates that wamo is as safe as any other FCA-regulated body.

The company is also an EMD agent of Railsr (formerly Railsbank) and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania, and as such authorized to operate within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Is my Money Safe With wamo?

wamo is authorized and regulated by the individual government and EU/UK bodies and, accordingly, has to comply with applicable laws and rules across the continent that concern finance, customer protection, data protection, and anti-laundering.

The wamo app has industry-standard real-time spending and transaction alerts and the ability to lock and unlock the card at any time.

The company is devoted to continuously keep improving the app’s security and has instruments in place to safeguard clients’ money via a key partnership contract with Railsr.

Electronic money and payment services are provided by PayrNet. For each transaction, PayrNet retains an equivalent amount to the money in wamo’s current accounts in a safeguarding account.

That means that even if wamo goes bankrupt or insolvent, your funds will be returned to you and/or your company as they are in a safe place outside of the influence of both the bank and wamo and can be used only for the meant purpose and not for investing or something else.

Who Owns wamo?

wamo is a private company mostly owned by the founder and CEO Yanki Önen and investors from four different countries.

Competitors

There are plenty of wamo competitors in the UK and the EEA zone. From popular neobanks such as Revolut, Starling, Monzo, and N26, to less-known Holvi and ANNA.

Revolut

Revolut is a well-known challenger bank from the UK that challenged the status quo in Britain, the EU, but also worldwide. It offers accounts to both personal and business users.

It’s best known for its multi-currency account and traveling capabilities.

N26

Although N26 isn’t available in the UK and the US anymore, it is available in the rest of Europe. It offers free and paid accounts with plenty of perks that are attractive to many potential business customers.

ANNA

ANNA is an acronym for Absolutely No-Nonsense Admin and is a digital business account created for small to medium-sized businesses in the UK. ANNA is a slick app that has all of the helpful features integrated into it that make business banking much more satisfying.

The Bottom Line

wamo is a more than capable business bank account and an excellent alternative to traditional banks but also other neobanks.

Although some of its paid plans can get a bit pricey, there is a plan for every company, no matter how big or small it is.

Self-employed, freelancers, and sole traders will be happy to avail of the free account, anyway.

wamo Business Account Review 2023 (Digital Banking Account)