This review on Grey Finance will help you decide if you should open the account or not.
Grey Key Stats
- Year Founded: 2020
- Founder: Idorenyin Obong and Femi Aghedo
- Products: Foreign Bank accounts (USD, GBP & EUR), International money transfer, Virtual cards, Currency Exchange
About Grey Finance
Grey is a financial technology (FinTech) company that offers services of sending and receiving money globally; converting local and foreign currencies and making international payments online.
Grey aims to cater for digital nomads and remote workers (Africa) financial needs: To live and work anywhere in the world easily without being financially excluded from the global village.
Therefore, with Grey, you can:
- Open foreign virtual bank accounts (USD, GBP and EUR)
- Send and receive money abroad
- Covert local and foreign currencies easily
- Make international payments with a virtual card
Currently, you can open a Grey account if you reside in these countries:
- Nigeria
- Ghana
- Kenya
- Tanzania
- Canada
- Germany
- India
- Philippines
- United Kingdom
- United States
Presently, Grey operates in the above-listed 10 countries and should expand to other nations in future.
Grey.co Sign up & Login Process
Opening a Grey account takes a few minutes which can be done on the mobile app or website. This makes it flexible to open and operate the account on smartphones and computers.
Here is how to sign up on Grey:
- Download the Grey Android/iPhone mobile app
- Sign up to create a Grey account
- Verify account
- Login to your Grey account
My observation: Creating a Grey account is more convenient on the mobile app than the website version. With the app, you can easily upload some documents to verify your identity and set up your account passcode for quick login.
Grey Login
Logging into a Grey account on the mobile app is quite different from the website format.
On the Grey mobile app, you can enter your 4-digit PIN or use biometric authentication (Fingerprint) to access your account.
This makes the login process on the Grey mobile app quick as the app recognises the account’s holder smartphone.
But on the Grey website login page, you must enter your email address and password to have access to your account online.
Grey Products Review
By opening a Grey account, one can enjoy the company’s 4 products. These are:
- Foreign accounts
- Money Transfer
- Virtual Cards
- Currency Exchange
1. Foreign Accounts
Grey offers free 3 foreign bank accounts for customers which they can open to send and receive payments globally. These are:
- United States Dollar account
- British Pound Bank account
- Euro Bank account
Read: How to Open a USD Account Online in Nigeria on Grey
After opening a Grey account, create any or all of these virtual bank accounts (US, UK, and EU) to send and receive money conveniently.
Here are the benefits of opening Grey foreign accounts:
- No minimum deposits are required.
- Zero sign-up fees
- No account maintenance fee
- Withdraw to your local currency easily
- Low transaction fees
While owning a Grey foreign virtual account is free, sending and receiving money with it is not.
For every payment received into this foreign account, Grey charges a 1% transaction fee.
Take for example a foreign USD account, if you receive $1000, Grey will deduct $10 charges and credit your account with $990.
Likewise, there is a variable fee for sending money from your foreign bank account on Grey. The charges depend on the transfer amount and currency type.
My Review of Grey Foreign Accounts
First: To open a foreign virtual bank account (USD, GBP, EUR) on Grey, you will answer some questions such as your job status, industry and income. Then, Grey will look into your application and grant your request within 24-48 hours.
Those questions seem unnecessary however, according to Grey, it is a standard procedure to confirm a customer’s identity.
Second: There is no issue using a Grey foreign bank account to receive money, it is the stress of getting it to your local bank account that customers face. It’s the same thing with Alat by Wema’s domiciliary account.
However, if you verify your account with your bank statement and passport, you won’t have issues withdrawing your funds.
2. Money Transfer
The grey account is not only for receiving payments globally; It allows customers to send money internationally and locally.
For example, from Nigeria, you can send money from your Grey foreign accounts – US, GBP or EUR – to another one.
What if you do not have the foreign cash to send? No problem, you can convert a local currency to a foreign currency and transfer it. Here is how:
- Fund your Grey account with the local currency (Naira)
- Convert it to the US, GBP or EUR currency using the Grey exchange rate.
- Send money to the recipient’s account
Also, with GreyTag, you can send money to another Grey user even from different countries for free.
My Review of Grey Money Transfer
First: Using Grey for international money transfers is fantastic, especially in converting local currency to foreign currencies.
For example, most international money transfer apps can send money to Nigeria but not from Nigeria except for Lemonade Finance.
Second: Grey does not use the official currency exchange rate but a black mate rate. Yet, it offers a competitive exchange rate to convert and transfer money abroad.
3. USD Virtual Card
With Grey’s USD virtual debit card, you can breeze through transactions both at home and abroad hassle-free.
This means you can pay for those international transactions that get declined when using a Nigerian bank Naira card due to CBN regulation.
Here are the benefits of Grey’s virtual debit card:
- Fund with your local currency with ease
- Withdraw cash from ATMs whenever you need it.
- No transaction decline issues
- No card maintenance charges
- Instant transaction notifications
- Easy Card control
- Protection against fraud Protection
My Review of Grey Virtual Card
First: Grey charges $1 to get a USD virtual card. Initially, it charges $4 while other platforms like Chipper Cash offer $1 for the card. Reducing the fee to this price now makes Grey more competitive.
Second: Grey’s zero monthly or quarterly card maintenance is a big deal. You will not incur additional costs for owning the dollar virtual card though not using it frequently.
Who Should Open Grey Account
Grey is specifically for certain people; it is not ideal for everyone. Here are those that need a Grey account and will benefit from it:
- Freelancers
- Digital Nomads
- Travellers
1. Freelancers:
Grey is for remote workers who need to send and receive money abroad. This is why Grey Company was created in the first place.
Programmers, digital marketers, data analysts, customer care representatives, website designers etc will find Grey helpful.
By opening a Grey account, they can send money or receive payment from their global clients even from sites like Upwork, Fiverr and Amazon.
2. Digital Nomads:
Grey is suitable for those relocating abroad. By opening a Grey foreign account, you can easily swap your local currency to a foreign currency to pay for visa applications, bookings and other bills without stress.
3. Travellers:
If you are travelling abroad, you can open a Grey account and get a virtual card. This allows you to spend money in foreign countries easily.
Grey Fees Review
Opening a Grey account is free but there are charges for using certain services. This is how Grey makes money and can stay profitable over time.
1. Grey Foreign Accounts Fees
Here are Grey transaction fees on its foreign accounts (USD, GBP and EUR):
- Receiving money: 1% transaction fee for every payment received through the Grey USD, GBP or EUR account.
- Sending money: Transaction charges depend on the foreign currency and amount
2. Grey Virtual Cards Fees
- $1 creation fee to get a Grey USD virtual card
3. Grey Currency Exchange Charges
- Grey charges a 1% conversion fee from one currency to another.
- It uses an unofficial currency exchange rate (black market) which is higher than the official rate.
Grey Review
In this section, I will share customers’ experiences of using the Grey platform including my observations so far.
Grey Customer reviews
There are mixed experiences from customers using the Grey platform. A look at Trustpilot, Google Play Store and App Store shows that while some users enjoy Grey services, others are very dissatisfied.
Here are some positive reviews about Grey:
- Grey helped D. Agbo save costs through conversion from the Payoneer account to the GBP account.
- E. Ekweanua and J. Akhanolu love the Grey currency exchange rate as it gives them the best in the market.
- R. Ogunsola was able to use a Grey virtual card to shop internationally without limitations.
Grey negative reviews are:
- Bebe complains of Grey’s lower exchange rates and insane fees when converting pounds to Naira.
- K. James and V. Xavier experienced a delay in receiving their money.
- J. Akins is frustrated with the Grey mobile app functionality when uploading a document for verification
- N. Michael got stuck in the verification stage resulting in pending payment.
unleash.com.ng Review on Grey
Online reviews can be deceiving and exaggerating. My study shows that dissatisfied customers are 7 times more likely to write a review than happy customers. Also, some companies ‘buy’ positive reviews to increase their star rating online. This means you cannot trust all reviews.
So here is unleash.com.ng honest review of the Grey finance app based on experiences:
First: Grey is one of the best fintech apps to open a free foreign account and receive payment, send money and convert currency easily. However, verification on Grey can be time-consuming as you may need to wait for days to pass the identity test. Hope the company shorten this process.
Second: Although Grey’s transaction fees are minimal, some finance platforms offer cheaper charges than these.
Third: Grey charges for currency conversion while most international money transfer does not. Their exchange rate may equal Grey’s overall fees or sometimes less.
Fourth: Also, Grey is a legit app; do not be scared of losing your money. As a licensed fintech company, Grey partners with banks to provide customers with a free foreign account. This means the company cannot defraud you.
Fifth: The Grey mobile app is simple to use except for a few bugs. For instance, during account verification, I could not upload a PDF document on the app. Keep saying not supported though it accepts this PDF and JPG. Maybe the error is from the Grey server or the app.
Grey Alternatives
1. Geegpay
Geegpay is similar to Grey Finance in everything. It provides African professionals with foreign bank accounts to receive payments from overseas clients, send money internationally, convert one currency to another and pay with USD virtual cards.
2. Chipper Cash
Although Chipper Cash does not offer free bank accounts like Grey, you can use it to get a USD virtual card and convert your local currency to dollars.
FAQs on Grey Finance
Bottom Line
The review shows that Grey is one of the best fintech platforms one can use to open a free foreign account (USD, GBP and EUR) in Nigeria and other supported countries. It allows you to send and receive money globally; convert local and foreign currencies and make international payments online with a virtual card.
However, based on my observation and other customers’ experience, ensure your Grey account is verified and crosscheck its current transaction fees before using it to send and receive funds to avoid unpleasant situations.
I hope you find this information helpful. If you do, consider sharing it or this Unleash website with someone who may need it.
Therefore, try it and let me know your experience by leaving a message in the comment section below or Facebook page.
