Current Review: Fees, Card, Usability, and Monito's Verdict

Yes. Current itself is not an actual bank and is not a household name in the online banking world yet, but it is fully regulated, and its banking and card services are provided by well-established banks. Your funds, through Choice Financial Group, are FDIC-insured up to $250,000, as with any brick and mortar bank, and your debit card, issued either by Choice or by Metropolitan Commerce Bank, benefits from Visa’s Zero Liability policy in case of unauthorized transactions. Your money is thus as safe with Current as it would be with any other bank!

Current’s free offering is simple, but effective: it comprises a checking account and a Visa debit card, offering all of the essential features you need to get paid, make your purchases and pay your bills.

Basic Account

Current’s Basic offering is already a solid account if you’re just looking for the essentials - unlike a traditional bank, it won’t offer you personal loans, traditional joint accounts or investing accounts, but you’ll get all you need to get paid and spend your money.

• Checking account: set up standard direct deposits to get your salary or tax refund, and debits to pay your bills;
• Debit card: Current’s basic Visa card comes with a secured chip but no contactless functionality. You also get a virtual card to pay over the internet;
• Deposit checks and cash: although you cannot top up your account by card, Current lets you deposit checks using its app for free, and, for a fee, you can even deposit cash at participating retailers;
• Free ATM withdrawals: Your ATM withdrawals are completely free within the Allpoint network;
• Instant notifications: get a push notification or a text for every transaction you make; Spending Insights: Get insights based on your spending habits;
• Budgeting: You can set up a budget for one spending category;
• Saving pod: You get access to one saving pot, which Current calls a “pod”, with features like automated savings and rounding up;
• Instant money transfers within Current: If your family or friends are using Current, you can send money instantly using their username.
• Teen accounts: You can open and manage accounts for your under-18 teens, for a yearly fee of $36 per account. They essentially work like their own Basic accounts, with extra features for parents, like automated allowance, chores setting, spending limits or blocked merchants.
• Rewards program: Current’s rewards program allows you to earn a point per dollar spent at participating retailers, though you have to activate the offer before each purchase. Since you can then exchange these points for cash or rewards at the ratio of 100 for $1, you essentially get a 1% cashback on some of your purchases.

As you can see, the Basic account is already a solid offering, with its free ATM withdrawals being a particularly attractive perk, so it’s definitely worth looking into if you need to open a cheap secondary account, and/or if you’re planning to take advantage of their teen accounts for your children. And as long as you don’t need features like a joint account and you’re not planning to make wire transfers, it could even be a good option if you don’t want to pay much for your main bank account, but be careful if you want to make large purchases: Current has a spending limit in place at $2000 a day!

Current Build Card

In our opinion, what really makes Current stand out is its Current Visa® Build Card. This secure credit card comes with a points program at eligible merchants, redeemable for cash at $1.00 per 100 points.

When you set aside reserve funds in a special account, Current uses this as your spending limit for your Build Card. With the AutoPay feature, your balance will be paid off automatically from these reserved funds twice a month, ensuring your payments are on time. If you prefer manual payments, just remember to pay on time. Current reports your timely payments to TransUnion, aiding in building a positive credit history.

According to our research, Chime's Build Card is the best card for building credit out there, giving you better rates and conditions than popular competitors like Experian and Varo.