There’s some great stuff going on when it comes to managing your money in Ireland right now. You can borrow, lend, exchange and invest your money using Irish fintech businesses, no problem. We’ve picked out a bunch of sites that might tempt you to do the modern thing.
CurrencyFair
This is the place to go for cheap foreign exchange. It works on a peer-to-peer basis. Your offer to buy a foreign currency is matched to someone else who is looking for Euro. CurrencyFair make a margin in between on each transfer, and also charge you a couple of quid to pay the money out into a receiving bank account.
CurrencyFair’s been around since 2010, long before fintech was a buzzword. The business has continued to expand its offering, and now serves business as well as personal customers. For businesses it’s useful for paying UK suppliers, especially right now when sterling has become a lot cheaper.
Moneycube’s experience is that CurrencyFair will give you a better rate than offers from the foreign currency desks in Irish banks.
Linked Finance
Linked Finance is an online peer-to-peer platform for lending to small and medium-sized businesses in Ireland.
You can get started by lending as little as €50. Linked Finance say you can earn between 8.5% and 15% on the money. Some great businesses, such as Viking Splash Tours, Lolly and Cooks and The Rolling Donut have raised money on Linked Finance, all backed by €50 notes from ordinary folk. Going for more than 4 years now, Linked Finance report that over €29 million in loans has been bid through its platform.
Chill Money
Chill Money launched at the start of this year, backed by the resources of Avantcard, the Carrick-on-Shannon outfit we once knew as MBNA. It offers credit cards and personal loans online.
It’s the offspring of the Chill.ie insurance business which brought decent UX to the insurance game. Now, we’ve not used them directly, but they have clearly developed a much smoother process than anything the banks offer, which tends to be painful and require much wading through antiquated tech, or – most likely – a branch visit.
In contrast Chill provides real-time credit checks and an all-online process.
What’s the 0.5?
Last, a shout-out for Iam Bank. Iam Bank is the challenger bank headed by Irishman Lee Travers. Right now the business is in development mode, so we’ve given it a 0.5 (you can sign up to the waitlist).
Iam Bank’s offices are in Sandyford in Dublin, as well as London, Chicago and San Francisco. It’s set itself the lofty aim of creating the Apple store of banking. Exciting times in Irish fintech!
Get started with Moneycube today
