Updates: Grey virtual USD cards

Our card services provider has rolled out new regulations to ensure secure and safe card transactions for you, and we want to let you know about the latest updates to your virtual USD card. You don’t need to worry; these updates do not affect your card functionality in any way.

What’s changing:

Your card will now be temporarily frozen after two(2) initiated transactions with insufficient funds. If the card is reactivated, and has two (2) other failed transactions due to insufficient funds, i.e. a total of four (4) failed transactions, the card will be permanently terminated.

Why this is happening:

We want to keep providing this service to our users. To do this, we need to prevent any unauthorized charges that can cause financial loss to us and, in turn, jeopardize the service relationship with our providers.

What Grey is doing:

To help you with navigating this, we implemented a “low-balance notifier,” which sends you a push notification once your balance goes below a certain threshold.

Our machine-learning models analyze your card spending patterns and recurrent transactions to determine your threshold and remind you to top-up your card.

We understand that declined transactions due to insufficient funds can be unplanned, so please turn on your push notifications for the mobile app so you can get these reminders.

What you need to do:

To ensure that your card remains active, we recommend taking the following steps:

• Check that your card has enough funds before making a transaction.
• You can just top up your card before the due date if you have recurring card payments and subscriptions like Spotify, Apple Music, etc.
• Remove your card details from one-off payment platforms and expired free trials to avoid unintended charges.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience this update might cause. If you have any questions or concerns, learn more about our cards here, or please feel free to contact our support team through the chat in the app or at support@grey.co. We’re always here to help.

When making bulk transfers from your bank accounts or financial services like Grey, you need to be wary of your transaction limits.

Transaction limits are the maximum amount of money you can either withdraw, transfer, deposit, or spend in a single transaction. Sometimes, it could be how much you can spend in a day, week, or month.

On Grey, there are limits on how much you can transact with too. This post will show you how to view these limits and share helpful information about account limits.

How Do Bank Account Limits Work?

Banks and financial institutions usually set bank limits. This is why it varies based on account levels, the country, and transaction methods. So, for example, a student account would have a significantly lower limit than a Tier 3 business bank account would.

Once this amount is set, you can only transact within the limit. Once you exceed that limit, the bank won’t be able to process any further transactions until it resets.

In unique cases where the transaction amount is alarming, financial institutions are required to notify regulators as part of the anti-money laundering measures.

Why Do Banks and Financial Services Have Transaction Limits?

Grey account transaction limits are important because they help protect the customer and the bank from any potential fraud cases. When there’s a limit, there’ll be a lesser loss incurred.

Limits are also a security measure to prevent money laundering. If there’s a maximum threshold, these services can better comply with regulations and prevent any illegal activities around finances.

How to View Your Grey Account Transaction Limits

Transaction limits on Grey vary based on deposits, withdrawals, and card spend limits. You can currently spend up to $10,000 on your Grey virtual card at a maximum of $ 2,500 per transaction.

For withdrawals and deposits, there are daily and monthly limits. Here’s how to check how much you have left on your Grey account;

• Log in to your Grey Mobile app
• On the navigation bar located at the bottom of your screen, tap on “More”
• Tap on “Transaction Limits”

• Choose to view either “Withdrawal limits” or “Deposit limits”

You’ll see a breakdown of your daily and monthly account limits. You’ll also see how much you have left to exceed that limit.

Can I Increase My Transfer or Deposit Limit on Grey?

Unfortunately, at this time, you cannot increase your deposit or spend limit on your Grey account. You can, however, take advantage of the daily limit reset to split your transactions across several days.

Fortunately, the limits on Grey are much higher than what you’d get on your domiciliary bank account. If you’d like to know more about how Grey foreign accounts work, you can always explore our guides and product updates here.

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Occasionally, when you receive money from a client, business partner, or loved one, you might get a notification asking you to verify that transaction. During this period, your funds will be allocated to a pending balance. We’ve received a lot of questions concerning why this is a requirement for some transactions, especially deposits. 

That’s why in this post, we’ll be clarifying what a pending balance means, why certain transactions require verification, and how you can access your funds once they are in your pending balance. 

What is a pending balance?

A pending balance is a type of wallet designed to temporarily hold funds received from unverified transactions on Grey. Unfortunately, this means that you won’t be able to access the funds in this balance. However, you can see how much you’ll receive once you verify this transaction. 

The real reasons why your transactions are in a pending balance

With the rise in fraud cases and chargebacks, there are now new regulatory requirements from the governing bodies of financial institutions. In line with these requirements, we have to prioritize the safety and security of your financial transactions (both inflow and outflow).

So, if there’s an inconsistency between your account name and the payment details, we are required to verify that the transaction is, in fact, legitimate. This is a safety and precautionary measure to ensure that we;

• Verify that all funds received by our users are legitimate
• Protect you from any potential fraud case by verifying that your funds are legitimate
• Reduce the risk of any fraudulent activity that can harm you in the future. Some examples are money laundering, identity theft, and online scams.
• Provide safe services for everyone and serve as a deterrent against potential fraudsters.
• Are a responsible financial institution that’ll serve you for a long time.

How to verify a pending transaction on Grey

If you do get a prompt to verify your pending transaction, don’t worry. It’ll only take a few minutes. Here’s what you need to do; 

• Login to your Grey app
• Tap on the message asking you to verify a transaction.

• You will see the required deposit you need to verify, highlighted in yellow.

• Tap on it and then tap on 'verify the transaction.'

• Enter a clear purpose of the transaction. E.g., payment for a service, deposit from a family member, etc. Remember to be truthful here.
• Enter what your relationship with the sender is, e.g., employer, client, brother, sister, etc.

• Upload your supporting documents and submit them.

The supporting documents you’ll be required to upload will depend on where your money is coming from. Once you submit the verification form, your transaction will be reviewed within 24-72 working hours. 

If everything checks out, you’ll receive the funds in your available balance, where you can access your money.

What happens when I cannot verify my pending transaction?

If you do not have sufficient documents to prove that the transaction is legitimate, the funds will be reversed to the sender’s originating account. This can take anywhere between 7-10 working days. 

If the rare occasion that the sender doesn’t get the money, we’ll give you a refund telex so they can trace the status of the refund. 

The bottom line

At Grey, we take your financial security seriously, and this is why we’ve implemented several measures to ensure that you’re in the clear when it comes to any financial risks.

For more information on pending transactions, please visit our help center, and we’ll be happy to help out in any way we can.

If you make a lot of money transfers, you’d have an idea of how exchange rates can make you gain or lose money. Lately, they’ve been fluctuating a lot, especially in the Nigerian market. This is why it can cause a dent in your conversion and money transfer plans.

Because of how important this is to our users, our product team has come up with a great way to keep track of Grey's real-time exchange rates. This way, you can compare and track rates before your transactions.

In this post, we’ll show you how to find our rates page on Grey and how to make exchange rates work for you.

Why you should track exchange rates

Tracking market exchange rates are very important because they help you plan and better strategize your money transfer plans - especially when they are cross-border payments.

Perhaps the most apparent reason to track exchange rates is to get the best market rates. Since rates go up and down often, you need to know when the right window is to make a swap.

For example, if you want to convert your GBP to NGN, you need to swap when the exchange rates are higher. If you swap when it’s lower, you’d be losing out on some NGN you could have earned during that conversion.

Another reason is to be able to make the right estimates during your budgets. If you are sending money abroad frequently, especially for business, you need to know if there’ll be any price changes. Tracking rates will help you know how much you need to spend for that transaction and what you’d need to factor in for surprise costs.

In general, tracking exchange rates will help you avoid any potential losses during currency conversions as well as reduce any risks involved in your foreign transactions.

Also Read: Factors that Affect the Prices of Exchange Rates

How to see exchange rates on Grey

Before making your currency conversions, here’s how you can see Grey exchange rates. These rates cut across all accepted currencies on Grey, and they are updated in real-time in line with parallel market rates.

On website

• Log into your Grey account on the web app
• On the top right of your screen, click on “See our rates”

• You’ll see the dropdown of our rates across all accepted currency pairs.

On mobile

• Log in to your Grey mobile app
• On the bottom right of your screen, tap on the ‘More’ button
• Scroll down to the ‘Others’ Category
• Tap on ‘See our rates’
• You’ll see a dropdown with our rates across all accepted currency pairs

PS: Please keep in mind that you have to be signed in to your Grey account to see this page.

Make our exchange rates work for you

Grey has one of the best exchange rates available in the market. With competitive fees, you can be sure to get the best deals on your instant currency conversions. Since we know how exchange rates can affect businesses, we hope our rates page helps you make better financial decisions.

Create a Grey account and start enjoying all the tools and rates available to make your international payments better.

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Welcome to our monthly product newsletter, where we give you the rundown of all our latest features and product updates you should stay on top of. Here's our product update for May 2023.

Our Latest Delivery💨

Straight out of the oven, we have KES and TZS deposits! This means you can now deposit Kenyan and Tanzanian Shillings to your Grey balance using mobile money. It’s a great way to send and receive money in East Africa even faster.

Top up your KES balance via MPESA and your TZS balance via Airtel money and TigoPesa. Here’s a guide to help you get started.

Introducing Grey’s Invoicing🧾

We understand that, as a business owner or freelancer, invoices are pivotal to receiving your payments on time. That’s why you can now generate invoices for your employers, clients, and customers directly from your Grey app.

Your invoice will have your Grey account details so your recipient can complete the payment via a bank transfer. Learn more about how it works here.

KES Withdrawals

We have our KES bank payouts! Previously we could only process Kenyan Shillings withdrawals to mobile money only. However, after months of working with our new partners, you can withdraw and send money to any Kenyan bank account🎉. “Send money to Kenya  🇰🇪 with Grey” sounds cool, innit? 😎

We’ve put together a guide so you can see how it works here.

Keep Track of Our Exchange Rates📈

See what our real-time exchange rates are and keep track of any changes on the Grey rates page. While converting currencies is seamless, we understand how important exchange rates are to your final conversions. This is why all rates on this page are updated in real-time. See how to view this page.

Improved NGN Deposits 🤑

While this isn’t exactly news, we’ve improved Naira deposits and top-ups on Grey. With the Grey Naira bank accounts, you can now add Naira to your Grey account with a single bank transfer. So whether you’re trying to top up your Naira balance or receive Naira transfers, we absolutely recommend getting an NGN virtual account today. Here’s a guide.

On USD Accounts 🛠

We definitely aren’t laid back about USD accounts. After gaining express permission from our bosses, we are excited to share that we will be launching our new USD bank accounts soon.

Our quality assurance team is on the last round of tests to make sure everything works perfectly, so expect an official announcement from us in the coming days.

Other Features in the Works 🚧

USD accounts aren’t the only projects in the works. You can now;

• Top up your virtual cards with any currency on the Web and Android app.
• Track your expense management on Android and Web app.
• View the app in Swahili on Android and Web.

While it’s not yet 100%, you can start testing with us and share your feedback. We’ll be sure to announce once they are all available.

And that’s it for the month of May. If you have any product features or suggestions on how we can improve your experience with Grey, do share them directly with our bosses by sending an email to talktoidee@grey.co

Until Next Month,

Love🖤

The Product Team @ Grey

As a business owner or freelancer, one of the most tedious tasks you face is creating and sending invoices, and at Grey, building infrastructures that embrace the needs of our users continues to remain a top priority.

Who is the invoicing feature for?

The invoicing feature is designed for freelancers and businesses to request payment for their work done, products, or services. It allows you to outline the service or product that was offered and specify the amount due. This way, freelancers and business owners can manage their finances more efficiently and best of all, it eliminates the need for manual invoicing.

Our invoicing feature is a one stop shop for freelancers, nomads, and business owners to request for and receive payments from their customers while keeping track of all their expected revenue.

How to create invoices on Grey

Ready to create an invoice on Grey? Here’s a step by step guide to help you create one:

• Log in to your dashboard
• Under “Quick Actions” click on “Invoices”

• Enter your customer's information

• Enter the invoice details

• Preview the details on your invoice

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If you’re a freelancer, remote worker, or digital nomad, you can now create and invoices directly from your Grey account. We can’t wait to see how this feature improves your business and services. Log in to your account and start creating your invoices today!