MOVO On-Demand Mobile Banking has set out to “empower customers to instantly and securely receive, send and spend money from their mobile phone, even without previously having a bank account.” Everywhere you look on the website and app, you’ll see the term “on-demand.” The MOVO Digital Cash card provides 100% contactless payment to just about anyone regardless of their credit score, net worth, or experience.
Many MOVO customers are actually kids and teens, who are often good candidates for prepaid debit cards. In this article, we’ll cover what you need to know about this product to help you decide if it’s the right prepaid debit card for your family.
[Related: See how the Movo Digital Cash Card stacks up against the competition in our rundown of the best debit cards for kids and teens in 2021!]
Who’s It For
Target age: Users over the age of 18.
Good candidate: Teens who trade cryptocurrency and/or earn a paycheck.
The MOVO digital debit card is a good choice for a lot of people who want an alternative to the traditional prepaid debit card. Users need to be comfortable with technology to be successful with this product.
Only users who are at least 18 years old are eligible to sign up for a MOVO account, but kids and teens can be added as authorized users to a parent’s card.
Features and Benefits
This product is not geared toward families, but it could work for your family if your teen is already familiar with money management and has a separate account to save money.
For Teens 18+
The technology network MOVO uses is called HyperBIN. More than 45 million merchants and a million ATMs across the world participate in this network and permit transactions made with MOVO prepaid debit cards.
💸 Spend: All users automatically start with a digital debit card, but physical cards are also available. The MOVO digital debit card can be used anywhere Mastercard is accepted including in-person, online, and internationally.
Users can create MOVO Digital CASH cards as well. These are fully-digital cards that are separate from the main debit card attached to an account in that they have their own card numbers and can be used only one time. Many MOVO cardholders choose to purchase CASH cards for the purposes of keeping their account, and the money in it, safe for big transactions or when they want to eliminate the possibility of being charged when they don’t want to be. One of the examples MOVO gives is signing up for a subscription that auto-renews.
To create a CASH card, a teen must go into the MOVO app and pay a fee of $2.95. To move money from a CASH card to a primary debit card costs $0.50.
There is no limit to how much money users may have on their debit cards or load to their CASH cards. Note that CASH cards, even after being used, renew annually unless a user opts to cancel the renewal (which also costs $2.95 per card).
Teens can use their cards to make purchases, transfers, deposits, or ATM withdrawals (note that CASH cards are not eligible to be used at ATMs, domestic or international). ATM cash withdrawals are limited to $500 per day. MOVO uses the MoneyPass network, which has more than 37,000 ATMs in banks, credit unions, pharmacies, and grocery stores around the country. Users can withdraw as much as $5,500 per day.
Users can spend a total of $4,000 per day in domestic POS transactions with their debit card, and CASH cards have the same spending limit. Peer-to-peer transfers are limited to $5,000 per day and a high monthly cap of $100,000.
A MOVO card can be used with digital payment platforms Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay. Both the physical and digital cards are eligible to be linked with these networks.
If a teen is eligible for direct deposit, they can link this to fund their account. Otherwise, it is up to their parents to add funds. Users cannot request more money for their debit card or CASH card through the app. There is no maximum balance for accounts.
💰 Save: As a prepaid debit card, this product isn’t really meant for saving money. There are no incentives for saving such as account bonuses or interest rates and the account does not allow users to create goals or separate spending money from saving money. Users will need to open a different account if they want those features.
฿ Crypto to Cash: The main thing that sets MOVO apart from other prepaid debit cards is the ability to transfer cryptocurrency to cash. This platform is called MOVO Chain and it allows users to convert their cryptocurrency to USD. They can either load this money to their own debit cards or transfer it to someone else using their phone number or email address.
To convert cryptocurrency, a user must first choose from one of the following supported funding sources:
- Bitcoin
- Bitcoin Cash
- Ethereum
- Gemini
- WBTC
- Dogecoin
- USD Coin
- BUSD
- PAXOS
- Dai
Then, they need to ender information for the recipient. They can send a portion of the money or all of it at this time to themselves or a friend. They then fill out the sender’s information and confirm the transfer.
For Parents
Parents can fund this account in any of the following ways:
- ACH bank transfer
- Direct deposit
- Cash deposit
- Check deposit
There is no minimum deposit required when opening an account for successful registration. Cash deposits may not exceed $500 per day, but there is no limit on either direct deposit transfers or ACH transactions.
This account can support at most one physical and one digital debit card. Kids are authorized users on their parent or guardian’s card and therefore do not have the ability to make changes to the account or transfer money within the account. Parents are responsible for loading the prepaid card with funds and paying any fees the account may incur.
Because this product is not specifically for kids and teens, you may not be surprised that it does not give parents the level of control that other kids’ debit products provide. They cannot set spending limits, get push notifications when their child uses their card, or restrict certain merchants.
Parents may choose to use their child’s MOVO account to pay bills using the eCheckbook feature. They can schedule payments to be made for their child’s expenses such as their cell phone bill or car insurance and these can be one-time or recurring debits. There are no fees associated with bill pay. Typically, eCheckbook payments take six business days or less to process.
To set up eCheckbook, users must choose “Add Payee” after selecting “eCheckbook” in the app. Then, they must add payees by searching for the business they want to pay or enter a customer name in the field. Users can pay up to $5,000 per day using bill pay.
How Much Does Movo Cash and the Digital Cash Card Cost
💸 Fees:
- $0 monthly maintenance fee,
- $0 direct deposit transfer fee,
- $0 cash deposit fee,
- $0 activation fee,
- $5.95 fee for physical card,
- $4.95 inactivity fee,
- $2.00 per in-network and out-of-network ATM withdrawal (domestic or international),
- $0.50 per declined ATM withdrawal,
- $0.50 + 3% for POS PIN debit purchase,
- $1 + 2% for MOVO Chain transfers.
Even though this is advertised as a free account and does not cost anything to open, there are quite a few fees you’ll want to watch out for.
Benefits of Movo Cash vs Competitors
The first benefit of this card is that it has high spending and account limits compared to competitors. There are no limits on direct deposits, ACH deposits, or card balances, and the daily spending limit is a generous $4,000. Withdrawal and transfer limits are also quite high.
This account has above average digital security features going for it. Users can choose to do all of their spending and banking 100% digitally to completely remove the risk of losing their card or having it stolen, and can even create secondary cards to protect their account from fraudulent transactions and purchases they do not authorize.
Crypto transfers make this platform unique. Though users incur a fee for converting their crypto to cash, they can do it easily and access the money instantly through MOVO.
Potential Drawbacks
Fees are a definite drawback for this account. Even domestic ATM withdrawals cost $2.00 a piece and there are a number of fees just for using the various features included with a MOVO account (e.g. creating Cash cards, transferring money through MOVO Chain, etc.).
This is also not a particularly family-friendly product. Parents can’t monitor their child’s spending, set limits, or get notifications and kids and teens can’t create savings goals for themselves, earn more money for themselves, move funds to different locations, or access a library of learning resources. These are basic features included in many debit products for kids.
Consumer Sentiment
The consumer reviews for this company are cause for concern. On Trustpilot, MovoCash has a rating of 2.6 out of 5 stars, and the business’s BBB page is full of complaints.
Unhappy customers are frustrated with MOVO’s customer service and many report having been locked out of their accounts for security reasons on at least one occasion. In 2020, MOVO placed holds on many accounts due to a security breach and frustrated many. However, at least on their BBB page, MOVO’s team is responsive to complaints and concerns.
Happy customers say that MOVO does right by them with faster-than-average transactions and a user-friendly platform.
At the end of the day, we applaud MOVO for exercising an abundance of caution when protecting their customers’ accounts, but they could probably do a better job with communication.
The MOVO mobile app has a rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars on Google Play and 4 out of 5 stars in the App Store. Apparently, the app, though easy to use and simple, is prone to crashing and locks some users out of their accounts.
To contact customer support, you can call (844) 659-0351. Listen through the automated prompts to get in touch with a person. Representatives are on the line between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm PST Monday through Friday and will return your call if you call outside of business hours. You can also email support@movo.cash
Is it Safe
Each MOVO account is FDIC insured up to the limit of $250,000 through member FDIC Coastal Community Bank.
The ability to create one-time-use digital CASH cards is another security feature worth mentioning.
All users are covered by Mastercard’s Zero Liability Policy. This means they are not liable to pay for transactions they do not authorize as long as they take immediate action (two business days or less) when they notice suspicious charges on their account to alert MOVO and can prove that they exercised reasonable care in preventing fraudulent activity. If they do not act quickly enough, they may be on the hook for up to $500.
How to Sign Up
To sign up for a MOVO account, you as the parent or legal guardian must provide your personal information as well as a “selfie” to verify your identity. Once your account is set up, you can fund it, add your child as an authorized user, and request cards.
Final Thoughts
The MOVO card is an all-around decent prepaid debit card. This card has good security and accessibility features and some interesting perks such as crypto trading and one-time digital cards. It is going to be best for people looking for a fully-digital, spending-focused banking experience and less ideal for people who want a traditional checking account or account with more family-friendly features.
We also do not recommend this prepaid debit card to parents looking for a platform to teach their children financial literacy lessons and the importance of saving. If you do choose MOVO, watch out for fees to have the best experience possible.