The following post is in partnership with Aspiration and I was compensated for my time in writing it.
A common concern with travelers is how to handle money abroad. I get asked about it a lot and have written about how it doesn’t have to be stressful. I’ve even written a detailed post about how to handle rupees in India. There can never be enough good information to help travelers manage their money abroad, so when Aspiration reached out to see if I’d be interested in their Aspiration Summit account, I was all for it after reading about the perks. I hope that this will be of great value to you on your upcoming travels.
Aspiration Summit Checking Account
This account was named by Money magazine as the “best checking accounts in America”. They said its fee structure was unheard of. Let me share some of the perks that caught my eye:
-Catered toward travelers and those who care for people and the planet
-No set monthly banking fees, you pay what you think is fair (yep, you can say zero if you want)
-Easy mobile and app banking
-Up to 100% higher interest rates than big banks
-Free access to every ATM in the world (those add up!)
-The firm gives 10% of their earnings to charity
-FDIC insured
-AIM (Aspiration Impact Measurement) which is how you can measure the impact on the people and the planet with your every day purchases. You’ll have your own sustainability score to check.
Do Well and Do Good with Aspiration
So who are Aspiration? You should click around their website a bit to really get an idea who they are. It’s organized and lays everything out for you. They call themselves the “big banking alternative”. They are a “financial firm with a conscience” built on the idea that you can both do well and do good with your financial institution.
They were founded on ideas of sustainable practice and they want to help travelers while helping the planet. They strive to fix the way people bank while protecting the planet by giving 10% of their company earnings to charities focused on bringing economic opportunity to struggling Americans and they encourage sustainable investments.
We’ve all seen the movies about big banks and what happens behind the scenes. Aspiration strives to be transparent which I like. They make it clear that they focus on “the middle class and not the millionaires”. They want the middle class to be able to invest and earn interest as much as the wealthy Americans do. By making their monthly bank fees “up to you”, you can put “0” and they don’t care – they aren’t there to make money off of you.
Sustainable Investments with Aspiration Summit
You can start investing with as little as $100. I am at that point now in my career where I’ve been setting up my taxes as a self-employed person, looking into setting up an IRA, and looking for how I can invest my money since I don’t have a 401k or retirement fund from any employer.
With Aspiration, you can invest with one of the world’s top-ranked fossil fuel-free, sustainable investing approaches. I’m glad I’ve come across them and happy to share them with you as well.
If you’re interested in reading more about this traveler focused checking account, or looking for a way to save on ATM fees for your next trip, click here for more information. You only have to add $10 to get started.
Love these pics… they’re making me very Goa-sick! I’ve just applied for a Monzo card which is a sort of similar thing… my friend had one last time I was in India and it was great!! x
Awesome, I haven’t heard of that!
can I get an Aspiration account in Canada?