Splitwise Card: top-ups FAQ
What are top-ups?
Top-ups are a feature of the Splitwise Card. When you make purchases on a Splitwise Card, funds are spent from your Splitwise Pay Wallet balance.
If you have top-ups enabled and make one or more purchases that would exceed the available funds in your Wallet balance, a top-up deposit will automatically be generated to transfer funds. You can choose a “top-up account,” which is an external bank account used to make deposits into your Splitwise Pay Wallet to cover those purchases.
An example:
You have $10 in your Splitwise Pay Wallet balance and you use your Splitwise Card to make a purchase for $25. If you have top-ups enabled, $10 will be spent from your Splitwise Wallet, and $15 will be automatically topped up from your chosen external bank account, usually the next business day.
Does Splitwise Pay charge a fee for using top-ups?
No. Splitwise Pay does not charge any fees for using this feature.
Do tops-up still work if I have no funds in my Splitwise Pay Wallet?
Yes.
When will a top-up happen?
If you make one or more purchases that exceed your wallet balance, you should expect to see the funds withdrawn from your chosen external bank account when those purchases are no longer pending, which is usually the next business day. If you make multiple purchases in a day that exceed your available balance, you should still see just one combined top-up withdrawal from your chosen external bank account.
How do I find out how much will be withdrawn from my bank?
When a top-up deposit is needed, a top-up will be created once per business day for the total amount of funds spent on your Splitwise Card that exceeds your available Splitwise Pay Wallet balance.
You can view pending and completed top-ups and their amounts in the Splitwise app by opening the Wallet and scrolling down to the “Recent Splitwise Pay activity” section.
An upcoming pending top-up will be labeled “Pending” and will have a green icon.
An example:
Let's say you start the day with $30 in your Wallet. You make three purchases that day for $20, $10, and then $50. The next day, you could expect to see a top-up initiated for $50 ($20+$10+$50-$30 = $50) from your “top-up account.”
Are there limits on top-ups?
Top-ups have limits to protect Splitwise Pay customers against fraud and to help prevent accidentally overdrawing linked bank accounts. Your top-up limit will depend on the available funds in the external bank account that you use for top-ups and on your top-up history. Top-ups may also be limited by other factors to prevent fraud.
Which linked accounts can be used for top-ups?
Splitwise Pay supports personal checking accounts for use as a top-up account. A bank account used for top-ups must be connected via instant authentication with permission to view that account’s balance. For example, you cannot use a bank account that was connected via micro deposit verification.
Splitwise does not currently support top-ups from external debit cards.
Can I turn off top-ups?
Yes. You can disable top-ups at any time from the top-up settings screen in the Splitwise Pay Wallet.
Open the Splitwise app and tap the Wallet icon in the top left. Tap “Your Splitwise card” to open the Splitwise Card screen. From there, tap “Manage top-ups” and tap the toggle to turn top-ups on or off.
When you turn off top-ups, any pending or in progress top-ups will still be processed. Any future purchases that exceed your available balance will be declined.