Brazillian challenger bank Nubank is to bundle a digital travel eSIM into its package for premium customers in partnership with Telecom-as-a-Service platform Gigs.
Customers on Nubank's Ultravioleta premium offering will be able to activate the annual 10GB eSIM from their mobile banking app to avoid exorbitant roaming charges and benefit from free high-speed data when travelling abroad.
Hermann Frank, co-founder & CEO at Gigs, says: “The launch of travel eSIMs is a natural next step in Nubank’s successful foray into the travel space, and presents a powerful lever to drive adoption of the Ultravioleta offering among Nubank’s 100 million customers. Bundling life’s essentials like banking, insurance, and now telecom in one single hub elevates the user experience while compounding stickiness. Nu is leading the convergence of banking and telecom, and it will be exciting to see who will follow suit.”
In truth NuBank is following in the wake of Revolut, which in February rolled out an eSIM service to help UK premium customers combat soaring data roaming bills when abroad. This was followed by Western Union in March with a paid-for offfering for its digital wallet customers in Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania.
Other perks available to Nubank Ultravioleta customers include higher credit limits, attractive rewards, cashback incentives, family accounts, insurance coverage, unlimited withdrawals, and 24-hour customer service.
The deal with Gigs comes after the firm hired Stripe and Nubank veteran Rafael Plantier as head of financial services in April last year.