How Aspire and YouBiz compare for Singapore SMEs in 2026
Picking a corporate card for a Singapore SME usually comes down to two questions: how much of your team’s spend earns cashback, and how much you bleed to FX on every overseas tap. Aspire and YouBiz are the two Singapore-built options most founders shortlist for both, and they take very different positions on each.
This guide breaks down the cashback structure, FX fees, holdable currencies, account and transfer fees, MAS licensing status, and the use cases each card actually fits, so you can pick the one that matches how your company spends.
Aspire vs YouBiz at a Glance
| Feature | YouBiz | Aspire |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | S$0 | S$0 Basic plan; S$15/month Premium plan |
| Account opening fee | Free | Free |
| Cashback rate | 1% unlimited on every eligible purchase | 1% on Marketing + SaaS only (Basic) / 1.2% on all eligible spend (Premium) |
| Cashback credit timing | By the 15th of the following month | By the first week of the following month |
| FX fees (card spend) | 0% | From 0.22% above mid-market (instant conversion) |
| FX fees (sending money) | Mid-market rate, no markup | From 0.23% above mid-market |
| Holdable currencies | 8 (SGD, USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, HKD, AUD, CHF) | 4 (SGD, USD, EUR, GBP) |
| Local SGD transfers | Free FAST transfers + dedicated PayNow QR for incoming | Free FAST/GIRO payroll |
| Overseas transfers | Multi-currency via Dashboard | Free FX on first S$13,000/month (Premium only) |
| SWIFT incoming fee | Free incoming | S$35 (SGD account) / 8 USD (other) |
| Overseas ATM | Supported (check in-app for current fees/limits) | S$5 per withdrawal |
| Card network | Mastercard | Visa |
| Virtual + physical cards | Free, unlimited with custom spend limits | Free, unlimited |
| Free user seats | Unlimited team invites; 4 roles | Unlimited cards at no extra cost; S$15 one-off per duplicate card to the same user |
| Sign-up | <5 min via Singpass; approval in 1–2 business days | Online application |
| MAS licence | Major Payment Institution (PSA) | In-Principle Approval for MPI (operating under exemption) |
Three things stand out:
- YouBiz earns cashback on 100% of eligible card spend, free. Free Aspire Basic earns 1% on a narrow slice only: Marketing (Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Apple Search ads) and SaaS (Adobe, AWS, Canva, Notion, Slack, Xero, Shopify, etc.). Aspire’s 1.2%-on-everything rate needs the S$15/month Premium plan.
- YouBiz holds twice the currencies for receivables, payroll, and supplier payments. Useful if you bill clients in JPY, HKD, AUD or CHF.
- Aspire layers Basic and Premium tiers. YouBiz keeps it flat: one account, S$0/month, every feature included.
Table of Contents
- Aspire vs YouBiz at a Glance
- What Is YouBiz, and How Does It Work?
- What Is Aspire, and Who’s Behind It?
- Cashback, FX, and Fees: Where Your Money Actually Goes
- Which Is the Best Business Account in Singapore for You?
- FAQ
What Is YouBiz, and How Does It Work?
YouBiz is a multi-currency business account and corporate card built for Singapore SMEs, freelancers, and founders. A product of YouTrip (same team, same FX engine) rebuilt for B2B spend.
It gives a team a multi-currency wallet, free Mastercard corporate cards (virtual and physical), expense management, and a dashboard for transfers and reconciliation. All for S$0/month, with no minimum balance.
The key features:
- Unlimited 1% cashback on every eligible purchase, online or offline. No minimum spend, no cap, no category restriction (standard exclusions like wallet top-ups, investments, BNPL, transit, and government apply, same as every cashback card).
- Real 0% FX fees on card spend, billed at the true mid-market exchange rate (the same rate banks use between themselves).
- 8 holdable currency accounts: SGD, USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, HKD, AUD, CHF. Hold, exchange, and receive in each one.
- Unlimited virtual and physical corporate cards with customisable spend limits, merchant category (MCC) locks, and real-time tracking.
- Singpass-based sign-up in under 5 minutes; approval within 1–2 business days; virtual Mastercard live in-app immediately, physical card delivered in 5–7 working days.
Who YouBiz is built for:
- SG SMEs and founders with cross-border spend: Stripe charges, AWS invoices, supplier payments, contractor payouts, marketing spend, business travel.
- Finance leads who want one card, one dashboard, and a clean monthly cashback line in the Xero export.
- Teams that don’t want a paid tier to unlock the headline numbers.
YouBiz is a Principal Member of Mastercard and a Major Payment Institution licensed under the Payment Services Act by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Its parent, YouTrip, is backed by investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Insignia Ventures Partners, and 10,000+ finance teams in Singapore now run their company spend through it.
What Is Aspire, and Who’s Behind It?
Image Credits: Aspire
Aspire is a Singapore-headquartered B2B fintech founded in 2018. It started as an SME lending platform and expanded into an all-in-one finance suite covering business accounts, corporate cards, AP/AR automation, expense management, and treasury yield.
Aspire is backed by investors including Sequoia, Lightspeed, and Y Combinator.
What Aspire’s product covers:
- Multi-currency business account in 4 currencies (SGD, USD, EUR, GBP), with international payments across 130+ countries in 30+ currencies.
- Visa corporate cards (virtual and physical), free to issue.
- Expense management, receipt-matching, and approval workflows.
- Treasury yield up to 3.88% on USD and 2.04% on SGD on the Basic plan (up to 4.13% / 2.29% on Premium).
- AP/AR automation: bill payment, invoicing, payment links.
Who Aspire is built for:
- Digital-native businesses with marketing and SaaS as their two biggest line items: agencies, e-commerce brands, app developers, performance marketers.
- Companies that want treasury yield on idle USD or SGD balances.
- Teams that need AP/AR automation alongside spend, and are willing to pay S$15/month for the Premium tier.
Cashback, FX, and Fees: Where Your Money Actually Goes
This is where the two cards genuinely diverge.
1. Cashback
YouBiz: 1% on every eligible purchase, uncapped. Flights, a Japanese supplier, your Stripe top-up, a client dinner: it all earns 1%, credited by the 15th of the following month. Only the standard exclusions apply (wallet top-ups, BNPL, investments, transit, government).
Aspire: depends on your plan. Free Basic earns 1% on Marketing and SaaS only: ad platforms (Google, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok) and software (AWS, Adobe, Notion, Slack, Xero). Everything else (suppliers, travel, equipment, contractor payouts) earns nothing. The S$15/month Premium plan lifts that to 1.2% on all eligible spend.
What this means:
On free Aspire Basic, roughly 70% of a typical company’s card spend (everything outside marketing and SaaS) earns nothing. On YouBiz, all of it earns 1%, at no monthly cost.
Worked example (free tiers):
Say a Singapore SME puts S$50,000/month on the card: S$15,000 on Google Ads and SaaS, S$35,000 on suppliers, travel, and T&E.
- Aspire Basic cashback: 1% on the S$15,000 = S$150/month (S$1,800/year)
- YouBiz cashback: 1% on the full S$50,000 = S$500/month (S$6,000/year)
That’s S$4,200/year more with YouBiz, and neither charges a monthly fee.
On Aspire Premium (S$15/month): you earn 1.2% on all eligible spend, so the same S$50,000/month returns S$600/month, or about S$7,020/year after the S$180 fee, beating YouBiz on cashback alone.
But the 0.2% edge only pays off at high spend, and you’re paying for the tier. Worth it for a high-spend team that also wants Premium’s treasury and AP/AR tools; for everyone on a free plan, YouBiz earns more.
2. FX fees on card spend
YouBiz: real 0% FX fees on every overseas transaction. Card spend is billed at the true mid-market exchange rate (the same rate banks use between themselves), with no margin added on top.
Aspire: from 0.22% above mid-market on instant conversions, 0.23% on outbound sends. It’s a small markup, but it stacks on every overseas tap.
Worked example: S$30,000 of overseas card spend in a year:
- Aspire FX cost: S$30,000 × 0.22% = S$66/year
- YouBiz FX cost: S$0/year
The headline saving is the cashback gap. The FX gap is a smaller second saving on top.
3. Account and transfer fees
| Fee | YouBiz | Aspire |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly account fee | S$0 | S$0 Basic / S$15 Premium |
| Local SGD outgoing (FAST/GIRO) | Free | Free for payroll |
| Overseas outgoing (low-cost rail, 20 currencies) | Free | Free (5 transfers worth up to US$75/month on Premium); paid per transfer on Basic |
| SWIFT incoming | Free | S$35 (SGD account) / 8 USD (other) |
| Overseas ATM withdrawal | Supported (check in-app for current fees/limits) | S$5 per withdrawal |
| Extra cards / users | Unlimited at no extra cost (4 roles) | Unlimited cards at no extra cost; S$15 one-off for a duplicate card to the same user |
The fee schedule matters most if you receive a lot of SWIFT-routed international payments, or want free outbound FX without paying for the Premium tier. Both come free on YouBiz.
Which Is the Best Business Account in Singapore for You?
Here’s the verdict, based on what each product is actually best at.
Best for most SG SMEs and founders: YouBiz.
- S$0/month, 1% on every eligible card spend, 8 holdable currencies, no per-user fees, no Premium-tier paywall.
- The cashback covers your full card spend, not a narrow slice of it.
- The 8 wallet currencies cover almost any cross-border use case a SG business runs into.
- And the maths (using the S$50,000/month example above) works out to about S$4,200/year more in cashback than free Aspire Basic’s marketing-and-SaaS-only programme.
Pick YouBiz if:
- Your card spend is mixed (suppliers, travel, T&E, equipment, marketing all together)
- You bill or pay in currencies beyond USD/EUR/GBP
- You want every feature on a single free tier with no per-user fees
- You want a virtual card live within minutes of Singpass sign-up
Best for marketing-and-SaaS-heavy teams, or high spenders who’ll pay for Premium: Aspire.
- If 70%+ of your card spend genuinely sits in Marketing and SaaS (a typical performance marketing agency, an app-only SaaS team, an e-commerce brand with mostly ad-spend overhead), the cashback gap shrinks on the free Basic plan.
- The Premium plan (S$15/month) adds 1.2% on all eligible spend, plus USD/SGD yield on idle balances and AP/AR automation in the same dashboard.
- For teams carrying real float or consolidated bill pay, that treasury suite earns its keep.
Pick Aspire if:
- Most of your card spend is marketing platforms and SaaS subscriptions
- You’ll pay S$15/month for Premium’s 1.2% cashback on all eligible spend
- You want treasury yield or AP/AR automation as your main draw
Final verdict: for most Singapore SMEs with mixed spend on a free plan, the cashback makes YouBiz the stronger call. And if overseas spend is meaningful, 0% FX is the second reason. Aspire’s real wins sit elsewhere: treasury yield on idle balances (3.88% on USD / 2.04% on SGD via the Basic plan) and consolidated bill pay + invoicing. Both matter if you carry meaningful float; most early-stage SG SMEs don’t.
Still shortlisting? Our Airwallex vs YouBiz comparison breaks down another popular Singapore business account.
FAQ
Aspire received In-Principle Approval for the Major Payment Institution Licence from MAS in October 2024 and currently operates under a temporary exemption from the Payment Services Act while the full licence is finalised. YouBiz holds the full Major Payment Institution licence and is a Principal Member of Mastercard. Both are MAS-regulated; YouBiz’s licence is fully issued today.
Neither YouBiz nor Aspire is a licensed Singapore bank. Both are payment institutions regulated under the Payment Services Act. The practical difference: bank deposits are covered by the SDIC scheme up to S$100,000; payment-institution funds are safeguarded in a separate trust account with a licensed Singapore bank.
For day-to-day SG SME spend (cards, FX, transfers, payroll), payment institutions like YouBiz typically offer better fees, faster onboarding, and better FX than traditional banks. Most SG SMEs run both: a business bank account for deposits and credit, plus YouBiz for spend.
Aspire was founded in 2018 by Andrea Baronchelli (CEO) and Giovanni Casinelli. It’s a privately held company headquartered in Singapore, backed by Sequoia, Lightspeed, Y Combinator, Tencent, and PayPal.
No. YouBiz is S$0/month with no minimum balance and no per-user fees. Every feature (multi-currency accounts, corporate cards, expense management, transfers, cashback) is included on the single free tier.
Aspire keeps a free Basic plan too, but charges S$15/month for the Premium tier that unlocks free outbound international transfers, 0% FX on the first S$13,000 of monthly conversions, and 1.2% cashback on all eligible spend.
YouBiz is for company spend; YouTrip is for personal travel. YouTrip is the consumer multi-currency wallet (personal card, 12 wallet currencies, free overseas ATM up to S$400/month) and doesn’t issue corporate cards, expense controls, or multi-user accounts.
YouBiz is the business-only product: multi-user team accounts, corporate cards with merchant category locks, expense management, Xero integration. If you’re a sole proprietor running business expenses on a personal YouTrip card, it works in a pinch but you’ll outgrow it the moment you want to track receipts, give a virtual assistant a capped card, or reconcile in Xero.
The YouBiz vs YouTrip breakdown covers the differences in more depth.
No. YouBiz cards are corporate cards issued to the company, not the individual cardholder. Personal expenses should go on a personal card. YouTrip is YouTrip’s consumer multi-currency wallet for that. Mixing personal spend on a corporate card creates a reconciliation mess and can flag during audits.
Sign-up takes under 5 minutes via Singpass MyInfo Business. YouBiz reviews and emails within 1–2 business days. Once approved, the virtual Mastercard is live in the app immediately; the physical card ships in 5–7 working days to the registered business or admin residential address.
Right Card Depends on Where Your Spend Actually Lives
Consider YouBiz if your spend is mixed across suppliers, travel, T&E, and software, you need more holdable currencies, and you’d rather not pay a monthly fee to unlock the basics.
Sign-up at you.co/biz takes under 5 minutes via Singpass, approval lands in 1–2 business days, and the virtual Mastercard is live in the app immediately. The physical card follows in 5–7 working days.
