The common challenge experienced by expats living in the Netherlands is the eagerness of Dutchies wanting to split everything. Whether you are going on dates, coming to someone’s home for a party or eating out, the evening cannot end without someone saying, “I’ll send you a Tikkie!”
As lovely as the Tikkie GIFs are, many of us dread the idea of having money involved at each social gathering.
We know that Dutchies are very direct and have no problem asking for their money back, but many of us find the conversation quite uncomfortable and unnecessarily “equal”, especially when you get a notification requesting just 0,50 euro cents back.
And for better or worse, some of us cannot even use it without having a Dutch bank account, leaving us to be sighed at by others for complicating the process with a bank transfer.
But that is changing this year, as a new app has hit the market and is gaining momentum with expats, not only in the Netherlands but throughout the EU as well. And that app is Cino!
Cino does not require you to send money or figure out who will pay for the bill but offers a fully automated, seamless solution.
What if you can just tap your phone to pay and settle the bill? The restaurant receives the full amount of 100 euros, but you only need to pay your own share of 30 euros.
Magic? No, it’s Cino - the new miracle that enables you to pay together from different bank accounts, for free.
Accredited by Apple, Google and verified by Visa, it works by connecting multiple bank accounts to one card. Whenever you pay, it debits everyone’s share directly from their bank accounts in real time. In a way, it's a pay and split system.
Cino has been gaining headway with couples, friends on trips and roommates, who use the card for things like splitting the bill at the restaurant to buying airplane tickets for the next getaway.
An Italian expat in Amsterdam just about had it when she and her boyfriend could not find a solution that worked for their relationship. From mental maths to tracking every transaction, to opening a joint account, nothing was seamless or hassle-free.
“We even paid six euros for a joint bank account but it just didn't work," she stated, "Constantly remembering to top-up and then if the bill wasn’t 50-50, there was this conversation: should we use the joint card or not? How do we settle the difference? And what we were trying to avoid most, talking about money during dates, was still an issue after we were paying to solve it!”
The elephant in the room became so big that she left her job and decided to build Cino. Since its launch, it has been growing aggressively across the EU and has garnered several awards from Mastercard and Latitude59. It has also secured investment from known VC funds as well as love from couples who said Cino saved their relationships.
Cino works with any EEA bank card and does not require topping up. You simply connect your card to Cino and create groups with people you want to share expenses with. Choose your split ratio, add your shared Cino card to Google or Apple Pay and pay with any group member's card to instantly split the costs.
Download Cino now and remove the hassle of splitting bills.