Closed October 2024; customer funds were returned

WeSwap Referral Code

Q: Can I still use WeSwap?

No. WeSwap stopped trading in October 2024 after Manigo Services went into administration; its card programme ceased, described as being for operational reasons, and all customer funds were safeguarded with refunds processed through its partner Monavate. There is no account to open and no referral programme.

Q: What was WeSwap?

A peer-to-peer travel money platform launched in 2013 by Jared Jesner and Simon Sacerdoti. It matched travellers heading in opposite directions and swapped their currency directly, at close to the interbank rate, loaded onto a prepaid Mastercard. The idea was genuinely elegant: if you are going to Spain and someone else is coming back, the currency you each need is already in the right place, and no dealer needs to take a spread for moving it.

Q: What happened in 2021?

WeSwap entered administration in December 2021 following the collapse in travel caused by the pandemic — a travel-money business in a year when nobody travelled. Its business and assets were sold in a pre-packaged administration sale to MK Fintech Limited, a subsidiary of the Blackthorn Group, and the deal was expected to leave investors more than £20 million out of pocket. A pre-pack is a sale arranged before the administration is announced and completed the moment it begins, specifically so that trading never stops — so customers saw a service carrying on while shareholders saw their money disappear.

Q: Why did a supplier's failure close the whole service?

Because that is how modern fintech is built, and it is worth naming as a structure in its own right. An app of this kind is generally assembled on top of other companies' regulated infrastructure: someone else issues the card, someone else holds the funds, someone else moves the money. When one of those providers fails, the app in front of you stops working regardless of its own health — and the customer has no visibility of the chain at all. You cannot assess a company whose name you have never been told.

Q: Did customers lose money?

No — customer funds were safeguarded and refunded. Investors were the ones who lost, and that difference is not luck but the law working as designed. Payment and e-money firms in the UK are generally required to safeguard customer funds, holding them separately from the firm's own money so that if the firm fails those funds are returned from the segregated pool rather than swallowed by creditors. WeSwap is the worked example.

Q: So is money in a transfer app as safe as money in a bank?

No, and this is the most important thing on the page. A protected bank deposit is covered by a compensation scheme up to a limit, and you are paid out even if the bank's money is gone. Safeguarded funds are your own money returned from a segregated pool — there is no compensation scheme topping it up if the pool falls short, and returns are administered rather than automatic, which means they can take time. The practical rule for every money-transfer and multi-currency-card app is that it is a place money passes through, not a place money lives: do not hold a balance longer than the transaction requires, do not treat a travel card as a savings account, and before loading a large sum, ask which regulated entity actually holds it.

Q: What was the referral supposed to be worth?

Our page could not agree. The title said a £10 sign-up bonus; the answers below said £5 for each side once the referred person loaded £50 or more within 30 days, with a cap of £200 a month. It also claimed the programme was valid globally. None of it is actionable now.

WeSwap stopped trading in October 2024 — its customers got their money back, and its investors lost over £20 million

WeSwap was a peer-to-peer travel money service launched in 2013, matching travellers heading in opposite directions to swap currency at the interbank rate, with a prepaid Mastercard. It entered administration in 2021 and ceased trading in October 2024.

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Genie Says

WeSwap has closed. Launched in 2013 as a peer-to-peer travel money service that matched travellers heading in opposite directions, it entered administration in December 2021 after the pandemic collapse in travel; its assets were sold in a pre-pack to MK Fintech Limited, expected to leave investors more than £20 million out of pocket. It then stopped trading in October 2024 after its supplier Manigo Services went into administration — a failure caused by a dependency rather than by WeSwap itself. Customer funds were safeguarded and refunded through partner Monavate. That contrast is the lesson: safeguarding returns your own money from a segregated pool, but it is not FSCS deposit protection, so treat any transfer app as a place money passes through rather than lives.

How much can you earn?

Share your own code and earn rewards when friends use it

⚠️ Not available. Our page said £10 in the title and £5 in the answers, on a £50 load — neither can be acted on.per successful referral*

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How to Use a WeSwap Referral Code

Understand that this service has closed

Administration in December 2021, a pre-pack sale, then trading ceased in October 2024.

Note why it closed the second time

A supplier went into administration. Fintech apps run on other companies' regulated infrastructure, and you usually cannot see that chain.

Separate your money from your investment

Customer funds were safeguarded and refunded. Money invested in the company was not, and over £20 million was expected to be lost.

Apply the rule to every app you use

A transfer service is a place money passes through, not a place money lives. Do not hold balances longer than the transaction needs.

Reward Details

Your Reward: ⚠️ None. WeSwap ceased trading in October 2024.
Referrer Reward: ⚠️ Not available. Our page said £10 in the title and £5 in the answers, on a £50 load — neither can be acted on.
Minimum Purchase: Not applicable.
Validity: ⚠️ Entered administration December 2021; assets sold in a pre-pack to MK Fintech Limited; stopped trading October 2024 after supplier Manigo Services entered administration.
Available In: UK
Referral Limit: Not applicable.
Payout Time: Not applicable.
Eligibility: ✅ On closure, customer funds were safeguarded and refunds were processed through partner Monavate. Investors, by contrast, were expected to lose more than £20 million.

Why Choose WeSwap?

✅ Safeguarding worked — customers were refunded

Funds held separately from the firm's own money were returned through partner Monavate when trading stopped.

⚠️ But safeguarding is not FSCS protection

It returns your own money from a segregated pool. No compensation scheme tops it up if the pool is short, and returns are administered, not automatic.

⚠️ Death by dependency

WeSwap stopped in October 2024 because Manigo Services failed. When an infrastructure provider goes, the app stops regardless of its own health.

A pre-pack that cost backers £20m+

Assets sold to MK Fintech Limited the moment administration began, so trading never stopped. Customers saw continuity; shareholders saw nothing.

About WeSwap

There is nothing to sign up to. We have kept this page because what happened to WeSwap answers a question every other page in this category raises: what actually protects your money?

**⚠️ WeSwap no longer operates. There is no referral programme and no account to open.** **What follows is why this page still exists.**

**What it was.** **Launched in 2013 by Jared Jesner and Simon Sacerdoti**, WeSwap was a **peer-to-peer travel money platform**: it **matched travellers heading in opposite directions and swapped their currency directly**, at close to the interbank rate, loaded onto a **prepaid Mastercard.** ✅ **The idea was genuinely elegant** — **if you are going to Spain and someone else is coming back, the currency you each need is already in the right place**, and no dealer needs to take a spread for moving it.

**⚠️ It died twice, in two different ways, and both are instructive.**

**THE FIRST DEATH: DECEMBER 2021.** **WeSwap entered administration following the collapse in travel caused by the pandemic** — **a travel-money business in a year when nobody travelled.** **Its business and assets were sold in a pre-packaged administration sale to MK Fintech Limited, a subsidiary of the Blackthorn Group**, ⚠️ **and the deal was expected to leave investors more than £20 million out of pocket.**

✅ **This project set out the pre-pack structure at length on another page, and the definition matters here: a sale arranged BEFORE the administration is announced and completed at the moment it begins, precisely so that trading never stops.** **Customers saw a service that carried on. Shareholders saw their money disappear.** ⚠️ **And WeSwap had raised money from the public through crowdfunding** — **so a meaningful part of that £20 million was ordinary people who had backed a company they liked, on platforms that make investing feel like shopping.** ✅ **If you take one thing from this section: money you put into a company is not money you hold at a company. The two are not related, and only one of them is protected.**

**THE SECOND DEATH: OCTOBER 2024** — **and this one is the more useful lesson.**

**WeSwap stopped trading after Manigo Services went into administration.** **Its card programme ceased, described as being for operational reasons**, ✅ **and all customer funds were safeguarded, with refunds processed through its partner Monavate.**

⚠️ **Read the cause again: WeSwap stopped because a supplier failed.** ✅ **This is worth naming as a structure in its own right — call it death by dependency.** **A modern fintech app is generally assembled on top of other companies' regulated infrastructure**: **someone else issues the card, someone else holds the funds, someone else moves the money.** ⚠️ **When one of those providers fails, the app in front of you stops working regardless of its own health, and the customer has no visibility of the chain at all.** **You cannot diligence a company whose name you have never been told.**

**✅ AND NOW THE PART THAT SHOULD CHANGE HOW YOU READ EVERY OTHER PAGE IN THIS CATEGORY.**

**Customer money came back. Investor money did not.** **That difference is not luck — it is the law working as designed.**

**Payment and e-money firms in the UK are generally required to SAFEGUARD customer funds**: **to hold them separately from the firm's own money, so that if the firm fails those funds are returned from the safeguarded pool rather than swallowed by creditors.** ✅ **WeSwap is the worked example: the firm collapsed and the customers were refunded.**

**⚠️ BUT SAFEGUARDING IS NOT THE SAME AS FSCS DEPOSIT PROTECTION, AND THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS.**
**• A protected bank deposit is covered by a compensation scheme up to a limit, and you are paid out even if the bank's money is gone.**
**• ⚠️ Safeguarded funds are your own money, returned from a segregated pool.** **There is no compensation scheme topping it up if the pool is short**, **and returns are administered rather than automatic — which means they can take time.**

✅ **So the practical rule for every money-transfer or multi-currency-card app: it is a place money passes through, not a place money lives.** ⚠️ **Do not hold a balance in one for longer than the transaction requires**, **do not treat a travel card as a savings account**, and ✅ **before loading a large sum, ask which regulated entity actually holds it — because as WeSwap shows, the name on the app may not be the name on the licence.**