A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Can You Use A Junior Currensea Card Abroad…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to make an application for, which also assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel benefits if you select a paid plan, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing consumers don’t truly require or want
include constraints, charges or costs to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use A Junior Currensea Card Abroad
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically confirms that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, adds a 0.5% charge. There are no charges if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notice via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
But transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion costs occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the extra action. But that does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make revenue from our Necessary Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our plans, full information can be found on our prices strategies.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Can You Use A Junior Currensea Card Abroad