A new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. Can You Use The Currensea Card Online…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which also helps.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or cheaper than the competitors
include more and more functions which your existing customers do not really want or require
add charges, charges or restrictions to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Phase 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 The Currensea Card Online
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very simple procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank immediately validates that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea assures huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I believe the best bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking money and the additional step. However that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make revenue from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our strategies, full information can be found on our pricing strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Can You Use The Currensea Card Online