A new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. Currensea Card Promotion…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to obtain, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or less expensive than the competitors
include a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t really need or want
include restrictions, fees or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Promotion
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely simple process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank immediately validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend alert via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
However transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is practically to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea guarantees huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking money and the extra action. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Important Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our plans, full information can be found on our rates plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Promotion