A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Card Romania…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which likewise assists.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
add more and more functions which your existing customers don’t really require or desire
add fees, constraints or charges to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Romania
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX costs are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps 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 charge card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically verifies that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the totally free card, adds a 0.5% fee. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea assures huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking cash and the extra action. That does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make revenue from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our rates plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Romania