A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Travel…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– simply without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing consumers don’t truly desire or need
add fees, constraints or charges to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Travel
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per 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, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic invest notification via the app, if you pick 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 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards promises big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking cash and the extra step. However that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make earnings 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 usage over the totally free amount on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Travel