A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Card Wilko…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (using you an affordable method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to request, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
include increasingly more functions which your existing clients don’t actually want or require
include restrictions, charges or fees to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Phase 3 …
is easy 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 Wilko
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use 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 want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a really 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 current account bank instantly confirms that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic invest notice by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The money 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 splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
However transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is just about to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately recently a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of cash and the extra step. That does not mean it is best.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make income from our Vital Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our pricing strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Card Wilko