A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Currensea Euro Exchange Rate…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your present account– simply without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to make an application for, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing consumers don’t actually need or desire
add charges, limitations or charges 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 stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Euro Exchange Rate
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize 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 …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you do not need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no costs and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, 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 work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really 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, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically validates that you have adequate money 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 free card, adds a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is just about to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea promises huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking cash and the extra action. That does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make revenue from our Vital Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Euro Exchange Rate