A new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. Currensea Hsbc…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to look for, which likewise helps.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more functions which your existing customers don’t really want or need
add charges, fees or limitations to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple 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 Hsbc
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not require a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a very easy procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank immediately verifies that you have enough 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 totally free card, includes a 0.5% cost. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert via the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily recently a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards assures huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of money and the additional step. That does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our plans, complete details can be found on our prices plans.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Hsbc