A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Disposable Card Currensea…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to look for, which also assists.
There are likewise some fascinating travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a business design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
add more and more features which your existing consumers don’t actually require or want
add restrictions, fees or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Disposable Card Currensea
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% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically 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 small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really basic procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately validates 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 on the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the totally free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend alert via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
But transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to take place (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards assures big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking money and the additional action. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, full information can be found on our pricing strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Disposable Card Currensea