A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Do I Sign My Currensea Card…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your present account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or more affordable than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing clients don’t truly desire or need
add charges, constraints or fees to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Do I Sign My Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 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 credit 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 use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, 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 automatically verifies 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 upon the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and buy 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 on:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to occur (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the finest bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of money and the additional action. But that does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly 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, permitting us to make revenue from our Necessary Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Do I Sign My Currensea Card