A new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Does Currensea Card Work At French Fuel Stations…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-priced way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, however the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
add a growing number of functions which your existing clients don’t actually need or desire
include limitations, fees or charges to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 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? Does Currensea Card Work At French Fuel Stations
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (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% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, an extremely basic procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately confirms that you have sufficient 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% cost if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic invest notice through the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to splash out and purchase 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:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of cash and the extra action. However that does not mean it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing 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 use over the free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership fee likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a small % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Does Currensea Card Work At French Fuel Stations