A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. How Currensea Card Works…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-cost method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– just without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the totally free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
add a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t truly need or want
include restrictions, charges or fees to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Currensea Card Works
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish 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 reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a really simple procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank instantly confirms that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal 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. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated invest notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, 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 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is just about to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily in the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the additional step. But that does not suggest it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make profits from our Vital Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How Currensea Card Works