A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. How To Activate Your Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing 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. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which also assists.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid plan, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing consumers don’t really desire or need
include fees, constraints or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Activate Your Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really simple 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 instantly validates that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notice via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose 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 few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea guarantees huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the finest bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the additional action. But that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, 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 Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. How To Activate Your Currensea Card