A new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. How To Cancel My Currensea Card…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– just without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which also helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
include increasingly more features which your existing customers do not really need or want
include restrictions, fees or charges to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, monzo and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy 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? How To Cancel My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save 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, worldwide).
Your bank account bank immediately verifies that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notification by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea assures huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking money and the additional step. However that does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our prices strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Cancel My Currensea Card