A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. How To Send Money To.Someone Elses Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend 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 apply for, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, however the totally free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
include a growing number of functions which your existing consumers don’t actually need or want
include charges, charges or restrictions to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully 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 pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Send Money To.Someone Elses Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% charge.
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% forex fees, then you do not require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs 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 easy process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank automatically verifies that you have adequate 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. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend alert via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any 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 reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures huge 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 means is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra action. But that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make revenue from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Send Money To.Someone Elses Currensea Card