A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Is A Currensea Card A Visa…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, however the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
include a growing number of functions which your existing customers do not actually want or require
add constraints, charges or fees to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is A Currensea Card A Visa
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ options 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 don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, an extremely simple process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have sufficient money 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 complimentary card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notification by means of the app, if you select 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 decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the extra step. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make revenue from our Important Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid 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 pricing plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Is A Currensea Card A Visa