A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Is The Currensea Card Any Good…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to get, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some intriguing travel advantages if you select a paid strategy, but the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competition
add a growing number of functions which your existing consumers don’t really want or require
include charges, constraints or fees to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will hopefully stay 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 club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is The Currensea Card Any Good
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want 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 save them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very easy process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank automatically validates that you have adequate cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 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 few days later on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to occur (often in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However 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 spend money you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. However that does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our plans, complete details can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription cost likewise removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Whenever you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Is The Currensea Card Any Good