A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Using A Currensea Card In Spain…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to request, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
add increasingly more features which your existing customers do not really need or desire
add charges, restrictions or charges to the function that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Phase 3 …
is basic 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? Using A Currensea Card In Spain
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t require a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs 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 affect 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 without any fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic 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 current account bank instantly validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% charge. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a couple of 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 shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is practically to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking money and the additional action. However that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make revenue from our Essential Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free quantity on all our plans, full information can be discovered on our pricing strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Using A Currensea Card In Spain