A new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. What Are The Main Features Of Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
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 merely invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, however the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing clients don’t actually need or desire
add fees, constraints or charges 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 procedure and will hopefully stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Stage 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? What Are The Main Features Of Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
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 charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated 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, worldwide).
Your bank account bank immediately confirms that you have sufficient 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. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no 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 shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is just about to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily over the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking money and the additional step. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Important Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our plans, complete details can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. What Are The Main Features Of Currensea Card