A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. What Happens If I Lose My Currensea Card…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
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 existing account– just without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to get, which also assists.
There are also some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competition
add a growing number of functions which your existing consumers do not truly require or want
add charges, charges or limitations to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Curve, monzo and revolut are currently in Stage 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? What Happens If I Lose My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps 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 desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really simple procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank immediately validates that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the totally free card. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later on.
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 on:.
Converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures big savings (85%) and a great app.
But I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the additional action. But that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make income from our Necessary Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, full details can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly 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 invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. What Happens If I Lose My Currensea Card