A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. What Is A Currensea Premium Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to obtain, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, however the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
add more and more features which your existing customers don’t actually require or want
add costs, limitations or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? What Is A Currensea Premium Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank 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 charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and only a minimal 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 requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really easy 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 automatically validates that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated spend notification by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and buy 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 few days later:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to occur (often in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees taking place 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 popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking cash and the additional step. However that does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, full details can be found on our rates plans.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. What Is A Currensea Premium Card