A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Why Does My Currensea Card Keep Declining…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to invest 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 simply invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– just without the typical 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
add more and more functions which your existing customers don’t really require or want
add charges, costs or limitations to the function that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are already in Phase 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? Why Does My Currensea Card Keep Declining
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely simple procedure. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank instantly confirms that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, adds a 0.5% fee. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notice through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to splash out and purchase 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:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to take place (often in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion costs occurring in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards promises big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I believe 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 cash you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking cash and the extra action. That does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, 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 nominal FX markup on our Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete information can be found on our prices plans.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Why Does My Currensea Card Keep Declining