A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Why Is The Currensea Card Good…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is an advantage.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– just without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to request, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or cheaper than the competition
include more and more features which your existing consumers do not actually require or want
include fees, charges or constraints to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 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 describe it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Why Is The Currensea Card Good
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 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% foreign exchange costs, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, an extremely 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, internationally).
Your current account bank immediately confirms that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal 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% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated spend alert via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle 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:.
But converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is practically to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of cash and the additional step. But that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make earnings from our Important Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity 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 Strategy. The subscription charge also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Why Is The Currensea Card Good