A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Will A Currensea Card Affect My Credit…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is an advantage.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to get, which likewise helps.
There are also some fascinating travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or less expensive than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing clients don’t truly need or want
include charges, restrictions or fees to the feature that made individuals get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Curve, monzo and revolut are currently in Phase 3 …
is easy 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? Will A Currensea Card Affect My Credit
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you do not need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, charge card which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really simple process. You utilize 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 confirms that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. There are no charges if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of 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:.
However transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is just about to happen (frequently in a various 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.
In recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking cash and the extra action. That does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, 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 small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Necessary Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our prices plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Will A Currensea Card Affect My Credit