A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. Will I Be Charged For Not Using My Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an affordable way 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. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– simply without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which also assists.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
include more and more functions which your existing clients do not really need or desire
add restrictions, charges or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently 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? Will I Be Charged For Not Using My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no fees and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic 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 bank account bank automatically validates that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the free card, adds a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automatic spend notice via the app, if you choose 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 decided to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily recently a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge savings (85%) and a great app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings 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 action. That does not suggest it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make revenue from our Necessary Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, full information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Will I Be Charged For Not Using My Currensea Card