A new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Can I Use A Currensea Card In Penang Malaysia…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (offering you an affordable method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing clients do not actually need or want
add constraints, charges or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Curve, monzo and revolut are already in Phase 3 …
is basic 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? Can I Use A Currensea Card In Penang Malaysia
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 little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no costs and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire 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 stated previously, an extremely basic procedure. You use 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 immediately validates that you have enough cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% fee if you have the complimentary card. There are no fees if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notice through the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully recently a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards assures huge savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this means is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over running out of cash and the extra step. However 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 plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make income from our Necessary Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free amount on all our plans, full information can be found on our rates strategies.
Subscription costs.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Can I Use A Currensea Card In Penang Malaysia