A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Can I Use My Currensea Card In Morocco…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You merely invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your current account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
include a growing number of functions which your existing customers don’t actually need or desire
add constraints, charges or costs to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already 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? Can I Use My Currensea Card In Morocco
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make 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 require a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which use a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make , 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no fees and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond , 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, 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, a really simple process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank immediately verifies that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated spend notice through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided 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 on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion costs taking place in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily in the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises big cost 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 savings account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about running out of money and the additional action. However that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make earnings from our Necessary Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid 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 prices strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual membership cost of , 25 for our Premium Strategy, and , 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Can I Use My Currensea Card In Morocco