A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Can You Use Currensea Card In South Africa…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an affordable way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
add more and more functions which your existing customers do not truly need or desire
include fees, charges or restrictions to the feature 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 ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use Currensea Card In South Africa
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 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 credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
However, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very easy procedure. 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 automatically verifies that you have enough money in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated spend notice via the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea guarantees big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I believe the best bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking cash and the additional step. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make profits from our Vital Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free quantity on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost likewise eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Can You Use Currensea Card In South Africa