A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Can You Use Currensea Card Online…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-cost method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the typical 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to apply for, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the totally free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
add more and more features which your existing clients do not really require or desire
add charges, costs or constraints to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can You Use Currensea Card Online
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a really basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank automatically validates that you have sufficient money 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% charge if you have the totally free card. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notification through the app, if you pick to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
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 reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is almost to happen (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion costs happening in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully recently a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards promises big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking money and the extra step. However that does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make profits from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our strategies, full details can be found on our rates strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Can You Use Currensea Card Online