A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Can Ypu Link A Credit Card To Currensea…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, however the totally free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competitors
add more and more functions which your existing clients do not actually want or require
add charges, constraints or fees to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can Ypu Link A Credit Card To Currensea
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You don’t (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% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no costs and just 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 basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, 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 instantly confirms that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% fee. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notice through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle 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 on:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is almost to take place (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion costs occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards Currensea assures big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the extra action. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the good, 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 Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make revenue from our Vital 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 quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our rates strategies.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership charge also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Can Ypu Link A Credit Card To Currensea