A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Open Account…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, 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 simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the totally free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
add a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t really want or need
include limitations, charges or charges to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are already in Stage 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? Currensea Card Open Account
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not require a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really 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 bank account bank instantly validates that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the totally free card. There are no charges if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice by means of the app, if you pick to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to take place (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully over the last few years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards promises big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this indicates is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about lacking money and the extra action. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly 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 deal, allowing us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our plans, complete information can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Currensea Card Open Account