A new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Card Pros And Cons…
It has actually won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, 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 simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the money is drawn from your bank account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or less expensive than the competitors
include a growing number of functions which your existing consumers don’t really need or desire
include charges, limitations or charges to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Currensea Card Pros And Cons
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ alternatives which use a partial option 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 fees and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your current account bank immediately verifies 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 upon the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the free card. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notice via the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I chose to splash out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea assures big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think 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 cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking cash and the extra step. That does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make profits from our Vital Plan whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free amount on all our strategies, complete information can be found on our pricing plans.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription charge likewise eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Card Pros And Cons