A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Contact Us…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-priced method to spend 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. You simply spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your present account– just without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to obtain, which likewise assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have actually all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or more affordable than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing clients do not really desire or require
add charges, fees or constraints to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will hopefully stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Phase 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 Contact Us
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which immediately charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are couple of and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you desire a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely easy procedure. 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 instantly validates 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 on the currency. includes a 0.5% fee if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no costs.
You get an automated invest notification through the app, if you select to install it.
The money is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose to splash 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 few days later on:.
But transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to happen (often in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily over the last few years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the extra action. However that does not mean it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make earnings from our Vital Plan 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 strategies, full information can be found on our rates plans.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Currensea Contact Us