A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. Currensea Fx Rate…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you an inexpensive way to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which likewise assists.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or more affordable than the competition
add more and more features which your existing consumers don’t truly need or desire
include fees, charges or restrictions to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo 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? Currensea Fx Rate
It is a totally free 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 …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX costs are few and far in between. The only ‘miles and points’ options which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a credit card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no costs and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item 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 cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, a really simple process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank automatically confirms that you have adequate cash 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 free card. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, 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 few days later:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is practically to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Thankfully recently a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a great app.
I think the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of money and the extra step. That does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make profits from our Essential Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our rates plans.
Membership fees.
We charge an annual membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Currensea Fx Rate