A new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Currensea Refer A Friend…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (providing you an affordable method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good idea.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to get, which likewise helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
include a growing number of features which your existing consumers don’t really desire or require
include fees, constraints or charges to the function that made individuals get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is simple 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 Refer A Friend
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use 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 company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are rare. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps 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 specifically to use abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very easy procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank immediately 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. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% cost. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic spend notice by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the journal, I chose to splash out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately recently a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking cash and the additional action. That does not indicate it is best.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the awful and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Essential Plan of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make income from our Vital Strategy whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete details can be discovered on our prices plans.
Subscription fees.
We charge a yearly membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and will not be credited you. Currensea Refer A Friend