A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. Get A Currensea Card…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-cost method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is drawn from your current account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is free to get, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you choose a paid plan, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
include more and more functions which your existing consumers do not truly need or want
include charges, charges or restrictions to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Get A Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a small 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 credit card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX fees are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely simple process. 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 current account bank automatically confirms 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 complimentary card. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest notification by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any 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 shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is just about to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards Currensea guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional step. However that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Vital Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make profits from our Important Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Membership charges.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership charge likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. Get A Currensea Card