A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. How Do I Get A Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you an affordable method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You merely spend as you would on a typical debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to make an application for, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you select a paid plan, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and totally free or less expensive than the competition
include more and more functions which your existing customers do not actually desire or need
add limitations, costs or charges to the function that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally stay there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Do I Get A Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
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% foreign exchange fees, then you do not need a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX charges are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ options which provide a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely easy process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank instantly verifies that you have sufficient 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. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the totally free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated spend alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is taken from your bank account a few days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the diary, I decided 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 few days later:.
Transforming pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is almost to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately in the last few years a handful of great travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I believe the very best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking money and the additional step. That does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make income from our Essential Strategy 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 totally free amount on all our strategies, full details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge a yearly subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership fee also gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a small % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. How Do I Get A Currensea Card