A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. How Do You Put Money On Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your bank account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to request, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel advantages if you pick 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 cheaper than the competitors
add a growing number of functions which your existing clients don’t actually require or desire
add constraints, charges or costs to the function that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are already in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you describe it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Do You Put Money On Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make 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 charges, then you do not need a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, charge card which provide rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any fees and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic process. You use 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 adequate cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% cost. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automatic invest alert through the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a couple of days later.
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 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges occurring in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can invest cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the extra step. But that does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the good, the bad, the ugly 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 Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make income from our Important Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our pricing plans.
Subscription charges.
We charge an annual subscription cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we get a little % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. How Do You Put Money On Currensea Card