A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to previously this year. How Does Currensea Make Money…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the money is drawn from your current account– just without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is free to look for, which also helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid plan, but the free 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 free of charge or more affordable than the competitors
include more and more features which your existing clients don’t truly need or desire
add charges, charges or limitations to the feature that made people get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will hopefully remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Does Currensea Make Money
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which offer rewards and charge 0% FX costs are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ options which offer a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX charges and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire 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 cost beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a very 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 automatically verifies that you have sufficient money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. adds a 0.5% charge if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automatic invest notification via the app, if you choose to install it.
The money 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 reveals �,� 4.33 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later on:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is almost to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Fortunately in recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other great cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a terrific app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this suggests is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less worry about running out of cash and the additional action. That does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the awful and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make income from our Essential Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the totally free amount on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our prices plans.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly membership cost of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also removes all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a little % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. How Does Currensea Make Money