A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. How Quick Did You Get Your Currensea Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic 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 absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply spend as you would on a regular debit card and the money is taken from your bank account– just without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which also assists.
There are likewise some interesting travel benefits if you pick a paid plan, but the free strategy works fine. You can apply here.
There is a business model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on 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 really need or desire
add charges, fees or restrictions to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will hopefully remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How Quick Did You Get Your Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange charges, then you do not require a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX charges are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees 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 affect your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to utilize abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a little fee beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anyone else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely 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, globally).
Your current account bank instantly validates 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. If you have the free card, adds a 0.5% charge. There are no fees if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notification by means of the app, if you pick 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 journal, I chose to splash out and buy 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 on:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight break-in that is practically to occur (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Fortunately in the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards assures big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this indicates is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less stress over lacking cash and the additional action. That does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 profits from our Necessary Plan whilst remaining much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free amount on all our strategies, full information can be found on our prices plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge likewise gets rid of all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Every time you spend 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. How Quick Did You Get Your Currensea Card