A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to previously this year. How To Link My Currensea Card To New Phone…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive method to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just spend as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is drawn from your bank account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to apply for, which likewise helps.
There are also some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, however the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo and so on have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or more affordable than the competition
add more and more features which your existing clients do not actually want or need
include charges, fees or limitations to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple 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 To Link My Currensea Card To New Phone
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex fees, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Nevertheless, charge card which offer rewards and charge 0% FX charges are few and far between. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which offer a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX costs in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want a product which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a little charge beyond �,� 500).
you want an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when travelling.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really basic process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. includes a 0.5% cost if you have the complimentary card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated invest alert through the app, if you pick 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 sprinkle 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:.
Converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime robbery that is just about to occur (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion charges happening in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards Currensea guarantees big savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I think the very best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street checking account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of cash and the extra step. That does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the great, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make revenue from our Important Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our strategies, complete details can be found on our pricing strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The membership cost also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Link My Currensea Card To New Phone