A new fintech company which I was presented to earlier this year. How To Pay A Flight From My Currensea Card…
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 easy as hell. This is a good thing.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing current account. There is absolutely nothing to top-up or prepay. You merely invest as you would on a typical debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to request, which also helps.
There are also some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the free strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and for free or cheaper than the competitors
add more and more functions which your existing consumers do not really want or require
add charges, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your item in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Pay A Flight From My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to use abroad and which immediately recharges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% fee.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) make any airline company miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% forex fees, then you don’t require a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, charge card which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are scarce. The only ‘points and miles’ options which use a partial option are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month with no charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, a very basic procedure. 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 immediately confirms that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the deal.
The transaction goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. If you have the totally free card, includes a 0.5% fee. There are no costs if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated spend notice through the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 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 few days later on:.
However converting pounds was costly.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to happen (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion charges taking place in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards assures big cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
I think the finest bit may be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less stress over running out of money and the extra action. But that does not imply it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, 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 small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, enabling us to make income from our Necessary Strategy whilst staying more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our pricing plans.
Subscription costs.
We charge an annual subscription charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription charge also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we receive a small % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Pay A Flight From My Currensea Card