A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. How To Put Money In Currensea Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you an inexpensive method to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good idea.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a regular debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– simply without the normal 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to apply for, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you pick a paid strategy, but the complimentary strategy works fine. You can apply 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 less expensive than the competitors
include increasingly more features which your existing consumers don’t truly need or desire
include 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 Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally remain there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is easy 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 Put Money In Currensea Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to use abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) make any airline miles or points for using it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange fees, then you do not require a card, unless you desire totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
Credit cards which provide benefits and charge 0% FX costs are couple of and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives 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 want to impact your credit report by getting another charge card specifically to use abroad
you want a product which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no fees and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anyone 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 said previously, a very easy process. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, internationally).
Your bank account bank immediately validates that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the transaction.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. If you have the free card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend notice by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your current account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, 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 scheduled to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
However converting pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is practically to take place (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyway.
Luckily recently a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards promises huge cost savings (85%) and a fantastic app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this implies is you can spend money you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking cash and the extra step. But that does not imply it is best.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, 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 nominal FX markup on our Necessary Plan of 0.5% per deal, allowing us to make revenue from our Important Strategy whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the free quantity on all our plans, full details can be found on our prices strategies.
Subscription fees.
We charge an annual membership fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee likewise eliminates all FX markup on transactions.
Interchange.
Each time you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. How To Put Money In Currensea Card