A new fintech company which I was introduced to earlier this year. How To Send Money To.Someone Elses Currensea Card…
It has actually won a few awards over current months for what it does (using you an inexpensive way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– simply without the normal 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you select a paid plan, however the complimentary strategy works fine. You can use here.
There is a company design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competition
include a growing number of features which your existing clients don’t actually require or want
add charges, costs or constraints to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is currently still in Phase 1 of this procedure and will hopefully stay there. Monzo, curve and revolut are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the club in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? How To Send Money To.Someone Elses Currensea Card
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically charges 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 want to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% forex charges, then you don’t need a card, unless you want complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop checking out now.
However, credit cards which use rewards and charge 0% FX costs are scarce. The only ‘miles and points’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS possibly for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not wish to impact your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly without any costs and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small 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 conserve them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a really simple procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank instantly validates 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 on the currency. If you have the complimentary card, adds a 0.5% cost. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automatic spend notification via the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your current account a few days later on.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided 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 few days later:.
But transforming pounds was pricey.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Do not get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of great travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises huge savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less stress over lacking cash and the additional step. However that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make income from our Important Plan whilst staying much cheaper than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the complimentary amount on all our strategies, full details can be found on our prices plans.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription fee also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be credited you. How To Send Money To.Someone Elses Currensea Card