A brand-new fintech company which I was presented to previously this year. Is Currensea Card Visa Electron…
It has won a few awards over current months for what it does (providing you a low-cost way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. You just invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your existing account– just without the usual 3% fee.
Oh, and is complimentary to request, which also assists.
There are also some interesting travel benefits if you choose a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is a service design in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have actually all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and totally free or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more features which your existing clients don’t actually need or want
add fees, constraints or charges to the function that made individuals get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Monzo, revolut and curve are already in Stage 3 …
is easy enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the pub in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is Currensea Card Visa Electron
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly recharges all purchases to your existing bank account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% charge.
That’s it.
You don’t (yet …) earn 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 costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ choices which offer a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another charge card particularly to utilize abroad
you want an item which allows you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month with no charges and only a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small fee beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who needs a simple, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them cash when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I said previously, an extremely basic procedure. You utilize 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 automatically verifies that you have sufficient cash in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending on the currency. adds a 0.5% cost if you have the free card. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no charges.
You get an automated spend alert by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which shows �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later:.
Converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime burglary that is just about to happen (often in a various language) while not telling you about the expensive currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in recent years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees big savings (85%) and an excellent app.
However I think the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this suggests is you can invest money you have in your existing current account with less worry about lacking money and the extra step. However that does not indicate it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the unsightly 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 Necessary Strategy of 0.5% per transaction, permitting us to make profits from our Essential Strategy whilst remaining much cheaper than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, full information can be found on our rates plans.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee likewise removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you invest with your card we get a little % of the deal, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Is Currensea Card Visa Electron