A brand-new fintech business which I was presented to earlier this year. Is Currensea The Best Travel Card…
It has actually won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (providing you a low-priced way to spend abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is a good thing.
is, successfully, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing current account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the cash is taken from your current account– just without the typical 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel benefits if you select a paid strategy, but the complimentary plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a company model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing something well, and for free or less expensive than the competitors
include a growing number of features which your existing customers don’t truly want or require
add charges, costs or restrictions to the feature that made people get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Revolut, curve and monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple enough that it passes my ‘Can you discuss it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Is Currensea The Best Travel Card
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a little 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn any airline 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 do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which use benefits and charge 0% FX fees are few and far between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic credit cards which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX fees and do not want to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you want an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs and only a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire a product for you, your adult children, parents, partner or anybody else in your life who requires a basic, easy to understand payment card that will save them cash when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, an extremely basic procedure. You use your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your current account bank instantly confirms 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. If you have the complimentary card, includes a 0.5% charge. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automated invest notice by means of the app, if you select to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a couple of days later on.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I decided to sprinkle out and purchase 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
But converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight robbery that is almost to occur (frequently in a various language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Luckily in the last few years a handful of terrific travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other fantastic cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and a great app.
But I think the best bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can invest cash you have in your existing current account with less fret about lacking money and the additional action. But that does not mean it is ideal.
In this Currensea review is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the alternatives, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per deal, permitting us to make revenue from our Necessary Plan whilst staying more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the complimentary quantity on all our plans, complete details can be found on our prices strategies.
Membership charges.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The subscription cost also eliminates all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Whenever you invest with your card we get a small % of the transaction, called interchange, this comes directly from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. Is Currensea The Best Travel Card