A brand-new fintech company which I was introduced to previously this year. Is The Currensea Card Any Good…
It has won a few awards over recent months for what it does (offering you a low-cost method to invest 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. You simply invest as you would on a normal debit card and the money is taken from your existing account– simply without the usual 3% charge.
Oh, and is totally free to request, which also assists.
There are also some fascinating travel advantages if you choose a paid strategy, but the free 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 totally free or more affordable than the competition
add increasingly more features which your existing consumers do not really want or require
add costs, charges or constraints to the feature that made individuals get your item in the first place, removing any competitive advantage
is currently still in Stage 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Monzo, revolut and curve are currently in Stage 3 …
is simple 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? Is The Currensea Card Any Good
It is a totally free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which automatically 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 miles or points for utilizing it.
Why would I wish to get a card?
If you have a charge card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you don’t need a card, unless you desire complimentary ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX charges are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which provide a partial service are the Virgin Atlantic charge card 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 wish to impact your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to utilize abroad
you desire an item which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals each month without any costs 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 anyone else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will conserve them money when taking a trip.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated previously, a really basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in local currency (any currency, worldwide).
Your bank account bank automatically verifies that you have sufficient money 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 complimentary card, includes a 0.5% fee. If you have one of their paid cards, there are no fees.
You get an automatic spend alert by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is drawn from your bank account a few days later.
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 shows �,� 4.33 arranged to leave my HSBC account a couple of days later:.
Transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to happen (frequently in a different language) while not telling you about the inflated currency conversion fees happening in the background. Don’t get me started. Anyway back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In recent years a handful of excellent travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea promises big 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 checking account.
What this implies is you can spend cash you have in your existing bank account with less fret about running out of cash and the additional action. That does not suggest it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the good, the bad, the awful 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 Vital Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue from our Necessary Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other prepaid cards and high-street debit cards. We also charge an FX markup on ATM use over the free amount on all our plans, complete details can be discovered on our rates strategies.
Membership costs.
We charge an annual membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership fee also removes all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the transaction, referred to as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be charged to you. Is The Currensea Card Any Good