A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. When Will My Currensea Card Arrived…
It has won a couple of awards over current months for what it does (offering you a low-priced way to spend abroad) however what I like about is that it is simple as hell. This is a good thing.
is, effectively, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits between you and your existing bank account. There is nothing to top-up or prepay. You just invest as you would on a regular debit card and the money is drawn from your current account– simply without the normal 3% fee.
Oh, and is totally free to get, which also helps.
There are likewise some interesting travel advantages if you pick a paid plan, but the totally free plan works fine. You can use here.
There is a service model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or less expensive than the competitors
add increasingly more functions which your existing customers don’t really need or want
include costs, charges or constraints to the function that made people get your item in the first place, getting rid of any competitive advantage
is presently still in Stage 1 of this procedure and will ideally stay there. Curve, Revolut and Monzo are currently in Stage 3 …
is basic 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? When Will My Currensea Card Arrived
It is a complimentary direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges all purchases to your existing current account in Sterling, less a small 0.5% cost.
That’s it.
You do not (yet …) earn 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 costs, then you do not need a card, unless you want free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Nevertheless, credit cards which provide rewards and charge 0% FX charges are rare. The only ‘points and miles’ options which provide a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX charges in the Euro zone.
IS potentially for you if:
you do not have a credit card offering 0% FX costs and do not wish to affect your credit report by getting another credit card particularly to use abroad
you desire a product which permits you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals monthly with no fees and just a very little FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you want a product for you, your adult children, moms and dads, partner or anybody else in your life who needs an easy, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when travelling.
How does operate in practice?
It is, as I stated earlier, a very 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 automatically validates that you have enough money in your account and authorises the deal.
The deal goes through at either the interbank rate or the Mastercard rate, depending upon the currency. includes a 0.5% charge if you have the free card. There are no costs if you have one of their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notification by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The money is taken from your bank account a couple of days later.
Here is an example. Without any foreign travel in the journal, I chose to sprinkle 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 couple of days later:.
However converting pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daylight burglary that is almost to occur (typically in a different language) while not telling you about the outrageous currency conversion fees taking place in the background. Do not get me began. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
In current years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other terrific cards Currensea guarantees big cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
But I believe the best bit might be what no other card does: connects to your existing high street savings account.
What this implies is you can invest money you have in your existing bank account with less worry about lacking money and the additional action. However that does not imply it is perfect.
In this Currensea evaluation is the excellent, the bad, the ugly and the options, so that you can choose.
FX markup.
While our premium strategies have no FX markup, we charge a nominal FX markup on our Essential Strategy of 0.5% per deal, enabling us to make revenue 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, complete details can be found on our prices plans.
Membership costs.
We charge a yearly membership charge of �,� 25 for our Premium Plan, and �,� 120 for our Elite Plan. The subscription fee likewise gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Every time you spend with your card we get a little % of the deal, known as interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and won’t be charged to you. When Will My Currensea Card Arrived