A brand-new fintech business which I was introduced to earlier this year. Can Someone Send Money To My Currensea Card…
It has won a couple of awards over recent months for what it does (using you a low-cost way to invest abroad) but what I like about is that it is basic as hell. This is an advantage.
is, efficiently, a direct debit travel card. It is a Mastercard which sits in 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 money is drawn from your current account– simply without the usual 3% cost.
Oh, and is free to request, which also helps.
There are likewise some intriguing travel advantages if you pick a paid strategy, however the totally free plan works fine. You can apply here.
There is an organization model in fintech which Curve, Revolut, Monzo etc have all followed:
launch by doing one thing well, and free of charge or cheaper than the competition
add increasingly more functions which your existing consumers do not actually want or require
add charges, charges or restrictions to the function that made people get your product in the first place, eliminating any competitive advantage
is presently still in Phase 1 of this process and will ideally remain there. Revolut, monzo and curve are already in Phase 3 …
is basic enough that it passes my ‘Can you explain it to your mate in the bar in 30 seconds?’ test:
What countries can I use Currensea? Can Someone Send Money To My Currensea Card
It is a free direct debit card to utilize abroad and which instantly charges 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 utilizing it.
Why would I want to get a card?
If you have a credit card offering 0% foreign exchange costs, then you do not require a card, unless you want totally free ATM withdrawals. You can stop reading now.
Credit cards which offer benefits and charge 0% FX fees are few and far in between. The only ‘points and miles’ alternatives which use a partial solution are the Virgin Atlantic charge card which have 0% FX fees in the Euro zone.
IS perhaps for you if:
you don’t have a charge card offering 0% FX costs and do not want to affect your credit report by getting another credit card specifically to utilize abroad
you desire an item which enables you to make �,� 500 of foreign currency ATM withdrawals per month without any charges and just a minimal FX mark-up (there is a small charge beyond �,� 500).
you desire an item for you, your adult kids, moms and dads, partner or anyone else in your life who requires a simple, easy to understand payment card that will save them money when taking a trip.
How does work in practice?
It is, as I said earlier, an extremely basic process. You utilize your Currensea card in the same way as your existing debit card.
You make your purchase in regional currency (any currency, globally).
Your current account bank automatically validates that you have adequate money in your account and authorises the transaction.
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% fee. There are no charges if you have among their paid cards.
You get an automated invest notice by means of the app, if you choose to install it.
The cash is taken from your current account a few days later.
Here is an example. With no foreign travel in the diary, I decided to sprinkle out and buy 1,000 MeliaRewards points for EUR5.
This is what you see in the Currensea app, which reveals �,� 4.33 set up to leave my HSBC account a few days later on:.
However transforming pounds was expensive.
A pet peeve of mine is when ATMs forewarn you about the daytime break-in that is just about to take place (typically in a various language) while not telling you about the exorbitant currency conversion costs occurring in the background. Do not get me started. Anyhow back to the positives for a bit anyhow.
Thankfully in the last few years a handful of fantastic travel debit cards have actually popped onto the scene … and like other excellent cards guarantees huge cost savings (85%) and an excellent app.
I believe the finest bit might be what no other card does: links to your existing high street bank account.
What this means is you can spend money you have in your existing current account with less fret about running out of cash and the extra action. That does not indicate it is ideal.
In this Currensea evaluation is the great, the bad, the unsightly and the alternatives, so that you can decide.
FX markup.
While our premium plans have no FX markup, we charge a small FX markup on our Important Plan of 0.5% per transaction, allowing us to make income from our Essential Plan whilst remaining more affordable than other pre-paid cards and high-street debit cards. We likewise charge an FX markup on ATM usage over the totally free amount on all our strategies, complete details can be discovered on our prices strategies.
Membership fees.
We charge a yearly subscription fee of �,� 25 for our Premium Strategy, and �,� 120 for our Elite Strategy. The membership cost also gets rid of all FX markup on deals.
Interchange.
Each time you spend with your card we receive a little % of the deal, called interchange, this comes straight from the merchant and will not be credited you. Can Someone Send Money To My Currensea Card